As messaging platforms become increasingly popular due to the advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence, chatbots have seen a massive surge in their usage. Today, they have grown integral to many business functions focused on enhancing customer experience and modernizing businesses.

According to a study, chatbots are predicted to save more than $8 billion in business costs globally by 2022, while offering lower turnaround time, round-the-clock customer service, and faster resolution. Due to their consumer-facing benefits, chatbots have many serviceable areas across industries, particularly in insurance processes, these bots are poised to introduce incredible value across the insurance chain.

In doing so, these advanced AI bots promise to simplify the sophisticated nature of insurance transactions, most of which are have been conventionally characterized by long and arduous processes, such as answering long-winded questionnaires, filling in forms manually, conducting time-intensive background checks, delivering satisfactory levels of customer service. As insurance companies increasingly espouse the chances AI offers for innovation, they stand to win the hearts of their customers.

The Need & Use Case of Chatbots in the Insurance Industry

There are a host of factors and colluding circumstances that are shaping up and fueling the growth of chatbots today, including the rise of digital transformation, the superabundance of apps causing an explosion in the ecosystem, and groundbreaking advancements in cognitive computing and other related technologies like AI and ML. Coupled with user fascination of automated workflows and conversational UIs, these bots have increasingly caught on, causing the global chatbot market to soar in value at a CAGR of 24.3% while being expected to reach a total market value of USD $1.25 billion by 2025.

With such a volatile start, experts predict the evolution of chatbots will bring about a complete reimagining of the insurance industry over the course of the next decade. A perfect use case in line with the coming times would look like the scenario below:

Dave is visiting his cousins and is therefore out of town. While booking his tickets, his personal digital assistant collates different travel insurance estimates, cooperates with the chatbot of the travel insurer, shows a premium to Dave and, after receiving confirmation, makes the payment. The digital assistant also makes arrangements for a vehicle for Dave to drive once he lands at his destination by cooperating with the chatbot of the auto insurer’s agent and offers Dave a quote for the same.

After getting off at his destination, Dave begins to drive to his cousins’ and meets with a minor accident while parking the car in a parking lot. When Dave stops driving the car as a result of it, he receives a call from the chatbot of the auto insurer. The chatbot then apprises Dave of the next steps that he should take like taking pictures of the area of the car impacted by the accident and the surrounding area.

As soon as Dave resume driving the car, his personal digital assistant informs him of the total damage and also notifies him that the claim has been approved. Since the car didn’t undergo heavy damage and could still be driven comfortably, Dave makes it to his cousins safe and sound without having to worry about if his claim was going to be approved or not.

The Possibilities of Chatbot Implementation for Automated Workflows

It is evident that chatbots help solve one of the most crucial and important issues of any customer-facing business — they provide them with an effective communication channel for the clients without having to set up a dedicated support team for handling their service requests. Chatbots help you avoid the massive costs of setting up the infrastructure and housing a great number of qualified agents to handle those service requests. Smart enough to know where the limit of their capabilities, these bots can reroute more sophisticated requests to live agents as well, minimizing their need and thus allowing for a much lesser expense.

This way, automated insurance agents or conversational interfaces can be a huge boost to medium and large-sized insurance companies, many of whom are often short on providing a great customer experience. Arriving on the back of insurance tech advancements, the automated insurance agent is the beacon of great client service that insurance organizations can utilize to remain significant in the market. And, as popular notion since the arrival of the chatbot technology has suggested, businesses that utilize these bots smartly for client support will enjoy elevated levels of operational execution and a huge boost in their bottom line.

Machine Learning Applications for Data

For automated insurance agents to take the next step forward in the industry, businesses will have to drive their utilization, and better enjoy the benefits of artificial intelligence to examine and collect data from numerous channels like emails, social media, and online postings to offer consumers more targeted and relevant insurance products.

These systems can thus assist insurance organizations in growing and improving their revenue, saving costs, and making informed decisions. These also help enhance the level of customer service provided and, as a result, inordinately boost customer experience by the function of reducing their wait times for getting responses to their queries or getting status updates about their claims.

Deploying and embedding machine learning tools within digital insurance agents help make more accurate predictions by analyzing available customer data and performing predictive analytics. Say, for example, if an insurance organization has the requisite data for online insurance policy purchases, then they can narrow down their offerings, making them more targeted in the process, by basing them on customer preferences or the demographics that they are meant for. The claims department of the organization can then evaluate the data patterns for any discrepancies and discover fraudulent activities.

Conclusion

The rise of the automated insurance agent is going to inevitable help insurance companies open up the market, save huge amounts of capital, and make way for new job positions. With companies increasingly implementing these automated agents, the need of marketers, digital analysts, and developers has seen a steep rise. Insurance organizations will also need technically-adept professionals with a firm grasp on machine learning, automation programs, and analytics to manage their online sales.

With advancements in technology taking place meteorically, insurance companies not oriented to automation are feeling the heat. The advancements in technology are also causing buyer expectations to soar and businesses wishing to remain significant in the years to come will have to adopt these new technologies lest they want to risk going out of business.

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Alex likes to write about anything related to technology, marketing and gadgets. He sometimes reviews the latest tech and also writes on other blogs.