Introduction
Rising competition, growing digitization, and evolving customer expectations on digital insurance – the challenges in selling products and services have changed over the years in sales across the insurance industry. Insurers today have overcome several challenges with the help of technology in recent years and one innovation that has proven to be the most valuable is the automation of sales processes with the use of Conversational AI.
From up-selling and cross-selling plans to guiding customers through IVR or telephony with minimal to no human interactions, the use cases of Conversational AI for digital insurance are innumerable and go beyond what a mere rule-based chatbot can offer.
Empowering Digital Insurance Self-Purchase & Retail Sales
Insurance is something that every person needs but not something that everyone can always understand. Many buyers perceive insurance as a complex maze of policy options, terms, terms and conditions, and hidden clauses. This complexity and opacity in buying insurance leave potential customers hesitant as they do not clearly understand what they are buying. Due to this, agents are the go-to resources for customers to seek clarification. Yet the agents themselves often find it difficult to keep up with the policies’ specifications, prices, term limits, coverage clauses, renewal details, and other finer details.
In such information-heavy environments, conversational AI has been proven to be advantageous in bridging these knowledge gaps and in creating an environment of transparency and clarity around insurance. Insurance providers can steer conversational AI to go directly to the customers and help policyholders to go through the entirely digital insurance purchase journey by themselves.
For example, a buyer looking to buy motor insurance can explore the various products available, compare their prices and premiums, find the plan that suits their needs best and proceed to purchase all through asking questions to the conversational AI assistant. This way, businesses can benefit from enabling self-service for end-user without having to connect to an agent and accelerating the buyer’s journey. It is also important to note that conversational AI has opened up new channels of selling for insurance firms. Customers today can connect with AI virtual assistants through any of their desired channels such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, and so on through voice or text or even through IVR/telephony and have human-like conversations with AI assistants.
Investing in Agent/Partner Networks
According to a report, individual agents dominate the health insurance business with a whopping 75% share in the sector. This statistic shows that it is difficult for insurance providers to sustain without the huge revenue contributed by individual agents. While customers have grown comfortable with getting in touch with businesses through AI assistants, at some point, the experience and expertise of an agent are necessary to answer more complex questions about the products.
Though oftentimes, the agents themselves find it difficult to keep track of their clients and in remembering the details of policy plans and other minute details. To make it more complicated, agents are also flooded with communications from insurance providers on various aspects such as monthly offers and discounts, promotions, announcements, and more. They may have to simultaneously monitor portals and dashboards for important transactions and communications. In such circumstances, it becomes challenging for agents to find the information they are looking for while interacting with their customers.
Conversational AI can help these agents keep track of their clients, access the information they need whenever they want through simple queries through a chat interface, and in turn develop good relationships with their customers. One of the key features of conversational AI is that it can help agents automate answering routine queries from their prospects and let them focus on more meaningful interactions. Apart from this, conversational AI can help agents with the following:
- Prospect leads and schedules meetings
- Confirm appointments and send reminders
- Follow up prospects
- Promote new products
- Automate up-selling and cross-selling
Future of Conversational AI in Digital Insurance
From automation to predictive analytics, the future of sales is AI without any doubt. Conversational AI is an opportunity for all industries to transform their businesses by enabling intelligent processes and evidently it is the future of business communications for insurance firms. Despite this factor, a Gartner report says, the insurance industry still lags far behind in digital adoption and leveraging technologies to generate digital revenue. According to a study by McKinsey, the insurance industry stands to gain a staggering $1.1 trillion by embracing Artificial Intelligence. The world is on the cusp of revolutionizing multiple industries through AI. Insurance firms must adapt to these changes, drive greater revenue, and stay ahead in today’s global marketplace.
