To head one of the leading Insurance firms with 230 + Crore premium in a year, customarily from the retail clients paired along with its pan-India presence and also balanced by an equal mix of Life and Non-Life Insurance, is both a coveted and challenging job. The job mix makes the person most sought after in the Insurance Industry-Rakesh Goyal, the man behind the very successful ‘Probus Insurance Broker Pvt Ltd.’ (Top 5 Insurance Brokers in India). An MBA graduate with a diploma in International Trade, Goyal has been in the field of financial services since 1996 bringing utmost understanding of the market and sharp thinking that has been the reason behind the continuous growth and success of Probus. Excelled in the fields of general and life insurance distribution, channel management, and relationship management, Goyal has implemented pioneering strategies for distribution and has helped build corporate relationships and management skills.
One of the biggest and trending buzzwords in today’s Digital Era is Artificial Intelligence (AI). To put AI in simpler words, it is basically a technology which enables computers to learn, think and behave like a human. The technology allows to interpret and inspect data in a much more productive manner. This technology takes the data and creates an algorithm that then generates predictions for various insights. Artificial Intelligence has helped the people make more objective, informed and evidence-based decisions.
Artificial intelligence has been implemented in several business verticals ranging from healthcare, education, financial services, security, human resources, e-commerce and Insurance. What makes the implementation of this innovative technology a significant shift is that Artificial Intelligence helps in creating a digitally enhanced automated ecosystem and valuable opportunities for business growth. The range of this innovation is not limited to automating the scheduling of executive-level tasks, but it has also contributed towards the enhancement of enriching the quality of making the right and informed decisions. Machines when mimic human intelligence with better accuracy and speed, they change how things work and it is definitely changing the insurance space.
Insurance companies have been struggling all these years for technological advancement to reach the prospective customers, provide the best fit of plans to their customers and ease the process of claim settlement. There has been a constant effort to make the insurance ecosystem more versatile than ever before and ensure that the customers get the best user experience. The acceleration in AI has transformed areas such as customer service, claims, marketing, underwriting and fraud detection.
Considering the current state and digital transformation, some of the process of distribution methodology, IT-related processes, the corporate culture, claim process, etc. are proving no more beneficial or lucrative or even as an option. There is a tide of change with AI that the companies of tomorrow are adopting and gradually inclining towards the process which would be staffed by AI-based bots and thereby making things seamless and quick.
AI-based Text and Voice Assisted Chatbot
Talking about the implementation of AI into the insurance sector, the AI-based Chatbots are helping the insurance companies change the overall customer experience. It has now become easier and faster to select the policy of your choice and needs in just a few seconds by filling out some basic questionnaire. Apart, from this one can also transfer the existing policies, get the renewal done, report claims and get the perks of real-time alerts.
The Chatbots interactions are indeed instantaneous and delightful. The computer program which is capable of imitating human conversations is now helping to transform the overall customer experience, facing the customers efficiently and also lowering the cost of the businesses. This has also helped deal with the bulk of customers and save significant time and resources for insurers which can be invested for other profitable activities. It is also said that the next insurance leaders would be led by AI-driven bots.
Customer’s KYC and Recommendation
One such exciting example of implementation of Artificial Intelligence is the video-based Know Your Customer (KYC) which was an effortless option to establish the customer’s identity in India. Also, the videos would be facilitated with the geo-tagging i.e. the video consisted of the location, time and the date where it was recorded. This high-level of verification incorporated the use of the most up-to-date technologies, artificial intelligence and face matching algorithms to ensure the integrity of the customer information and process.
In addition to this, the insurance industries deal with millions of data on a daily basis, hence, data privacy is one of the major and significant elements. With the usage of AI, there are different methods which are implemented to align with the needs of the customers and at the same time keeping their confidential data safe and secure. Moreover, with artificial intelligence, the one thing that is sure to come into the system is a much more streamlined and a lot of simpler methods for day-to-day decision making. This would help to give better services and products along with low cost have reduced the friction for the policyholder towards buying the policy and thereby making things simpler. Also, based on the information, insurers can provide a recommendation on which product should be bought.
Claims Process
The most interesting cases of Artificial Intelligence in insurance could be the automatic classification of claim cases based on image recognition, so if there is a car incident then the policyholder can take the photo and upload it instead of making an appointment with the surveyor for surveying and reviewing the situation. The insurer would then take care of the situation. The classifications technique that could be adopted from these processes would help to smoothen the claim process and make it more efficient. Customers are covered with the estimated repair cost and can go ahead for repairs without long waiting.
Fraud Detection
Fraud detection using AI is the most effective way to detect fraud and prevent risk. With the help of artificial intelligence, it is possible to identify the false information, fraud patterns, or abnormalities that the customer provides to get a bigger claim or pay the low premium cost. This is basically the technique to reduce fraudulent claims. The decreased fraud metric through this technique will help settle the claims much faster.
Customised Products
Thus, customer analysis has helped to tailor cheaper and better insurance products as per the customer’s needs. Now, insurance companies can price their policies in a more personalized way for every customer. The personal information about the individuals opting for policies based on their location, financial affordability and the driving record would make it easy to create policies with competitive rates. Plus, it would be wise to understand their needs and offer relevant products.
This game-changer could be the biggest turning point as it is going to change the huge legacy infrastructure and create ways to adopt open source technology and give a much more impactful meaning to insurance. This will also build deeper connectivity to real-time technology and accelerate the processes. The involvement of such technology acts as a steer to redirect the traditional approaches and bring about benefiting change in the standard or existing practices.
Also, this new process has made things much simpler and easier has been a good point of attracting millennials and creating awareness about the importance of insurance among them.
As the 21st century is approaching technological recognition, it has become very significant and the need of the hour for any industry to flourish. Innovation through new technologies has become a key driver to bring a magnificent revolution in any industry thereby leading to extensive performance gains. The pragmatic approach and the boundless possibilities of artificial intelligence into the insurance environment would be a constructive step towards an efficient, instant and competent result.