The insurance industry has begun shifting to a consumer-centric model focusing on consumer experiences. Existing channels to communicate with customers for policy questions and claims have been enhanced along with hybrid offerings that include human and artificial intelligence for customer direct and agent-facing experiences.
Going fully digital has indeed helped insurance companies to drive growth amidst Covid-19. A few insurance companies were already ticking all the boxes in terms of digital transformation as we drive into the post-digital era by augmenting these services with AI/ML-based tools.
Data is the key to leveraging customers
General insurance companies are using data for sales, internal profiling of customers for renewal propensity and prevention of fraudulent activities. Scorecards for dealers, hospital scorecards are some of the mechanisms used for the claim assessment.
Moreover, data is the key to all decision making and numerous process improvements have been made where the underlying models help speed up decision making and reduce fraud. Data has been made an integral part of our ecosystem as it plays a major role in speeding up and simplifying processes.
Increased use of AI
Introducing artificial intelligence (AI) throughout the customer journey has increased customer satisfaction and retention. With deep industry expertise and AI-based tools, insurance companies are set to benefit from increased speed, accuracy and efficiency. The use of AI can be extremely useful for claims where clients can converse with a voice bot or a conversation assistant. Various companies offer real-time assessment using the Selfie app and the claim journey can begin with an image analytics engine that assesses the damage and immediately gives consent for the clearance of the claim.
Going ahead, the insurers are putting emphasis on their insuretech practice that is continuously working on converting and leveraging the latest technology for the customers.
Cloud adoption – an operational imperative
Operations become seamless with cloud adoption. This gives the industry several benefits, including reduction of third-party OEM dependencies, best in class infra management, quick upgrades, reducing the obsolescence cycle and the addons of having plug and play tools that help in quick innovations. It is believed that the cloud will be used extensively or even fully adopted by the entire insurance industry by the end of the decade.
Cloud strategy has helped to reduce go-live time for new infra and scalability requirements from days to a few hours. This has also helped to meet 5X volume due to the elastic scalability of API Platforms compared to traditional Data centres. It enables companies to implement more proactive maintenance strategies where more than 98 per cent uptime can be achieved.
Elevating Image Analytics and Machine Learning
A very few insurance companies, have built Machine Learning based image analytics workflow to accelerate the claim assessment and settlement process. Using this, a customer only needs to walk into an authorized car service centre without waiting for the survey process to begin and that is fulfilled through a straight-through process with the image engine detecting the damage and authorizing the claim.
Additionally, the claim survey process is also majorly done via live video stream using the company’s app. Image and Machine Learning models along with Robotic Process Automation has helped in achieving 100 per cent of Processing through LM Learning models.
However, like teaching a child, ML-based learning models take time and attention for them to mature with constant training and upkeep; this is where some organizations call it quits and move on.
The road ahead
The insurance companies are reimagining and modernizing the technology setup through hybrid cloud strategy using an API driven architecture while ensuring digital elasticity and hyper-automation.
To move beyond a transactional relationship with their policyholders, it is imperative that insurance companies use data to create personalized experiences, implant AI throughout the customer journey, introduce intelligent workflows, and meet customers with personalized content.
As trusted advisors, it is necessary for insurers to design products and services around the customer experience, which will result in customer loyalty and, eventually, purchasing decisions.
by, Gaurav Chaudhri, Chief Technology Officer, Reliance General Insurance