Financial Services is Evolving. Are You Keeping Up?

According to a recent report by Accenture, 66% of executives in the insurance industry say that digital transformation is rapidly accelerating.

McKinsey points out that the industry's general product release time ranges from nine months to two years. That's substantially slower than most companies in other industries that deploy daily and test products on a monthly basis. Insurance companies that don't act now to adopt modern practices and technologies will quickly fall behind.

However, it isn’t a zero-sum game. Both startups and legacy institutions have a lot to learn from each other. Established companies bring consumer trust and deep expertise, while startups bring new technologies and perspectives. As Thomson Reuters puts it, fintech startups and banks have benefitted by coming together instead of competing with another.

Here are three things you can do to make sure your company stays ahead of the curve and continues to evolve:

Win the War for Talent

It’s no secret that insurance companies are facing an insurance talent crisis. The majority of insurance workers will be retiring in the next 10-15 years. There currently aren't many candidates interested in taking over those roles.

That may be due to a perception that the industry is “boring." Or, that it lacks the flexibility and forward-thinking mindset that appeals to today’s tech workers. As PricewaterhouseCoopers explains, traditional insurance companies and insurtech startups have different ideas about how business decisions and risk tolerance should be handled.

Insurance companies can address this issue by embracing new technologies that make employees' lives easier. For example, document overload makes it difficult for front-line insurance staff to get the information they need to help customers. So, they may benefit from using an AI-powered knowledge management system like ProNavigator. 

ProNavigator uses machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to find timely answers to insurance questions across thousands of documents. This even includes those insurance documents that are updated frequently.

This reduces the amount of time insurance workers spend on tedious tasks like calls to managers. With more time on their hands, they'll be freed up for more rewarding conversations with their customers. ProNavigator can save staff as much as 5 to 10 hours per person every week. This will increase their sense of achievement and job satisfaction.

Minimize Operational Losses

Insurance operations losses due to claims leakage is another area where insurers who embrace AI-powered tech are outpacing their competitors. IBM reports that the insurance industry loses as much as $30 billion per year due to inefficient claims processing.

Many insurers overpay because they don’t have enough information to determine the accuracy of a claim. Another reason may be because information discovery and management is at odds with the need to thoroughly review policy documentation.

Machine learning tools that are specifically trained to understand insurance terms can help insurance staff quickly find and interpret dense or confusing documents. Additionally, with the right AI tools, staff can predict potential leakage as each claim comes. They can then allocate claims to the right handler based on priority, skills, and experience.

Keep Customers Happy

Primed by their personalized experiences with companies like Venmo and Amazon, modern consumers have come to expect fast and convenient digital experiences. And they’re not about to let financial services providers off the hook.

Already, many fintech companies are leading the way in improving customer experiences in insurance. Innovative app designs with engaging visuals and plain language make it easy for customers to understand how they’re spending their money.

Australian neobank Up explains how they chose to use conversational language during the sign-up process (i.e., “What is your mobile number?”), rather than a traditional application form. Their goal was for customers to be able to open an account, verify their identity, and start using Apple Pay in minutes.

There’s an opportunity for insurtech to do the same with the insurance customer journey. With AI-based tools that incorporate optical character recognition (OCR), companies can parse complex insurance policies and immediately explain the information within them to the customer.

Customers don’t want to wait around to get the information or services they need. Insurers need to be able to deliver fast underwriting decisions, respond quickly to support requests, and make continuous product improvements to stay competitive.

Bring Your Team up to Speed

There’s a common thread between reducing operational losses, winning the war for talent, and keeping customers happy. That would be technology. A thoughtful and meaningful digital transformation journey will make all the difference in your business productivity.

With the help of an AI-powered knowledge management system like ProNavigator, your front-line workers can do their jobs more efficiently. That will improve their own job satisfaction and deliver a better insurance customer experience. 

Contact us to see how it works.

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