The insurance world is inundated with digital data. Everything from telematics in OEMS, to wearable devices for telehealth, to the tsunami of IoT products hitting the market. And this data is increasingly being used by claims handlers to optimize the services they can offer customers.
Greater data allows growing sophistication of AI and automation, which claims handlers are increasingly incorporating into the claims process. Simple claims can be handled almost entirely with automation. More complex claims still need the stewardship of a human, but insurtechs are finding creative ways to reduce the laboriousness of the process by managing more of the repetitive aspects with AI.
The digitisation of insurance made possible through this data closed loop also allows insurers to use customer data to prevent claims from happening as well. For instance, customers can be notified to turn up the heating in their house to avoid frozen pipes on cold winter days. Businesses using telematics can be notified if one of their employees is using incorrect posture to lift heavy items and thus at risk of a workplace injury.
It is difficult to predict exactly how different the world of insurance will be post Covid, but digitisation of claims reporting and claims adjusting coupled with proactive claims prevention are very likely to feature as the new normal.
It’s a safe bet that many of the pandemic-induced changes to consumer interactions with the insurance industry, particularly related to claims, are likely to endure
