The perception towards life insurance among the Indian customers changed significantly during the pandemic and companies quickly adapted to the challenging environment to initially sustain and build upon their core business operations. With an acceleration of digitization and the emergence of new technologies, the primarily traditional insurance industry witnessed an evolution which has not been witnessed ever before. This enabled a convenient access to insurance for individual customers as well as a seamless selling process for the insurers.

Technology changing the insurance game

The evolution of technology has disrupted the insurance industry. It paved the way for better access to more affordable insurance products for the customers who could now browse through the portfolio from the comfort and safety of their homes. With this, insurers too moved to a smart and convenient way by digitalising every process of their business including sales, services and operations. This is enabling insurance providers to remain alert and competitive in today’s marketplace and meet customers’ demand through artificial intelligence, powered by mobility, live chat, predictive analytics, etc. The entire customer service and sales cycle is now at one’s fingertips for opting for insurance to paying renewals and even to claiming the policy benefits.

Streamlining customer-servicing

To stay relevant to our existing customers and acquire new ones, we created digital platforms to carry out engagements at various levels from socializing products, financial need assessment, risk evaluation, payments and policy issuance. The digital transformation was a smooth and a seamless process as we had started building digital assets much before the pandemic hit. In a way, we were future-ready and today, our entire sales process is digitized.The mobile first approach has led our customers to a smooth and smart transition process. Whether it is the KYC related document or processing claims, from chatbots to AI based ML applications, every process with the help of technology has become a smart way of functioning.
Role of AI ML and Data Lakes in risk mitigation

Every aspect of business today has a leg of digitization to it. With this,mitigating the risk factor to sail smoothly has become a critical point of consideration for the insurers.

The process of underwriting and risk selection has been optimised significantly using modern technology now. There is a continuous effort to identify other critical risk areas related to operational, market, compliance, money laundering and fraud by using AI based risk detection. 

Data driven operating models are a strategic way to move towards providing a customised personalised experience to the customers in order to enhance their experience and customer journey. In a business like insurance, contracts usually run for 20 to 25 years and the data that has been collected over the last two decades has become a great asset for business growth. This data today gets funnelled into different use-cases for creating analytical models and building personalised customer segments. It is used to create products in line with the market requirements and also to understand and study the market in a better way. It is important to take control of the data and structure it in a manner to create intelligent data lakes for the future.

Technology has catalysed the entire insurance market today and made it much easier and more convenient for customers to get a policy. At the same time it has not only helped insurance players to improve their services and increase their reach but also encouraged them to relook at their overall business strategy and make digitization a must-have in their growth plans.