By: Virender Jeet
The insurance industry is in the middle of a significant evolution, largely driven by the changing expectations of modern customers, new competitors, and the unique demands of a marketplace affected by COVID-19. Insurance providers are striving to stay relevant by smoothly enabling remote operations and keeping up with a higher volume of transactions, without compromising on customer experience.
The way forward for the insurance sector is centered round the timely adoption of new-age technologies. It is imperative that insurance providers effectively digitize their enterprises with the right combination of technology and strategy in order to stay ahead of the curve.
- Predictive analytics – Anticipate new trends and potential risks by effectively analyzing your data. Intelligently evaluate your customers’ preferences and behaviors, as well as potential environmental changes and market disruptions, to suggest new product types and meet your evolving business needs
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) – Bring intelligence to your end-to-end insurance processes to create a fully digital customer journey, while increasing efficiency, decreasing turnaround times, proactively mitigating risk, and eliminating the need for physical contact. Leverage ML to deliver contextual customer service, from determining what a customer requires to recommending personalized solutions.
Also, ensure that customers are engaged 24/7 through chatbots, powered by AI and ML. Minimize the need for human intervention or in-person interaction by deploying chatbots that can mimic human-like responses in most situations
- Robotic process automation (RPA) – Automate repetitive transactions and processes, such as claims processing and document verification. Additionally, allow your customers to opt for self-service channels, using RPA to mitigate the need for human intervention
- Social media – Maximize the potential of social media within the insurance industry by capturing and analyzing data across all social channels and leveraging insights to inform product development, marketing strategy, risk assessment, and even fraud detection
- Virtual Collaboration Tools – Leverage a digital sales platform to increase online sales and reduce the cost of customer acquisition. Stay connected with customers through innovative, virtual channels, such as a video and tele-calling, video KYCs, etc. Also, digitally share cases, and any related information or documentation, with underwriters, thereby eliminating dependency on physical files and in-person interaction
- Telematics devices – Collect data from telematics devices, including automobile monitoring devices and smart watches, to track and analyze customer behaviors. Leverage this data, in tandem with AI and predictive analytics, to assess risk and underwrite claims more confidently
The Future of Insurance
Beyond these prospective technology trends, insurance companies must enact organizational and operational changes to meet the current needs of their customers and users. As customers and companies increasingly avoid in-person interactions, insurance providers must become more tech-enabled and extensively use communication and collaboration platforms to stay connected.
COVID-19 has driven insurance providers to expedite their digital initiatives significantly; simultaneously, the pandemic has created a demand for new products and services. And as insurance companies adapt to the changing environment, they must leverage new-age technologies to intelligently address customers’ coverage needs and quickly tap into new opportunities, without compromising on a human connection.
(The author is Senior Vice President – Sales & Marketing / Products, Newgen Software and the views expressed in this article are his own)
