The rise of automation has greatly impacted businesses across various industries, and insurance is no exception. With advancements in technology, including the emergence of insurtech companies, many insurance businesses are exploring ways to streamline their operations and improve customer experiences through automation. While automation certainly offers numerous benefits, it is important to tread carefully and ensure that customer interactions still maintain a human touch.
In this blog, we will discuss why humans remain critical in the insurance industry and how automation can be effectively implemented without sacrificing the essential human element.
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How Insurtech Is Disrupting Insurance
Insurtech companies have emerged with the promise of disrupting the insurance industry. While they have certainly impacted the industry, a true disruption is still up for debate. Insurtech has been made to simplify every aspect of insurance operations—pricing, underwriting, claims processing, etc.
The Wall Street Journal mentioned how the insurance industry is changing and said “a process that might have taken around 20 minutes can now be done, in some cases, in less than five, adding that some of the changes… have been inspired by insurtechs.”
Historically, insurance businesses have had the reputation that they are slow and difficult to work with. Insurtech has inspired some much needed changes to the insurance industry. Insurtech has proven that policyholders don’t have to accept slow claims processing as the norm.
Insurtech aims to displace traditional insurance companies by leveraging technology to provide customers with quicker experiences and better prices. But it’s essential to understand that while they can be key to helping insurers work more efficiently, they simply can’t replace the human experience that customers crave.
Why Are Humans Irreplaceable in the Insurance Industry?
Humans play a pivotal role in the insurance industry because individuals long for human connection. We have an innate desire for human interaction, even at times when it may be less convenient.
No matter how intuitive a website may be with automated customer communications, or how easy it may be for a customer to access their policy information, there are still situations that warrant a phone call with a real person. A customer may feel more reassured and comfortable speaking to a knowledgeable human representative who can address their concerns, explain policies in detail, and provide personalized advice.
That’s something that insurtech just can’t replicate.
Insurance Automation That Works
To be clear, automation is a good thing. It’s something that every insurer must implement to some extent, even if it can’t cover every aspect of business. The key here is that adequately automating insurance processes can free up insurers’ time so they can better attend to the human aspects of insurance. They can streamline their operations so that they can address customer concerns and questions more effectively.
There are a number of automation capabilities that insurers should implement into their workflows to streamline their time consuming document-dependent work.
Automated Data Extraction
Automated data extraction can assist in processing claims efficiently by extracting relevant information—names, policy numbers, dates—from various documents, reducing the time and effort required for manual data entry.
Automated Routing
Similarly, automation can route documents to the predetermined approver. You can create workflows to process claims and route them to the appropriate personnel based on predefined criteria, ensuring that claims are processed by the right people promptly.
Automated Organization
Additionally, fully automated systems can automatically organize the claims, requests, reports, images, and anything else you collect from your policyholders. Automated folder templates can help you maintain consistency in document organization.
Automated Sharing
Easily and automatically share documents with internal and external stakeholders with just a click. Instead of sending documents for others to view across unsecured networks, you can bring them to a secure sharing portal.
Striking a balance between automation and a human touch is critical. In fact, automation is what makes human involvement possible. Certain insurance processes require more than just moving documents around. They may require human judgment, empathy, and understanding that cannot be replicated by technology.
While automation can and has revolutionized the insurance industry, going completely human-free is not the answer for insurers wanting to remain effective. If you’re ready to automate the repetitive document work in insurance so you can focus on the human aspects, discover Revver today.
