How AI can revolutionise the insurance sector

For the majority of people calling insurance companies isn’t the most favoured activity. The insurance industry is one of the least innovative areas for customer experience. This is changing however and artificial intelligence (AI) is now playing a great role in this change. AI technology has the potential to disrupt the insurance industry and revolutionise consumer experience.

Artificial intelligence in the claims process:

If you were to make an insurance claim today for the first time in decades the process remains essentially the same. This is because the industry isn’t consistently leveraging the new technologies that become available to them. If an employee is busy or away on holiday the claim may sit until the right person is back in the office. This forces workers to work with out-dated systems and frustrated customers.

However AI can be used to improve this process. Claims currently are ‘touched’ by multiple different employees. However, using AI it is now possible to have a claims process that does not require any human interaction. AI can be used to report the claim, capture the damage, audit the system and communicate with the customer. Some companies have already automated certain aspects of the claims process and have since seen a reduction in the processing times and quality.

In addition, AI powered claims could help to fight against one of the most costly elements of the insurance industry- fraudulent claims. AI algorithms can identify patterns in data and recognise when something is fraudulent. This reduces the reliance on humans to manually scrutinise reports in order to catch inaccurate claims.

Future of AI and Insurance:

The use of AI to varying degrees is already prevalent in the insurance industry. This trend is projected to increase over the coming years. AI has never been less expensive or more accessible, which means most companies don’t have a reason not to adopt it in some form or another. Some of the different applications of AI are discussed in the following sections.

Chatbots:

Chatbots work through messaging apps, which many customers already have and use on your smartphones. This therefore makes chatbots a natural step in improving customer interaction. In order to be effective chatbots require natural language processing and sentiment analysis in order to be able to understand what customers are actually asking. Additionally, chatbots should be able to understand concerns that are both typed or spoken and provide a personalised service. In the insurance space, chatbots can be used to answer basic questions and resolve claims, as well as sell products, address leads, or make sure customers are properly covered by their insurance.

Underwriting:

Artificial intelligence could also be used to automate the entire underwriting process. Bots could be used to scan a customer’s social profile in order to gain information and use this to identify trends and patterns. AI can more accurately analyse data and accurately predict each customer’s risk. This helps to ensure each customer is provided with the right level of insurance and protect firms from risky customers.

Marketing:

Insurance is a highly competitive industry and therefore strong advertising is vital for firms to be successful. Traditionally insurance companies have tried to attract new customers through methods such cold calling. Now AI can collate customer data in order to create a full profile. This means companies can offer products that are more relevant to specific customers needs and preferences.

Overall the insurance industry has long been bogged down by out-dated practices. New thinking and application of AI has the potential to revolutionise the industry and provide a better service for modern customers.