3 Examples of Intelligent Automation in Insurance

Intelligent automation happens when robotic process automation (RPA) meets artificial intelligence (AI), bringing simple actions and cognitive tasks together for lightning-fast processing.

Intelligent automation in insurance is a powerful tool that reduces both human error and the need to perform repetitive tasks manually. Imagine AI extracting data from an invoice then a bot entering that data into a software program. Such efficiency fuels the kind of high-speed customer experience today’s policyholders expect.

And providing a modern customer experience gives leading insurers an edge. According to EY, the claims experience directly impacts 87% of decisions to stay with a provider.

For insurers tackling competitive pressures along with budget constraints, rising regulatory requirements, and workforce churn, intelligent automation is a timesaver, force multiplier, and secret weapon.

Insurance companies use intelligent automation technologies like RPA, AI, intelligent document processing (IDP) and machine learning (ML) to keep their customers happy and the employees who serve them productive.

Automation streamlines and accelerates business processes. This means teams can accomplish more with fewer resources and resolve issues faster for a better customer experience.

AI also uses machine learning to improve processes over time. When companies see increased reliability and accuracy, it helps control operating costs and reduces the potential for costly errors.

Data fabric ties all of the pieces together, so insurance firms can continue to leverage the legacy systems they’ve already invested in and adapt to new industry developments at the speed of change.

Intelligent automation, also sometimes referred to as intelligent process automation, drives insurance modernization in many ways. It brings bottlenecks in insurance processes to light. It improves turnaround times in the claims process. And it drives results—as these three real-life insurance providers have seen.

Eighty thousand calls. That’s how many inquiries Aviva France's insurance agents and customer service representatives handle each year on average related to its life insurance claims. Each one of these calls represents a customer eager to have their claim resolved, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Before Appian, customer service teams managed these via time-consuming manual processing and disconnected legacy systems.

The new solution, delivered using the Appian Platform, reduced the number of manual tasks required and demonstrated the power of intelligent automation in settlements. With better communications and collaboration, same-day claims settlements increased from 1% to 25%. Claims settled within three days jumped by 530%.

Increasing a company’s Net Promoter Score by 36 points is a big deal. Here’s how Aegon (known as Transamerica in North America) did it.

Aegon’s insurance and pensions business administered many of its transactions through highly manual, paperwork-intensive processes that took considerable time. With Penguin, a holistic management solution built on the Appian Platform, Aegon moved 80% of transactions online.

With connected capabilities that include intelligent automation, Aegon was able to unify its internal systems and deliver employees and customers alike fast, digital, processes that also meet regulatory compliance requirements and are fully auditable.

Since implementation, customers have been flocking to the new Penguin system, with 45,000 pension participants migrated over so far. The Appian solution has also demonstrated the potential of intelligent automation in insurance UX.

How did a European property and casualty company achieve a 99.7% customer satisfaction rating? One big part of the answer was a mobile claims intake and management system, powered by intelligent automation.

The new system uses AI to speed up mundane tasks. AI analyzes photos and verifies invoices related to property damage, and fraud and machine learning models are used to estimate repair costs.

This shortens the claims process from end to end, from incident reporting and property inspection to invoicing and case closure. It also makes pricing estimates more consistent, regardless of the skills and experience level of the claims specialist.

The end result: faster, higher quality, more efficient customer service, and that’s just the beginning of what’s possible for insurance claims processing with intelligent automation.

If you’re inspired by the stories here but don’t know where to begin for your operations, it helps to have a plan for success. We recommend you adopt a platform approach, start small before you scale up, and have a plan for future growth.

Next, make sure your organization's data is connected and well managed with a data fabric. A data fabric enables organizations to connect their existing legacy systems in a centralized platform that can create, read, update, and delete data no matter where it lives without having to migrate it into a different system. Then you can say goodbye to the disparate spreadsheets and disconnected manual processes that slow your teams down, and the siloed systems that obstruct a big-picture view.

Finally, learn about ways you can improve your claims processes with what you already have available. Or, if you’re ready, consider claims solution software that can leverage AI-powered process automation to streamline data intake and verification, optimize processes from end to end, and deliver complete visibility into the claims lifecycle.

With intelligent automation on your side and in your operations, your staff will be empowered to make well-informed decisions and take customer-pleasing actions, quickly, accurately, and effectively.

There’s no time to wait. According to McKinsey, the insurance sector is seeing disruptive changes that will fundamentally alter the industry by 2030.

Insurers will need to modernize their systems, make use of new technologies like AI, and invest in solutions that optimize business processes and improve customer service.