You might not think you need homeowners or renters insurance — until your neighbor leaves a frozen pizza in the oven and leaves, and your things end up being claimed by flames. Give yourself some much-needed peace of mind in the case of the unexpected with Lemonade: this innovative certified insurance carrier that totally reverses the traditional insurance model, paying out claims nearly instantly and treating your premium as if it’s still your money.
If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to have to make an insurance claim, you know it’s tedious. It tends to take a long time (and a lot of paperwork and annoying customer service calls) to sort the issue out and get your claim paid. But Lemonade doesn’t benefit as a company from delaying or denying your claims — instead, they get paid through the fixed fee rate you pay for their service, you receive compensation quickly and any unclaimed funds at the end of the year is given to charity.
The entire process is simple and user-friendly: apply for a claim quickly and easily using the iOS or Android app, or just the Lemonade website. Lemonade’s AI chat-bot, Maya, works to process the information — and if it fits into the necessary parameters, your claim could get paid out in as little as three minutes. Otherwise, Lemonade’s trained staff will process your claim. Maya also works with you when you get started to build your perfect insurance plan — renters insurance starts as low as $5 a month, and homeowner’s insurance starts at $25 a month.
Life is bound to throw you a curveball every now and again: ensure your precious personal possessions and living space are protected. Learn more about Lemonade by visiting their website — and work with Maya to build your perfect insurance plan here.
The days of customers calling an insurance company out of the blue and getting a quote over the phone are fading fast. Customers today are digital natives and want the best rates from every insurer out there at the tap of just a few clicks. If they can do so without ever having to dial a phone number, all the better.
Insurers are well aware of this and are rapidly investing millions in new startups and platforms that are already changing the industry for the better. Bye bye, mountains of paperwork. Technology’s impact on the insurance industry isn’t simply taking the headache out of the buying algorithm for customers, it’s also saving us money. (Not surprisingly, price is at the top of customers's concerns when buying insurance.)
Big Data and AI Are Driving the Evolution
Repetition is a standard practice in insurance, and there’s huge potential for artificial intelligence to take on that load of customer inquiries, claims reports and data analysis. The development of AI in insurance will not only speed up the time it takes for a customer to buy a policy or settle a claim, but will be able to take historical and behavioral data such as a driving record and create more personalized packages. The fewer tasks an insurance company has to hand off to its brokers that can be completed with the assistance of AI, the more savings that can be passed on to the customer.
The development and growth of technology in the industry isn’t a boogeyman that will render the insurance brokers as obsolete middlemen, either. Instead, it’s redefining the role of the broker and broadening their ability to assist the customer. Rather than merely offering up a list of price options, they can now offer more knowledgeable assistance using the data generated by AI to better assess the facts and add more value when dealing with customers.
It’s why so many companies have implemented chatbots into their customer service offerings on their websites. The more knowledge that a broker has regarding a customer’s needs upfront, the quicker and more efficiently they can serve them.
Tech Is Creating a More Secure Customer and Industry
According to the FBI, the total cost of (non-health insurance) fraud each year is a staggering $40 billion. The practice of using AI to spot unusual patterns that could be linked to bogus claims will save the industry (and consumers) millions in the long run. And, you guessed it, it will also speed up the processing of those legitimate claims.
Technology today isn’t just saving consumers more time and money, but is saving lives. Take the teenSMART driving program, for example. The driver-simulation program uses computer-simulated technology to teach inexperienced teen drivers the ways of the road, and those who complete it have 30 percent fewer collisions and are offered lower insurance rates through numerous providers.
As autonomous vehicles cross over from being simply a technological oddity to the norm, the role of insurance will change again with AI will factoring in. Some OEMs are already considering this and building insurance policies into the vehicle purchase. With fewer accidents on the road (fingers crossed) because of self-driving vehicles, premiums will plummet.
Like so many other industries, the rapid advancement of technology is changing how insurance businesses operate and interact with customers. Thankfully, much of it seems to be for the better.
Life insurance industry in India has come a long way, especially in the last two decades when Private Life Insurance companies were given the green signal to operate. Surprisingly though, the awareness regarding the need for Life Insurance is still very limited in the country. People have a general understanding that there is a need to save for the family and for their future, but very little awareness regarding how to go about it.
For many decades now, Life Insurance Agents have been selling insurance in the country. It has for long been the largest distribution channel for life Insurance companies. Agents represent companies whose products they sell and come to be known as that company’s agents.
How has this channel of distribution grown in the last few decades. Undoubtedly, the number of Agents has multiplied. The number of agents as on 31st March 2018 is 20,82,667. The agents obviously have a good understanding of the products that they sell. But how adept are they at understanding their client’s needs? How well do they know, or rather how much are they committed to their clients’ wellbeing and financial security? How equipped are they to give the right advice to their clients?
The Crux of it
For a Life insurance agent, convincing a customer to buy a life cover is the toughest job. It may not be that tough if they are thorough with their knowledge and more importantly, have their clients’ best interests at heart. Many a times, people do not like to consider buying insurance because they do not like to confront the possibility of inauspicious events or tragedies. Others, who are more willing to consider it, find the subject complex, and think that most Agents will misguide them into buying something they do not need. They feel that Agents are more invested in their own earnings and therefore will not guide properly. Some even think that it’s a waste of money if the policyholder survives the term.
All the fears can be valid. But it needs a patient and considerate Agent to help them get past these concerns and make them aware of ways to secure their families’ future. Agents need to think on behalf of their clients. Their primary job is not to fulfil a business objective or criteria. It is not about their personal earnings and how many clients they can manage to acquire. That is absolutely the wrong approach. They need to think about the consumer first, before themselves and before the companies that they represent. It is Consumer before everything else. If we truly understand what our clients want and what would be most beneficial for them, not only will we succeed in that deal, but we will fulfil our business objectives many times over.
The New Way
Gone are the days when agents’ were mere salespersons who just had to sell products in order to achieve the sales targets and get commission out of it. Today, Agents need to transition to a level where they become advisors and not just salespersons. One of the reasons why Agents are not driven or passionate about this work is that they work only part-time. An industry as demanding as Life Insurance requires people who have more staying power. We need to have subject knowledge and demonstrate perseverance if we have to make a mark. We will put in that extra work only if we treat it as a long-term career option. Otherwise Agents will keep looking at it as a short-term gain and never fully engage with their customers.
The truly driven and passionate Agents will see this as a full time career opportunity. Companies Provide robust training and refresher courses throughout the Agent’s career with them. They provide the right technology and tools to make the consumer on-boarding process smoother. We are assisted by the right technology in selling as well as getting the consumer on board. It makes our life a lot easier when we are able to make sales digitally because our clients can view details and calculations based on the data that they feed in, so that they get the right solutions to their needs. It helps them make their decision faster, with full transparency and in a much shorter time.
With support like this, the only ask from the Agent is passion and commitment. There is no holding back after that.
In order for them to succeed as a professional full-time Agents, they must adhere to the following:
Proper training from the company so that the agent understands the company’s products and their features
Understanding client's requirement and advice products as per their requirements
Develop the ability to listen and empathize with clients to understand which product will work best for them
Know the products really well to know exactly what is suitable as per customer needs. Agents should advise products keeping in mind the customer’s investment portfolio and financial background
Be quick to respond to consumer queries, via phone calls or mail or even personal meetings. This definitely boosts consumer confidence in the agent.
Behave responsibly and remember who he is representing. He is the face of the Company that he represents
Be equipped with all policy related information for the right guidance and advice
It’s very important to do regular follow-up with clients and track the premium payment so that the policy doesn’t lapse. It also helps get regular feedback from clients
Success of an insurance advisor lies in being consumer focused. Our clients need to see the value in our advice. Our sheer existence is because of them. If you have the passion, the dedication and consumer focus, this is the place for you.
It is often said that movies are a reality. Well, at a time when we have driverless cars and “staffless” supermarkets, this is undoubtedly a truism. Concepts like Chat Bots, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have long been considered as esoteric subjects, associated with dreams and visions about the distant future of humankind. However, solutions that leverage these emerging technologies have now become ubiquitous. The field of AI is continuously challenging the frontier of machine intelligence and is pervading many aspects of our daily lives. From chatting with “Siri” to driverless cars, these technologies are helping humans do their work and organisations to deliver their services, more efficiently and effectively.
No longer Sci-fi
Over the last decade, advancements in AI and ML have moved at an alarming speed and have seemingly made the leap from “sci-fi” concepts to everyday buzzwords. The use of algorithms has dominated the finance industry, while financial advisory has taken a new shape with the advent of robo-advisors. So far, the application of AI and ML in the insurance sector has been fairly rudimentary. However, it is changing the landscape of the industry and is paving the way for more enhanced digital solutions in the industry.
Current Trends in the Insurance Sector
Underwriting and Behavioural Premium Pricing
Data is considered as the “oil” of the 21st century and technologies like AI and ML can help organizations reap the benefits of data. An entire league of fintech companies have germinated solely on their ability to harness data and draw intelligence from it to create optimal solutions and service the customers better. This has been possible only because innovative technologies have now moved the analysis of data from proxy to source data. Historically, insurance underwriters have had to rely on a statistical analysis of historical data and on information provided on applications by customers, to assess the risks surrounding a potential client. Machine learning, specifically natural language understanding (NLU), enables insurers to pore through more abstract and objective sources of data to pull together information which can more adequately assess the insurance carrier's potential exposure. Additionally, telematics and wearable sensor data can enable insurers to price premiums as per the individual’s risk profile. For example, drivers who have exhibited a history of safe driving can pay less for auto insurance.
Chatbots and Customer Service
The 21st-century customer has come to expect highly customised services and no longer attaches a high premium to loyalty. In such a business environment, AI can be used to parse reams of data to recommend insurance products that are most relevant to a customer. Chatbots that work with messaging apps are already being used by the industry to resolve claims and answer simple questions. Chatbots can also recognise the customer based on image recognition and social data, which can help companies further personalise sales conversations.
Transaction and Claims Processing
Since the product that is being sold is insurance, customers would judge the efficacy of an insurer by its ability to provide insurance claims to the customer, when the need arises, i.e. when they experience the risk against which they have taken insurance. However, since the insurance industry is highly regulated and by its very nature treads on the side of caution, claim verification and processing can often have a long gestation period. Consequently, this is an area where a lot of innovative technologies are focused on. By leveraging AI and handling massive amounts of data in a short time, insurers can move claims through the system from the initial report to communicating with the customer, in a far more efficient manner. Things like online interfaces and virtual claims adjusters will make it more useful to settle and pay claims following an accident, while simultaneously decreasing the likelihood of fraud.
The benefits of technology are myriad and the onus to leverage upon the same lies in the hands of the organizations. Technology is considered to be a great enabler, and its judicious use can help organizations serve their customers better and improve profitability. Insurers can either choose to make digital an integral part of their business strategy or stagnate into obscurity. Change, just like winter, has come!
Insurance companies can either burden their workforce with repetitive and operational tasks or channelize their bandwidths towards more value-added tasks. What a company chooses, determines the pace of its growth.
Processes such as underwriting, claims to process, and policy servicing, bring along with them a plethora of important but mundane and repetitive work, affecting the overall organization’s efficiency. This is where the need to automate systems and manual processes arise.
Robotic process automation (RPA), with the use of software bots to handle routine processes and time-consuming data entry work, is an objective solution for any organization to drive customer-centric strategies and scale up operations.
Why is RPA a Good Fit For the Insurance Sector?
The insurance industry is replete with back-office processes, which are operational, high-volume, and repetitive in nature. Organizations can count on RPA to shoulder these time-consuming processes and free up their workforce to focus on customer service, thereby reducing costs and turnaround time while increasing customer satisfaction.
RPA also helps automate sub-processes within major insurance processes. Moving of data from spreadsheets to core systems, pulling out data from invoices into a core system, scraping of information from the internet and websites, are among some of these sub-processes RPA helps automate.
Further, RPA streamlines the end-to-end process lifecycle through the integration of front-end technologies with existing back-office processes.
More importantly, RPA done alone is not enough. Like any other well-orchestrated process in the organization, RPA also need context. Automation will do the job faster. Automation with context will do the job more effectively and fast.
Effective RPA Implementation is a Need of the Hour!
Let’s understand how RPA implementation can make a significant difference across critical insurance processes:
New Business and Underwriting: Gathering data from different sources to accurately assess the risk associated with any insurance policy makes underwriting an appropriate area for RPA.
Claims Registration and Processing: The claims process is document and data-intensive and depends on the collection of information from multiple sources. This makes the process lengthy and time-consuming, affecting customer service and competitive advantage.
RPA can help insurers automatically notify those responsible for loss adjustment, hand over tasks to claims handlers, and integrate all the disparate claim information. This helps speed up the process, improve customer experience, and increase ROI.
Policy Administration and Servicing: Policy administration brings together all the functions of an insurance provider, right from quoting rating, and underwriting to the distribution of customer services. Policy administration systems are expensive, high-maintenance, and cannot scale quickly enough to meet the growing customer needs or support business growth.
Our experience has shown that RPA can help complete the task in one-third of the time taken.
Regulatory Compliance: The insurance sector is guided by strict regulations related to documentation and audit trails. The presence of tedious and error-prone processes can increase the risk of a regulatory breach exponentially.
RPA comes in handy in such situations by replacing the need for devoted staff to go through operations to enforce regulatory compliance manually. RPA also helps make sure that the data is accurate and maintains a complete log of changes. This data helps monitor regulatory compliance on a regular basis through internal reviews.
The insurance industry is more than ready to take advantage of RPA technologies.
In Closing…
While RPA is the technology to embrace, the organizations must remember that its effectiveness depends on the mindful implementation. A thumb-rule to follow while implementing RPA would be to ensure that it is effective only when there are repetitive, rule-based processes are involved. The lesser the need for human judgment, the more the process is suited for an RPA implementation.
If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to have to make an insurance claim, you know it’s tedious. It tends to take a long time (and a lot of paperwork and annoying customer service calls) to sort the issue out and get your claim paid. But Lemonade doesn’t benefit as a company from delaying or denying your claims — instead, they get paid through the fixed fee rate you pay for their service, you receive compensation quickly and any unclaimed funds at the end of the year is given to charity.
The entire process is simple and user-friendly: apply for a claim quickly and easily using the iOS or Android app, or just the Lemonade website. Lemonade’s AI chat-bot, Maya, works to process the information — and if it fits into the necessary parameters, your claim could get paid out in as little as three minutes. Otherwise, Lemonade’s trained staff will process your claim. Maya also works with you when you get started to build your perfect insurance plan — renters insurance starts as low as $5 a month, and homeowner’s insurance starts at $25 a month.
Life is bound to throw you a curveball every now and again: ensure your precious personal possessions and living space are protected. Learn more about Lemonade by visiting their website — and work with Maya to build your perfect insurance plan here.
The days of customers calling an insurance company out of the blue and getting a quote over the phone are fading fast. Customers today are digital natives and want the best rates from every insurer out there at the tap of just a few clicks. If they can do so without ever having to dial a phone number, all the better.
Insurers are well aware of this and are rapidly investing millions in new startups and platforms that are already changing the industry for the better. Bye bye, mountains of paperwork. Technology’s impact on the insurance industry isn’t simply taking the headache out of the buying algorithm for customers, it’s also saving us money. (Not surprisingly, price is at the top of customers's concerns when buying insurance.)
Big Data and AI Are Driving the Evolution
Repetition is a standard practice in insurance, and there’s huge potential for artificial intelligence to take on that load of customer inquiries, claims reports and data analysis. The development of AI in insurance will not only speed up the time it takes for a customer to buy a policy or settle a claim, but will be able to take historical and behavioral data such as a driving record and create more personalized packages. The fewer tasks an insurance company has to hand off to its brokers that can be completed with the assistance of AI, the more savings that can be passed on to the customer.
The development and growth of technology in the industry isn’t a boogeyman that will render the insurance brokers as obsolete middlemen, either. Instead, it’s redefining the role of the broker and broadening their ability to assist the customer. Rather than merely offering up a list of price options, they can now offer more knowledgeable assistance using the data generated by AI to better assess the facts and add more value when dealing with customers.
It’s why so many companies have implemented chatbots into their customer service offerings on their websites. The more knowledge that a broker has regarding a customer’s needs upfront, the quicker and more efficiently they can serve them.
Tech Is Creating a More Secure Customer and Industry
According to the FBI, the total cost of (non-health insurance) fraud each year is a staggering $40 billion. The practice of using AI to spot unusual patterns that could be linked to bogus claims will save the industry (and consumers) millions in the long run. And, you guessed it, it will also speed up the processing of those legitimate claims.
Technology today isn’t just saving consumers more time and money, but is saving lives. Take the teenSMART driving program, for example. The driver-simulation program uses computer-simulated technology to teach inexperienced teen drivers the ways of the road, and those who complete it have 30 percent fewer collisions and are offered lower insurance rates through numerous providers.
As autonomous vehicles cross over from being simply a technological oddity to the norm, the role of insurance will change again with AI will factoring in. Some OEMs are already considering this and building insurance policies into the vehicle purchase. With fewer accidents on the road (fingers crossed) because of self-driving vehicles, premiums will plummet.
Like so many other industries, the rapid advancement of technology is changing how insurance businesses operate and interact with customers. Thankfully, much of it seems to be for the better.
Life insurance industry in India has come a long way, especially in the last two decades when Private Life Insurance companies were given the green signal to operate. Surprisingly though, the awareness regarding the need for Life Insurance is still very limited in the country. People have a general understanding that there is a need to save for the family and for their future, but very little awareness regarding how to go about it.
For many decades now, Life Insurance Agents have been selling insurance in the country. It has for long been the largest distribution channel for life Insurance companies. Agents represent companies whose products they sell and come to be known as that company’s agents.
How has this channel of distribution grown in the last few decades. Undoubtedly, the number of Agents has multiplied. The number of agents as on 31st March 2018 is 20,82,667. The agents obviously have a good understanding of the products that they sell. But how adept are they at understanding their client’s needs? How well do they know, or rather how much are they committed to their clients’ wellbeing and financial security? How equipped are they to give the right advice to their clients?
The Crux of it
For a Life insurance agent, convincing a customer to buy a life cover is the toughest job. It may not be that tough if they are thorough with their knowledge and more importantly, have their clients’ best interests at heart. Many a times, people do not like to consider buying insurance because they do not like to confront the possibility of inauspicious events or tragedies. Others, who are more willing to consider it, find the subject complex, and think that most Agents will misguide them into buying something they do not need. They feel that Agents are more invested in their own earnings and therefore will not guide properly. Some even think that it’s a waste of money if the policyholder survives the term.
All the fears can be valid. But it needs a patient and considerate Agent to help them get past these concerns and make them aware of ways to secure their families’ future. Agents need to think on behalf of their clients. Their primary job is not to fulfil a business objective or criteria. It is not about their personal earnings and how many clients they can manage to acquire. That is absolutely the wrong approach. They need to think about the consumer first, before themselves and before the companies that they represent. It is Consumer before everything else. If we truly understand what our clients want and what would be most beneficial for them, not only will we succeed in that deal, but we will fulfil our business objectives many times over.
The New Way
Gone are the days when agents’ were mere salespersons who just had to sell products in order to achieve the sales targets and get commission out of it. Today, Agents need to transition to a level where they become advisors and not just salespersons. One of the reasons why Agents are not driven or passionate about this work is that they work only part-time. An industry as demanding as Life Insurance requires people who have more staying power. We need to have subject knowledge and demonstrate perseverance if we have to make a mark. We will put in that extra work only if we treat it as a long-term career option. Otherwise Agents will keep looking at it as a short-term gain and never fully engage with their customers.
The truly driven and passionate Agents will see this as a full time career opportunity. Companies Provide robust training and refresher courses throughout the Agent’s career with them. They provide the right technology and tools to make the consumer on-boarding process smoother. We are assisted by the right technology in selling as well as getting the consumer on board. It makes our life a lot easier when we are able to make sales digitally because our clients can view details and calculations based on the data that they feed in, so that they get the right solutions to their needs. It helps them make their decision faster, with full transparency and in a much shorter time.
With support like this, the only ask from the Agent is passion and commitment. There is no holding back after that.
In order for them to succeed as a professional full-time Agents, they must adhere to the following:
Proper training from the company so that the agent understands the company’s products and their features
Understanding client's requirement and advice products as per their requirements
Develop the ability to listen and empathize with clients to understand which product will work best for them
Know the products really well to know exactly what is suitable as per customer needs. Agents should advise products keeping in mind the customer’s investment portfolio and financial background
Be quick to respond to consumer queries, via phone calls or mail or even personal meetings. This definitely boosts consumer confidence in the agent.
Behave responsibly and remember who he is representing. He is the face of the Company that he represents
Be equipped with all policy related information for the right guidance and advice
It’s very important to do regular follow-up with clients and track the premium payment so that the policy doesn’t lapse. It also helps get regular feedback from clients
Success of an insurance advisor lies in being consumer focused. Our clients need to see the value in our advice. Our sheer existence is because of them. If you have the passion, the dedication and consumer focus, this is the place for you.
It is often said that movies are a reality. Well, at a time when we have driverless cars and “staffless” supermarkets, this is undoubtedly a truism. Concepts like Chat Bots, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have long been considered as esoteric subjects, associated with dreams and visions about the distant future of humankind. However, solutions that leverage these emerging technologies have now become ubiquitous. The field of AI is continuously challenging the frontier of machine intelligence and is pervading many aspects of our daily lives. From chatting with “Siri” to driverless cars, these technologies are helping humans do their work and organisations to deliver their services, more efficiently and effectively.
No longer Sci-fi
Over the last decade, advancements in AI and ML have moved at an alarming speed and have seemingly made the leap from “sci-fi” concepts to everyday buzzwords. The use of algorithms has dominated the finance industry, while financial advisory has taken a new shape with the advent of robo-advisors. So far, the application of AI and ML in the insurance sector has been fairly rudimentary. However, it is changing the landscape of the industry and is paving the way for more enhanced digital solutions in the industry.
Current Trends in the Insurance Sector
Underwriting and Behavioural Premium Pricing
Data is considered as the “oil” of the 21st century and technologies like AI and ML can help organizations reap the benefits of data. An entire league of fintech companies have germinated solely on their ability to harness data and draw intelligence from it to create optimal solutions and service the customers better. This has been possible only because innovative technologies have now moved the analysis of data from proxy to source data. Historically, insurance underwriters have had to rely on a statistical analysis of historical data and on information provided on applications by customers, to assess the risks surrounding a potential client. Machine learning, specifically natural language understanding (NLU), enables insurers to pore through more abstract and objective sources of data to pull together information which can more adequately assess the insurance carrier's potential exposure. Additionally, telematics and wearable sensor data can enable insurers to price premiums as per the individual’s risk profile. For example, drivers who have exhibited a history of safe driving can pay less for auto insurance.
Chatbots and Customer Service
The 21st-century customer has come to expect highly customised services and no longer attaches a high premium to loyalty. In such a business environment, AI can be used to parse reams of data to recommend insurance products that are most relevant to a customer. Chatbots that work with messaging apps are already being used by the industry to resolve claims and answer simple questions. Chatbots can also recognise the customer based on image recognition and social data, which can help companies further personalise sales conversations.
Transaction and Claims Processing
Since the product that is being sold is insurance, customers would judge the efficacy of an insurer by its ability to provide insurance claims to the customer, when the need arises, i.e. when they experience the risk against which they have taken insurance. However, since the insurance industry is highly regulated and by its very nature treads on the side of caution, claim verification and processing can often have a long gestation period. Consequently, this is an area where a lot of innovative technologies are focused on. By leveraging AI and handling massive amounts of data in a short time, insurers can move claims through the system from the initial report to communicating with the customer, in a far more efficient manner. Things like online interfaces and virtual claims adjusters will make it more useful to settle and pay claims following an accident, while simultaneously decreasing the likelihood of fraud.
The benefits of technology are myriad and the onus to leverage upon the same lies in the hands of the organizations. Technology is considered to be a great enabler, and its judicious use can help organizations serve their customers better and improve profitability. Insurers can either choose to make digital an integral part of their business strategy or stagnate into obscurity. Change, just like winter, has come!
Insurance companies can either burden their workforce with repetitive and operational tasks or channelize their bandwidths towards more value-added tasks. What a company chooses, determines the pace of its growth.
Processes such as underwriting, claims to process, and policy servicing, bring along with them a plethora of important but mundane and repetitive work, affecting the overall organization’s efficiency. This is where the need to automate systems and manual processes arise.
Robotic process automation (RPA), with the use of software bots to handle routine processes and time-consuming data entry work, is an objective solution for any organization to drive customer-centric strategies and scale up operations.
Why is RPA a Good Fit For the Insurance Sector?
The insurance industry is replete with back-office processes, which are operational, high-volume, and repetitive in nature. Organizations can count on RPA to shoulder these time-consuming processes and free up their workforce to focus on customer service, thereby reducing costs and turnaround time while increasing customer satisfaction.
RPA also helps automate sub-processes within major insurance processes. Moving of data from spreadsheets to core systems, pulling out data from invoices into a core system, scraping of information from the internet and websites, are among some of these sub-processes RPA helps automate.
Further, RPA streamlines the end-to-end process lifecycle through the integration of front-end technologies with existing back-office processes.
More importantly, RPA done alone is not enough. Like any other well-orchestrated process in the organization, RPA also need context. Automation will do the job faster. Automation with context will do the job more effectively and fast.
Effective RPA Implementation is a Need of the Hour!
Let’s understand how RPA implementation can make a significant difference across critical insurance processes:
New Business and Underwriting: Gathering data from different sources to accurately assess the risk associated with any insurance policy makes underwriting an appropriate area for RPA.
Claims Registration and Processing: The claims process is document and data-intensive and depends on the collection of information from multiple sources. This makes the process lengthy and time-consuming, affecting customer service and competitive advantage.
RPA can help insurers automatically notify those responsible for loss adjustment, hand over tasks to claims handlers, and integrate all the disparate claim information. This helps speed up the process, improve customer experience, and increase ROI.
Policy Administration and Servicing: Policy administration brings together all the functions of an insurance provider, right from quoting rating, and underwriting to the distribution of customer services. Policy administration systems are expensive, high-maintenance, and cannot scale quickly enough to meet the growing customer needs or support business growth.
Our experience has shown that RPA can help complete the task in one-third of the time taken.
Regulatory Compliance: The insurance sector is guided by strict regulations related to documentation and audit trails. The presence of tedious and error-prone processes can increase the risk of a regulatory breach exponentially.
RPA comes in handy in such situations by replacing the need for devoted staff to go through operations to enforce regulatory compliance manually. RPA also helps make sure that the data is accurate and maintains a complete log of changes. This data helps monitor regulatory compliance on a regular basis through internal reviews.
The insurance industry is more than ready to take advantage of RPA technologies.
In Closing…
While RPA is the technology to embrace, the organizations must remember that its effectiveness depends on the mindful implementation. A thumb-rule to follow while implementing RPA would be to ensure that it is effective only when there are repetitive, rule-based processes are involved. The lesser the need for human judgment, the more the process is suited for an RPA implementation.
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