The insurance industry has been undergoing transition and, hence digitalisation, at a heightened pace, especially across the Asia-Pacific region. Brought to a head due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this much-needed transformation is channeling the shift to online processes in lieu of in-person procedures. A study by GlobalData believes that abysmal credit growth conditions coupled with years of low-interest rates that were further worsened by the pandemic have prompted banks and insurers to search for newer revenue options.
Even a cursory glance at any industry is enough to prove how important it’s to adapt to technological advancement such as robotic process automation, blockchain, artificial intelligence, etc. in order to keep up with changing markets. Financial institutes have often been accused of not really applying themselves to gauging customers’ actual needs or providing right-fit processes and solutions, and definitely never on time. The sector was long overdue for a 360-degree turnaround. Which is exactly what it’s doing now.
A necessary change is also a tough one to make
Companies are observing how customers are increasingly reliant on digital services everywhere and, hence, providing an automated, customised, digitalised experience is the only way to remain relevant. How promptly you respond to meet your customer’s demands precisely as they like it, is how you’re going to be perceived as a reliable organisation going forward. Hence, companies are now focussed on upgrading in order to register renewed growth rates, as declared by a McKinsey study. While digitisation, and the resultant automation, is projected to drive development and profits in this sector, online non-life product sales are already showing a healthy 20 percent spurt.
Choose the right partner
At the same time, the key is to remember that change is tough, especially if you don’t have the right partner. These legacy firms should be prepared for innumerable obstacles in their journey unless they are ready to partner with an efficient InsurTech company. The latter will not only offer the right strategies, but also walk them through the entire transformative process while supplying every necessary tool and service.
How automation can transform business
According to a Gartner study, the automation market is projected to be valued at approximately $600 billion in 2022, thanks to its explosive growth rate in the last couple of years. Unlike its sister domains like banking and financial services, insurance has severely lagged behind in the adoption of automation. Now some companies are only beginning to experiment with robotic process automation and intelligent automation programmes, and the marked positive impact is not going unnoticed. So, the industry may finally be poised for an automation ramp-up.
If that is what happens, here’s how the insurance landscape will transform for the better:
● Companies will be equipped to offer a more personalised customer experience
Insurers, or for that matter all financial service providers, will learn that catering to the specificities of each customer is really easy when you have access to the right data at the right time. So, while lengthy yet relevant activities such as anti-money laundering will be performed in the backend, and promptly at that, automation will bridge the gap between service providers and customers by allowing the former to focus completely on the latter.
● Inbuilt automation tools will make technological transformation seamless
Once these tools are woven into the fabric of the present IT landscape, better integration between all the necessary systems of the companies will be easy. That’s just the nature of automation.
● Increased profits are direct result of intelligent automation processes
Insurance has for too long been unsure of its true potential. With automation taking care of many necessary yet cumbersome backend processes, companies will finally find the time to dedicate to the actual transformation of their businesses. They will be prompted to respond to market dynamics and customers, and thus learn how to remain relevant while multiplying their profits.
● Changing nature of employees in the business
One area that automation will impact very distinctly will be the one of employment. Many jobs will cease to exist while several new ones will take their spots. Employees will no longer be doing mind-numbing boring tasks; those will all get relegated to the automative processes. So now these people will finally find the time to chart more sophisticated and customised offerings that will promise and deliver better customer service.
These are very interesting times for the industry or tough ones; depending on the perspective adopted. With the correct InsurTech partner by one’s side and the right automation tools in the system, the world may just be up for the taking.
(The writer is Founder and CEO, Artivatic.AI-insurertech startup)
