The insurance industry has remained unfazed despite the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in policyholders and stockholders became its primary growth driver. But for many in the sector, meeting the market needs eventually became challenging.
Fortunately, they are embracing automation to optimize processes, which is an excellent step towards the right direction for insurers and policyholders alike. So, let’s look at the areas automation is transforming within the insurance industry.
Business Efficiency
With automation, things can be done faster, even with fewer employees. Fewer employees mean smaller office space to rent or buy. It also translates into fewer office supplies and equipment to purchase. In short, insurance automation lessens operating costs.
It can even improve employee satisfaction and performance since it reduces the workload. They will have more energy and time to finish their tasks sooner than expected. Monday and Friday laziness will no longer be a problem.
Client Research
The Insurance Bureau regulates insurance companies. So changes in the regulating body’s policies may lead to business process reorganization. Otherwise, they will have to face the effects of non-compliance.
They have to be more careful with name and PEP (politically exposed persons) sanctions screening. This process is crucial to maintaining business integrity and market standing. It is necessary to filter clients and identify those who may harm them. These can be persons or companies sanctioned for proven or alleged criminal activities or PEPs with corruption issues.
Workflow automation can make process changes less stressful. For example, they can automate client reviews to lower the number of false-positive clients they manually handle. It enhances the accuracy of their screening process and insurance surveillance.
Other manual tasks may include compliance checks, customer data validation, and security operations. Automation through Artificial Intelligence or AI-driven Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can reduce the time spent doing these.
Policy Management
Automation of policy management processes is also possible. All insurance policy information must be relayed to the policyholder and updated in business systems. These may include policy updates and customer requests for information changes.
Businesses may use machine learning (ML) for their automation solutions. It can extract and classify inbound changes from different sources, such as emails and faxes. From there, it will turn them into structured data, and all required changes can be done automatically in the system and documents.
Claims Processing
Claims processing is integral to client satisfaction and insurance business success. But it is also full of manual processes, which can be tiring for insurers and clients. The agent must gather and review data upon request before taking action. These may include police reports, photos, and medical certificates, depending on the nature of the policy.
Automating claims workflow by combining RPA, ML, and human expertise can streamline claims-related processes and reduce errors and costs. For example, an RPA bot extracts data and input it into the system when processing a loss claims request. Once complete, another bot will review, validate, and approve the claim. Otherwise, it will be routed to the agent until all information and processes are completed.
Underwriting
The underwriting process includes data gathering from different sources, analysis, and risk mitigation strategies. It usually takes a few weeks to finish, but automation can streamline the whole process. It is one of the best transformations in the industry, improving underwriting efficiency and accuracy.
Key Takeaways
The insurance industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the financial sector. But it has to keep up with the clients’ increased demand and evolving needs. Thankfully, processes can be automated to ensure and enhance productivity and quality of services. Automation simplifies everything amid the ongoing digital transformation.