Transforming Claims and Underwriting With AI
Much before digitization and automation stepped in, the insurance process required complex coordination between multiple parties and a range of steps that were sometimes time-consuming, repetitive, and mundane series of tasks. The customer had to provide vast amounts of detailed assessments to process their claims. But now, with technology leading the change, Artificial Intelligence has been applying advanced analysis and logic-based techniques to change and streamline the entire process radically.
How is AI accelerating claims and underwriting?
A claim is not a single document process. It involves many documents, which, when automated, can speed processing times, mitigate fraud, and reduce human intervention errors. Manual underwriting is incredibly drawn out because of the lengthy manual form-filling processes that increase the complexity. The complexity of the process makes it one of the most resource-intensive insurance processes and affects the efficiency and productivity of the organization adversely. Price inefficiencies, quality problems, and possible procedural errors characterize manual underwriting.
No matter what the source or form of the document, AI can easily capture, analyze, and validate what it determines as relevant data with incredibly reliable accuracy. This is done by utilizing enriched data analytics that identifies required data fields to pull out from each document type and determines where to feed that data. The resulting claims process is more accelerated and efficient. AI is algorithmically bound to be self-reliant and learn from previous mistakes. It can combine massive datasets in various formats, making them less prone to errors and more efficient, scalable, and fast. AI-based platforms speed up the underwriting process and post-sales services.
Giving the customer what they want, when they want!
The very customer-service-focused nature of the insurance industry has led to the evolution of a new kind of customer — one who is used to the convenience and speed of a digital world, constantly demanding anytime, anywhere access to the insurance provider. With its ability to create meaningful interactions between human beings and information systems, AI provides the much-required assistance with something like the ubiquitous chatbot.
AI enables chatbots to learn and understand each customer’s engagement and respond instantly. Chatbots can go beyond just answering questions, integrate with an organization’s information systems, and even manage personalized customer inquiries. This frees insurance agents to focus on more complex issues, improving time-to-resolution and overall customer satisfaction.
Keeping data secure
For insurers, keeping up with cyber threats is a never-ending struggle. Insurance processing requires the storage and management of vast amounts of data. Like any information repository, an insurer’s data management system is susceptible to cyberattacks and data breaches. Systems based on AI can quickly stem a costly and reputation-damaging cyberattack with its ability to study and identify existing data similarities and patterns and anticipate new cybersecurity dangers before they materialize, preventing both downtime and potential data loss. The future of claims and underwriting is moving towards AI-assisted, bringing better security and more advanced insurance coverage features.
With today’s rapidly advancing technologies and the ability to tap into ever-increasing data, AI has emerged as the critical differentiator in the insurance industry, as the insurance companies can reshape how they operate, becoming more efficient, fluid, and adaptive. With AI-based solutions, insurers can obtain a single view of their customers in near real-time and leverage it to improve customer relationships through enhanced interactions while realizing gains in both process efficiency and decision effectiveness. Insurance providers can also use AI to lower their expense ratios and create a better employee experience. What will be true for the future of insurance providers is that those with a robust technological strategy will continue to outperform others in the industry.
