Altus Insurance whitepaper spreads - Flipbook - Page 28
Driverless claims or AI
augmentation? (cont.)
Ways in which we expect AI to transform the
future operating model for claims.
Predictions of how AI will influence our lives in the
future range from the everyday (powering chatbots) to
the apocalyptic (the extinction of humanity). But the
reality is the application of AI in the claims process
is likely to be a much more mundane, but no less
disruptive, a昀昀air.
At its most advanced, AI could be used to fully
automate customer interactions in lower level,
‘simple’ claims – everything from notifying the loss
and applying policy conditions to quantifying the
losses and triggering the settlement of the claim.
With the work controlled and administered through
an AI-powered ‘decision engine’, this could all take
place with a single conversation between insured and
the insurer and although it is likely to be limited to
straightforward claims, this kind of process starts to
deliver on those customer service demands.
While AI promises to carve out a role across the claims
landscape, for more complex claims and for cases
which really require human interaction and empathy
with the customer, there will always be a need for the
human touch.
But beyond automating processes, AI can also be
an enabler for new propositions, such as those
which incorporate IoT devices like telematics and
smart home apps, with the insurer becoming the
proactive partner when engaging with customers
following a loss.
As understanding of this technology improves, we
may see increased insurer engagement with the
technology vendors that are already operating in
the ‘narrow AI’ space, or alternatively trying to build
solutions themselves. Similarly, the larger scale
claims and policy admin platform vendors that
have typically stuck to the same broad structures
and functionality, may 昀椀nd themselves needing to
incorporate AI into their planning and their systems
as well as looking at how AI tools could and probably
should become part of their core propositions.
Some may be looking at this in a similar way to the
last wave of robotic process automation when the
focus was on how to automate processes across
operations, with the goal of reducing costs. While
this is an understandable motivation, it ignores the
bigger prize up for grabs – transforming the claims
experience to generate trust and loyalty from the
customer base.
This suggests a general lack of innovation, but this
isn’t surprising given how new this technology is.
There is a risk, however, that we are missing the
point with arti昀椀cial intelligence and its potential to
transform.
“It will not be the solution to
every problem, but perhaps AI
can be applied to help insurers
understand the problems they
haven’t yet discovered, read
trends before the human claims
handler has started their analysis,
and act as another intelligent
deputy to the claims manager or
claims director that wants to be
on the front foot with the strategic
management of the claims
function. ”
Sarah Bateman,
Head of Data and AI, Altus Consulting.
If a generative AI solution could be applied to data
across an insurer’s systems, its MI sources, and
gather intelligence from the outside world, it could
be given a wider remit to analyse, problem-solve, and
create proposals based on the organisation’s strategic
aims and objectives. This may well sit further down
the roadmap, but moving from a narrow to a more
general application of AI could be the game-changer
for an insurer and its customers.
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