Insurance is a low engagement purchase for many, especially motor insurance. Policyholders frequently avoid reading the policy details, they make assumptions and don’t take time to consider what the cover actually provides. This lack of understanding extends further by the infrequency that a policyholder makes a claim. It’s a distressing situation, which doesn’t occur very often, using a service that the person didn’t pay much attention to when they bought it!

Helping navigate all of these concerns is very definitely a person to person experience. Whilst consumers happily defer to technology, preferring self-service checkouts to actual people for example, an insurance claim is quite different. The distress or crisis, coupled with the lack of understanding makes personal reassurance so important.

However that doesn’t mean that what our claims people are doing hasn’t already changed and will continue to do so. It’s a question of bringing the best of both worlds; harnessing the efficiency and accuracy advantages of technology with experienced claims people to drive a better customer experience and better commercial outcomes for the insurer.

Insurance organisations frequently hold great deals of data about their customers, lifestyles and habits, locked up in large structured databases. AI gives the ability to make sense of unstructured data, gathered from multiple information sources, which is helping insurance organisation better anticipate customer needs by combining data in new ways.

At Coplus, in our world of claims handling, AI is becoming more evident in use for diagnosis which speeds up resolution for the customer. However the power is in bringing together this enhanced data and understanding with experienced people. McKinsey used the term ‘digitally enabled human touch’ in a report Claims 2030: Dream or Reality and this strongly resonates with our own philosophy.

Rather than consolidating roles from human to artificial intelligence, we believe there will be more organisations investing in new data support mechanisms in claims which enable faster, better decision making, to support human interactions. Whilst automation in claims may have some applications we definitely can’t replace our people. It is clear that the uncertainty and concerns customers face in a claim are only eased by talking it through with an experienced and empathetic person.

One of the ways we’ve done this within motor claims is by considering first call resolution. With the objective of resolving the customers’ needs within the first contact what information do we need or what processes should we follow so the customer won’t need to contact us, or another party within the claim again? It’s a powerful tool for designing processes and technology in claims.

This approach sets a framework by which technology is used to help us answer questions and gain understanding as quickly as possible within the claims journey. Data can be organised and interpreted by AI but that doesn’t replace the value a person brings, rather it enhances it.

It’s not a case of one being better than the other, human or machine. It’s about designing systems that bring the benefits of both to make efficient, empathetic decisions to minimise the disruption for the customer, and drive down costs for the insurer.

If you would like to know more about claims handling at Coplus, get in touch or call 01603 729310.