Opinion: Artificial Intelligence is revolutionising insurance-customer experience

Gone are the days, when you imagined a pestering 'insurance sales agent' who would rigorously follow up for the renewal of the policy. Things are fast changing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing a large role. The disruptive technology has the potential to transform the entire industry and greatly improve the insurance customer experience.

Many insurance companies are already using Artificial Intelligence, and the number of companies following the trend is sure to increase in the near future. Artificial Intelligence is also more easily accessible and affordable, making it imperative for organisations to adopt.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered insurance agents, today, are bringing about an image transformation. These agents are discreet enough not to interrupt a prospective buyers' exploration journey, but prominent enough to help out when needed.

Meet the new-aged insurance agent

Mr. Patel wanted to buy a medical insurance from a top insurance company. Rajesh, an insurance agent, used AI inside CRM to combine the data from Mr. Patel’s demographics, public social media information, location weather, telematics and wearable data to conjure up a complete user profile that spoke about Mr. Patel’s probable health risks. This empowered Rajesh, to offer a discounted premium plan which delighted Mr. Patel.

Some insurers love tradition. They make humans slog to push generic policies. Others are inspired by trends and make use of AI, machine learning to sell new products. Visionary insurers, though, take the best of artificial and human intelligence, add a hefty dose of machine learning and empower their customers to buy relevant and customised policies. As per the latest survey, 74% of consumers say they would be happy to get a computer generated insurance advice.

Artificial Intelligence for Automated Insurance

The use of AI in insurance empowers insurers to deploy personalised sales tactics. It can analyse big data and create a holistic customer profile that can be used to sell tailored policies and remember customer preferences. But that's not all. AI brings in many advantages to insurers.

1. Labour cost reduction

Insurers no more need to deploy a team of surveyors to assess risks and audit applications. Availability of abundant data through social channels, medical records, apps, IoT devices makes it easy for insurance CRM platforms to apply machine learning to get the desired results without additional and expensive manpower. AI-powered chatbots can pre-screen inquiries and complete end to end buying journeys online without human intervention. This translates to lower premium for buyers and increases coverage.

2. Possibility to discover and create new products

Insurers can bring out new products by discovering emerging technologies, lifestyle and user trends. For instance, the emergence and prevalence of autonomous Tesla cars have encouraged a leading insurance start-up to offer premiums based on driving habits. Evidence suggests that the driving safety is directly proportional to the amount of time the car is driven in autonomous mode. So, users who drive car autonomously are offered lesser premiums than those who drive manually. This discovery and integration into insurance processes are made possible due to the multitude of information crunched by superior computing power.

3. Predictive Modelling

AI guides insurers in creating predictive models to assist in setting insurance premiums based on -

a. Emerging tastes

b. Historical sales

c. Economic bubbles

d. Man-made threats like burglaries

e. Natural threats and so on...

Digital Insurance CRM – A Maximiser

Taking advantages of the breakthroughs in computing power, Digital insurance CRMs do most of the legwork. Business processes are made faster with the help of robotic process automation. Visual designers enable agents to create smarter customer journeys. By efficient dragging and dropping of pre-defined objects, customers are captivated while they tend to slip between channels and products.

Insurance CRM integrates seamlessly with multiple data platforms including social media, to get up close and real-time customer intelligence.

Bringing in the AI and digital tools will not displace insurance agents and their selling prowess. Instead, it will act as a relationship innovator that changes the dynamics between technology, insurers and the insured.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)