Increasing use of artificial intelligence in customer service of insurance purchasers in India
Insurance is merely a promise written on a piece of paper and while paying the premium the purchaser gets no tangible product in hand, except an assurance that the insurer will come forward in case of any unfortunate incident taking place as per the terms of the policy to make the loss good and provide financial indemnity.
Words are not enough to describe what sort of agony, pain and mental disturbance the policyholder must be facing when he goes to file an insurance claim. Keeping the above point in mind, insurance is a business in which the trust factor between the buyer and the seller should be manifold more than what is there in other businesses, better customer service becomes a key pillar for an insurance company.
Also, the tariff driven wordings, IRDAI insisting insurers to keep the policy wordings same and more or less similar coverages and riders on offer there is a very less scope of product differentiation which can be created in the market.
The major differentiation can be created amongst insurance companies are in other indirect but extremely important fields and customer service is no doubt one of them. Artificial intelligence in the form of chatbots and virtual assistance has already gained momentum in insurance market of India which is currently used by most of the insurers but there is lot more to it.
In this current Article we will discuss about a certain points which are increasing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in customer service of insurance purchasers in India.
- Better Pricing of insurance: With the launch of Pay as you go usage-based motor insurance by TATA AIG recently, in no time, we will see a rat race amongst insurers to offer similar products in the markets. We can see the same competition in lifestyle-based pricing of health insurance products as well in coming future. Although at a first glance fine tuned pricing of motor insurance products may seem far related to customer service but with this product maturing in the market this is going to benefit the end customer and serve him well only. This product instead of relying on tariff based rating structure and discounting it further will fix premium based on the vehicle usage and driving habits.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) will be used to analyse the enormous amount of data transmitted through the IoT sensors installed in the vehicle to achieve optimum and equitable pricing. As large amount of data will be involved, this analysis will require machinery capabilities free from human intervention which will be delivered by AI. Insurers in developed markets have started using AI to develop underwriting models for achieving more fairness and objectivity in pricing.
- Faster Claim Settlement: AI has already started finding its place in claims department of insurance companies in the form of virtual adjusters and online interfaces. More than half of the claims insurance company receives are obvious and don’t need any human intervention for settlement, these can be quickly investigated by artificial intelligence systems and thus reducing the overall turnaround time and increasing customer satisfaction drastically. Additionally, with the use of AI systems there is a great chance of reducing the fraudulent claims which is already bleeding the insurance industry.
- Providing Personalized Coverage: Insurance purchasers very often complaint about being exposed to too much of information and not getting insurance products personalized enough to suit their needs well. Even if they visit an insurers website to conclude a policy purchase, they cannot complete it confidently on account of over information and less personalization.
- AI can be of great help in gathering very relevant information from consumers over a web interface and suggesting them personalized coverages, sum insured and premium payment mode. With the emergence of web aggregators employing AI techniques customers are now finding it a bit easy to compare price and coverage offered by various market players but there is lot of fine tuning necessary in this field as well.
- Enriching Customer experience: AI powered Chatbots and virtual assistants have already changed the way customers interact and communicate with various departments of insurance companies but further research and employment of technology will find a place in coming time to enhance user experience.
- Although the traditional way of interaction has changed in almost every insurance company, need is now to make the interactions more user sensitive and personalized. Rather than going through the repeated typical mechanised conversations AI should now be used to be more solution oriented which can truly enrich the customer satisfaction and result it in customer delight.
- Creating Value: The systematic use of artificial intelligence systems in various departmentsof an insurance company will reduce many perennial problems insurance companies face. AI can find a very important place in operations like policy issuance, sending timely renewal notices etc. It can help in marketing and sales as well, used to pitch apt products and coverages gathering proper information from social media, analyse them and facilitate sales.
- Channel management and resource allocation is another area where AI can be a game changer for the insurance companies. Product development and regulatory compliance will also get benefitted from AI in terms of designing products in need and successfully file them with the regulator. All these will create immense value to the end customer either in a direct or indirect manner.
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