Table of Contents
01 Scaling CX with Conversational AI Platforms
02 The Insurance Monthly Roundup
03 Digital Outlook: Insurance Transformation in 2022
04 Insurtechs are Tapping Tier 2 & Tier 3 Cities in 2022
05 Insurtech and The Gig Economy

Scaling CX with Conversational AI Platforms 

From underwriting to fraud detection, Conversational AI enables the Intelligent Insurance enterprise. Mantra’s four guiding principles for creating Conversational CX:

Conversate 

Chatbots are perfect augments to human support, and can bring 1:1 communications to scale. Customers hate being made to repeat themselves to multiple agents for the same issue. Instead, being able to engage in a humanlike back-and-forth exchange increases the likelihood of completing a purchase by as much as 45%. Combining NLP with self-learning models and large training sets can help imitate human interactions, recognize speech & text inputs, and translate meanings into any local vernacular

Channelize 

A deeper omnichannel messaging approach should always bring responsive support first to the customer, i.e., finding the customer before they look for you. 60% of repetitive queries across all messaging platforms can be automated, and reduces time to response by 95%. Carriers can optimize support staffing costs by front-lining their bots through intelligent self-service automation.

Contextualize 

Carriers handle at least 3X more data than they did five years before. To capture context from this data is crucial for transforming simple interactions into natural conversations that bring out winning outcomes. Customers, especially value being able to pick up with an Insurer where they left off, and appreciate when that Insurer recognizes that it’s dealt with them before.

Customize 

Conversational AI enables personalization through NLP processing speed, machine learning models and data availability. AI brings the added ability to leverage predictive real-time, actionable insights for driving intelligent customer engagement. A proactive approach to tailoring the customer’s journey means your team spends less time in channel planning and more in audience planning.

However, AI remains an underutilized tool, despite the adoption boost, among larger carriers. High-performing teams across other industries are 93% more likely to have agents working across multiple channels, and have three times more agents doing so. Agents empowered by AI can increase productivity and boost sales performance with contextual insights — like the customer’s email, order history, or why they last reached out.

Elevating Conversational CX In Insurance

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The Insurance Monthly Roundup

A quick roundup of the month’s insurance and insurtech news.

(India)

1. Secure Now raised $6 Mn from Apis Insurtech. The company plans to utilize this funding to scale up the customer base to more than 1 mn within the next three years.
2. Samadhan, an insurtech startup has raised ₹ 5.5 Cr in pre-series-A round and plans to use this infusion to upgrade its product offering to an app providing claim management, insurance portfolio analysis and policy servicing features.
3. South Indian Bank has partnered with HDFC Life to offer its customers access to the insurer’s life products, which include protection, savings and investments, retirement, and critical illness solutions.
4. ICICI Lombard has teamed with Clove Dental to offer dental insurance that allows clients to receive cashless treatment for all dental treatment charges covered by the OPD benefit.
5. Bimaplan has collaborated with Credit Wise Capital (CWC), a non-bank lender, to provide affordable insurance on two-wheeler loans. With this alliance, the Insurtech startup aims to provide affordable lending to Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities. 

(Global)

1. Denver-based insurtech AgentSync has raised $75 Mn in a Series B round. The company plans to upgrade its producer management platform and to expand its suite of solutions for agencies, managing general agents, and carriers.
2. Sweden based Paydrive, has partnered with Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the global leader in smartphone telematics, to upgrade its unique pricing engine with new driving data and rating insights received from CMT’s Tag IoT devices.
3. Singapore-based Zensung launched Parrot – an AI based mobile app which allows users to buy a ‘Go Green’ motor insurance policy where they can monitor their trips and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
4. Goosehead has partnered with Ethos Life to provide its consumers a digital, hassle-free experience that does not require a blood test or medical exam making the process faster.
5. US-based software company Lighthouse has formed a strategic alliance with Topa Insurance Company to provide tenants with security deposit insurance,  which will eliminate the need for large cash security deposits, resulting in more affordable residential rents.

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Digital Outlook: Insurance Transformation in 2022

With the majority of India’s population remaining uninsured, the insurtech industry in India has aroused investors’ and international peers’ attention.

India is the second-largest insurance technology market in Asia-Pacific, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, accounting for 35 percent of the US$ 3.66 billion in insurtech-focused venture investments made in the country.

According to the India InsurTech Association (IIA), VC and PE firms invested millions in the insurtech sector in 2021, with much more expected in 2022. However, there may be minimal financial impediments to the growth of that industry.

Life insurers reported a 22.2 percent increase in new premiums in September 2021, compared to 2.9 percent in September 2020. Because of the quick and convenient insurance process, digital insurance has become a popular alternative among policyholders. Insurtech has lowered the risk of purchasing insurance by increasing transparency through digital platforms that allow policyholders to weigh the pros and cons of a policy and customize it to their own needs.

The future of insurtech is bright, as younger generations choose to insure themselves and their family, thanks to advancements in technology such as AI and 5G. For insurance businesses, this provides additional market opportunity. So, in the coming year, insurance executives will focus on three major areas: hyper-personalization and AI, strong connections with digital pioneers, and insuring the “missing middle.”

Insurers are working hard to improve their processes so that they can provide more personalised and quick solutions to their youthful clients.

Conversational Intelligence: The Next Big Thing In Customer Experience

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Insurtechs Are Tapping Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities in 2022

The insurance sector has been on a roller coaster journey for the past two decades. Despite the fact that global demand for insurance increased dramatically in the first wave of Covid, the insurance industry had significant setbacks in the second wave as a result of higher claims for deaths and Covid-19 medical bills. With so much unpredictability on the horizon, being prepared for a contingency has become a must.

Today’s insurance executives want to put more money into their company’s future and improve their processes. In fact, in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, health penetration has increased by thrice. Insurtech is a new developing trend in the insurance industry that is gaining traction. Today’s insurers aim to build an analytics foundation and produce accurate data to meet policyholders’ rising expectations.

With the pandemic changing policyholder expectations, insurers are attempting to deliver cheap health policies through a monthly subscription model. The entry hurdle has been lowered, allowing insurers to recruit younger consumers from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities who want to invest in themselves and their families.

Speed has become a significant distinction for insurers in this age of “instant everything,” as consumers demand a quick process and credit determinations in a matter of seconds. When compared to dealing with traditional agents, a digital insurance platform is the go-to option because they provide quick service with only a tap.

Thanks to venture capitalists’ investments in insurtech enterprises, insurers have set a new year’s objective of expanding into tier 2 and 3 cities. Financing and new technologies, however, are insufficient to achieve their goals. Insurtechs require a strategy for delivering their value propositions, as well as in-depth analysis of how their goods and services will fulfil customers’ needs and add value to their offers.

Insurers are swiftly shifting to a pay-per-use model for premium collection, putting a larger emphasis on loss prevention.

With increased insurance awareness in recent years, more people, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, are opting for insurance. The majority of the population in these cities is untapped and uncovered, thus modern insurtechs are well aware that there is a massive economic opportunity beneath in these areas. They’re not leaving any stone unturned in rethinking their objectives and making insurance more accessible to everyone.

India’s evolving Insurance landscape during the Pandemic

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Insurtech and The Gig Economy

One of the hallmarks of the digital disruption period has been the rise and expansion of the gig worker arena, or short-term employment done by freelancers and independent contractors all over the world. In the labour market, the gig economy is gradually gaining popularity. These jobs, which may have started as side hustles or secondary income streams, have expanded into the primary source of income for many people, notwithstanding COVID-19 market developments. While gig economy workers benefit from scheduling flexibility and independence, many of them pay a steep price for it: no holiday pay, no health benefits, and a lack of employment security.

As governments around the world urge for new laws to safeguard gig workers, a number of insurtech businesses have sprung up to capitalize on this growing labour market niche and offer unique solutions that meet the needs of both employees and the platforms that employ them. These organizations have been experimenting with innovative ways to personalize insurance coverage using emerging technology such as AI and chatbots to cater to the gig economy.

Despite the fact that everyone requires health insurance, just a few insurtechs and traditional insurers now provide individual coverage. Finding adequate coverage for a freelancer’s work equipment or other utilities, on the other hand, is far more difficult. As a result, there is a significant market gap where new product deployment has the greatest potential. Insurtechs have begun to focus on three areas of insurance in relation to the gig economy that can aid with market penetration: vehicle insurance, home insurance, and equipment and liability insurance.

Following the pandemic, consumer behaviour has shifted, with a greater reliance on deliveries, putting even more pressure on firms to negotiate long-term price and pay agreements for their staff. This shift focuses on worker rights, such as what sorts of safeguards companies should provide to all of their employees, particularly for platforms that rely on freelance workers as part of their business model.

Insurtechs can provide innovative insurance solutions that are well-suited to this workforce, such as short-term, pay-as-you-go policies comprising professional liability insurance, accident insurance, and income protection for those who require financial stability in the event of illness or accident.

The rapid growth of the gig economy, however, necessitates a more thorough examination of the social protections that these workers deserve, as well as what happens if those policies are not implemented. While it’s difficult to predict how the gig worker market will evolve in the future, market trends and labour activism both indicate that the insurance business has a bright future. Insurers should look for partnerships and products that address the industry’s protection needs while also allowing for the flexibility and scalability that the gig economy necessitates.

CX Trends 2021: How Businesses are Winning Customer Experience Moments
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