Introduction

If COVID has taught us anything it is that technology is the future and we should adapt our businesses to the emerging trends to better serve our customers.

Advancements in technology are making every industry’s workflow more efficient. The same is true for insurance; getting an insurance quote has now become as easy as pressing a button, managing coverage from a mobile device is replacing paper insurance, and all this is just the tip of the iceberg.

While some insurance companies have already made the shift to new technologies; many are still looking for new technologies to get that competitive edge. Here are some emerging technologies that can help an insurance company get that edge:

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

AI has seen rapid growth over the last few years. According to an article by Mckinsey, “AI has become more prevalent with algorithm creation becoming more commoditized to make the core processes more predictive” this is true as insurance companies need to provide unique experiences to their customers to meet the high demands of modern customers.

Personalization is only possible by utilizing the large amount of consumer data that can be leveraged by AI that can create an experience unique experience as per the customer’s behavior and habits.

AI will also allow insurance companies to improve distribution, underwriting, claims, etc. allowing the customer to quickly access data while cutting down human interaction. Thus, leading to more accurate reporting and higher productivity.

Machine Learning is another aspect that works alongside AI allowing businesses to train their model to better adapt to their business’s practice. Moreover, ML can help insurance providers in speeding up and improve their claims processing by automating it. Once a company’s documents are present and accessible via the cloud, they can be analyzed using pre-programmed algorithms. Thereby, improving speed and accuracy.

Predictive Analytics

As the name suggests, Predictive Analysis allows companies to collect a variety of data about their customers, visualize it, and predict customer behavior. Furthermore, this will allow in the creation of better products and services as per the emerging trends.

But it does not stop there, predictive analytics is being utilized by insurance companies in many other ways which include:

1. Trend anticipation
2. Risk identification of fraud
3. Risk & pricing selection
4. Outliner claims identification

Cloud

Insurance companies handle a large amount of sensitive customer data on a daily basis and keeping it all on-premises using legacy technologies can not only get expensive but has certain risks involved with it as well.

All these changes as the cloud start to mature, will give companies the ability to launch new products at a faster rate while providing better customer service. Moreover, the cloud will also provide insurance providers with easy scalability along with the computing power to fully analyze and make use of large data sets.

Examples of cloud service providers are, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Digital Ocean, and many more.

Chatbots

Utilizing the power of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning a chatbot can be created that can interact with customers effortlessly and the best part is it is available 24/7. Thus, saving time, money, and resources; while allowing employees to focus on other important tasks.

You might be thinking, what can a chatbot do? Well, a bot can help a customer find the right claim as per their requirements, guide them through a claim process, etc. human intervention is reserved for complex queries.

As per an analysis done by Finance Digest, it is said that 95% of all customer interactions will be chatbot based by 2025.

Blockchain

Blockchain is an ever-growing list of digital records in chronological order and is linked and secured by cryptographic tools. Moreover, due to its decentralized nature, it keeps a permanent record of all previously confirmed transactions.

Although designed to operate as a digital ledger, blockchain has started to gain popularity other industries including insurance can start adopting the same to more effectively manage customer data while ensuring safety and consistency. Blockchain will also be able to verify a customer’s identity; possible due to its zero trust security which will help in the creation of a more secure environment that protects from hackers.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Data sharing process can be automated with the help of IoT devices (smart home devices, wearable technology, etc.) which will furthermore, help in better determining rates, minimizing risks, as well as loss prevention.

The increased adoption of IoT devices has allowed more customer data to be shared. Thereby, giving a more accurate understanding of an individual’s needs and risks at the time of purchase as well as when the policy is active. 5G an emerging technology allows the transfer of this data at very low latency allowing companies to provide real-time services to the client.

Conclusion

Learning about these new and emerging technologies is one thing, but implementing it is a whole other task. Many companies are resistant to making the change from legacy systems because of the fear that they will have to shut down their operations which would lead to a huge financial loss or the ROI won’t be beneficial for the organization.

But all of these are just myths. Find out more about How legacy systems are killing your business.