The Indian insuretech segment has been advancing rapidly in the past few years and will grow at an exponential pace in the coming years. Technology can play a key role in tackling the challenges being faced by the insurance industry in India today. In this exclusive interaction with CXOToday, Vishal Shah, Head of Data Science, Go Digit General Insurance talks about how technology has been pivotal in helping Digit Insurance stay ahead of the Indian insurance market.
How has technology helped you in reducing the overall turnaround time in insurance?
Technology and digital analytics are at the core of our business, and it is one of our key differentiators. This has helped us in becoming one of the leading digital full stack non-life insurance companies within a short span of time. We utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to increase automated processing of applications and claims. Using tech, we have managed to streamline a large part of our operations across onboarding, underwriting, servicing, and claims processes which has helped us deliver high-quality customer experience.
We have built tech solutions using AI-enabled analytics which has helped us streamline the entire value chain and drive efficiency. All routine tasks like policy design, underwriting, pricing and policy issuance, servicing and claims management are driven by the microsystems that we have developed in-house, and they help us in automating a lot of processes for our partners and customers. Our turnaround times are a testimony of our tech capabilities. For example, in Fiscal 2022, our turnaround times were approximately 42 minutes for health-cashless pre-authorization and about seven hours for health reimbursement claims settlement. Our claims settlement turnaround times were approximately 13 days for private car and 16 days for two-wheeler motor insurance, including repair time but excluding theft cases, from the date the claim was registered.
What technologies have helped Digit Insurance stay ahead of the game in the Indian insurance market?
As a relatively young general insurance company, we have leveraged a bunch of tech solutions to stay ahead of the curve. We designed our digital infrastructure from inception recognition integrated technology stack is a key enabler of our strategy and business model. We use technology in every aspect of our business – such as underwriting and pricing, distribution, claims processing and customer service. Our platform provides the backbone for our APIs, applications, portals, and website that allow our customers and distribution partners to easily engage with us.
As of March 31, 2022, we were able to process 85.8% of motor own damage survey digitally by employing microsystems. Till date, we have built over 470 bots for our various functions and partners to automate repetitive tasks.
We have also built modular APIs that allow us to share data between our systems and each third-party website and portal we partner with in a customized manner, allowing us to reduce human intervention.
Short processing time has also helped us improve the consumer experience and control loss adjustment costs. Let me give you few examples. Our application based First Notification of Loss (FNOL) process allows customers to take a picture with their smartphones which are further sent to the claim assessor for assessment of an estimate, which is less expensive than a field inspection. In Fiscal 2022, the average time taken from FNOL to Vehicle Repair Order (VRO) using our application based FNOL process was approximately 8 hours which was 3.1 times faster than claims not filed through this system.
For health claims, we have deployed image recognition technology, which converts scanned hospital documents into digital entries and auto populates the information. This allows us to prevent duplication of claims filed.
What are some technology trends you foresee for the Indian insurtech segment?
Over the last few years, technology has completely transformed the way industries operate, and the insurance sector is no exception. Insurtechs today are using tech to solve some of the core challenges that have plagued the sector for many years. Be it the policy buying experience, complexity of products or lengthy claims process, tech is enabling seamless customer experience which was much needed in the industry.
Four key trends are expected to transform the industry in the coming years. These include artificial intelligence, automation, cloud computing, and telematics. Many insurers today are using AI to provide a more streamlined approach that is quick and accurate. It is also helping insurers summarise claim documents faster. We expect AI to play a larger role in the renewals space going forward. Renewal prediction algorithm is also being used to predict the number of customers who are likely to renew their policy. This is helping insurers focus on engaging with customers who are less likely to renew. In the coming years, this will aid in improving renewal rates and in turn lower customer dropouts.
Further, we are seeing how intelligent process automation in insurance has proved to be the perfect solution to many challenges faced by insurers. The huge reliance on manual work has reduced, thereby leading to shorter turnaround time for claims, reduced expenses, and improved customer experience. Cloud computing too will become more important for insurers. For insurtechs, this has already strengthened the foundation by providing a valuable delivery model. Cloud computing offers scalability and storage-related functionalities, helping insurers with streamlining operations.
What are the key initiatives by Digit Insurance to educate and simplify the concept of insurance for Indians?
We began our journey to change the way non-life insurance products are understood and experienced by consumers and distributors in India. We believe that by simplifying insurance, we can establish trust and create meaningful relationships with our customers and distribution partners. We are redesigning insurance products and processes by offering relevant, transparent, and customizable products, creating simple documentation written in clear, “jargon-free” language for most of our products and developing straightforward, paperless processes powered by our technology. We aim to make insurance products so simple that even a 15-year-old can understand it.
At Digit, we are changing insurance products and processes by one, offering relevant, easy-to-understand products, as well as additional coverage options that customers can select themselves to customize their insurance plans. Two, creating simple documentation written in clear, “jargon-free” English that, for the majority of our products, is accompanied by summaries that explain coverage in a “nut-shell”. Three, developing straightforward, paperless processes supported by technology developed in-house, to provide an efficient processing experience to our customers and distributors.
Further, to improve customer experience, we have leveraged front-end technology that our customers are familiar with to make it easier for them to file and check claims status. Our shared goal of simplifying insurance and making all insurance processes including claims more transparent is a key differentiator. It promotes a transparent relationship between us and our customers which is founded on trust.
