AI and Insurance: A winning duo
đź“… Published on September 6, 2024
Artificial Intelligence (AI) involves equipping machines with human cognitive abilities, with a particular focus on creating new content such as texts, images, and videos. Discover how AI is revolutionizing the insurance industry, enhancing every step of the process—from underwriting to claims management—for a more efficient and accurate sector.
I. Discover the impact of AI on customer acquisition and sales
AI is transforming traditional methods, from guided subscription through personalized virtual assistants to effective and precise cross-selling, along with automated support. This section highlights the technological advancements revolutionizing how companies attract clients and enhance their sales strategies.
a. A personalized virtual assistant for underwriting
One of the main challenges in the insurance industry stems from the complexity of insurance policies, making it difficult for customers to fully understand and conclude a contract with complete clarity.
Imagine an intelligent virtual assistant welcoming each visitor to your website, identifying their needs, and guiding them step by step through the underwriting process. AI enables the creation of personalized virtual assistants with a deep understanding of your products and services. These assistants can answer real-time questions, resolve doubts, and accompany clients throughout the process, significantly increasing conversion chances.
This assistant, equipped with detailed explanations of various aspects of insurance policies and associated risks, addresses customer inquiries and guides them towards personalized contracts. Available at all times, these conversational agents ensure swift communication, reducing wait times and contributing to higher customer satisfaction.
b. AI for effective cross-selling
Cross-selling, or the practice of offering additional insurance policies that complement a customer’s initial purchase, can be optimized with AI. By analyzing vast amounts of customer data (purchase history, browsing behavior, preferences), AI can identify relevant cross-selling opportunities.
Based on these insights, AI can suggest complementary products or personalized offers to each customer, thus increasing the average order value and enhancing customer satisfaction. AI goes beyond basic recommendations, taking into account the specific context and needs of each customer to offer truly attractive deals.
This deep understanding of individual customers allows AI to make more relevant product or service recommendations. Moreover, AI enhances cross-selling campaigns by analyzing past performance. By identifying best practices for each customer segment, AI adjusts cross-selling strategies to boost conversion rates and ensure customer satisfaction. These benefits extend to customer retention, as personalized offers that address the comprehensive needs of policyholders encourage them to remain loyal to their insurance company. Offering complementary policies also provides customers with enhanced protection against potential risks, strengthening their trust in their insurance provider.
c. Harnessing the power of automated customer support
Combining interactive and automated AI offers a 24/7 customer support system across all communication channels (website, mobile app, social media).
This automation reduces manual workloads and improves the efficiency of customer support processes. Smart chatbots and automated systems quickly respond to customer inquiries, proactively resolve common issues, and provide personalized advice, thus boosting customer satisfaction and lowering the costs associated with traditional support.
II. AI invests in all aspects of claims management
There are many untapped potentials of AI, spanning various areas of claims management. The golden rule is to report claims as quickly as possible, gather detailed information, and pre-process certain cases before forwarding them to experts.
a. AI manages claims reporting
24/7 assistance is crucial to provide immediate help in cases like car accidents, fires, or water damage.
In all damage cases, having AI that can respond to every distress call at any time and offer a preemptive solution, such as contacting the nearest plumber or emergency responder, is invaluable. An interactive AI system can deliver this effect, offering an unmatched customer experience.
b. AI for personalized support
AI-powered virtual assistants play a vital role in managing claims related to events that affect an individual’s health, physical integrity, or life. They facilitate intuitive and efficient interaction with policyholders, simplifying the process of reporting and handling covered risks. AI analyzes collected information in real-time to ensure accurate and complete claims submissions, offering personalized advice based on the policyholder’s data, thus contributing to higher customer satisfaction.
With its user-friendly interface, the virtual assistant provides clear and understandable information to policyholders on how to file a claim. For example, when a serious illness, disability, or other personal event covered by insurance is reported, the assistant asks pertinent questions about the incident (nature of the illness or accident, date and location of the event, etc.). Based on the answers, it may request further details regarding medical treatments, expenses incurred, available medical documents, and more.
c. AI for preprocessing claims
In the often stressful context of claims, policyholders may struggle to provide accurate details. However, with today’s advancements, most damages, such as water damage, can be assessed through 3D scanning and AI, which identifies issues, locates the sources, and speeds up the claims management process. AI can determine the necessary steps to resolve the problem, prepare data for the experts, and thus accelerate the overall claim processing.
These initial analyses will be helpful for the expert in charge of evaluating the damage in real time and will also ease their work. The more precise the information provided, the faster the claim can be processed.
We have created a short animated film to showcase the current possibilities of AI in the insurance industry. Specifically, we illustrate a scenario where water damage occurs in the middle of the night. Robert, a virtual assistant powered by AI, answers the call, assesses the damage using 3D scanning, and quickly finds available plumbers to intervene. This example demonstrates how AI can be used today to efficiently manage claims, enhancing the customer experience.