ILC ARTICLE

AI on Wishman’s wish-list

16th August 2022

EIS Senior Alliance Director Paul Wishman has emphasised the value of technology in customer satisfaction and customer retention within the insurance sector.

He said that automation and artificial intelligence can remove the inefficiencies from a claims journey that could frustrate policyholders and lead them to seeking new carriers.

Paul said, “I can attest that AI can replace rules-based applications, which frequently require manual interventions, and introduce enormous efficiencies. And it just makes sense to leverage AI for decision-making across the claims value chain, including fraud detection.

“Plus, insurance carriers are inundated with structured and unstructured data. By leveraging AI and cloud-native technologies, carriers can better ingest, analyse, and instantly make better decisions, minimising overhead and, most importantly, offering claimants an improved customer experience.”

He was speaking following a report from Accenture that underlined the value of claims experience to customers. It found that 31% of claimants were not satisfied with their home and auto insurance claims-handling experiences over the past two years, with settlement speed (60%) and closing process (45%) the key issues.

Of those dissatisfied, 30% have moved insurers as a result while 47% were considering doing so. Between them, they could represent as much as $170bn in premiums over the next five year.

Paul concluded, “While the Accenture report focuses primarily on the impact AI can have on improving claims, many other complementary technologies also can help insurers align with the claims value chain and make sure you’re responsive to customer needs – all of which help improve the customer experience as well as overall satisfaction.

“But carriers’ interest in improving the claims experience is also a matter of healthy self-interest because dissatisfaction with the claims experience is a primary reason customers switch insurers.”