The human race has been gaining intelligence over ages. We are now at a turning point. The intelligence game is shifting from humans to machines. Artificial intelligence or the simulation of human intelligence by machines is the new reality today. Coupled with machine learning, this field of advanced technology is moving ahead at an unprecedented pace. From hearing about industrial robots in newspapers to learning about prototypes not long back, we are already seeing tech tools enabled by AI reaching our door steps - be it smart assistants in gadgets or stand-alone devices. In fact, robots that look and act like any typical human being are already available for purchase in many countries and are helping individuals manage their lives better.

The AI revolution is influencing every product/ service industry. The banking and financial services (BFSI) segment is one of the key sectors, where AI enabled solutions are making their presence felt widely. Not long ago, banking was about physical branches and human interactions. Today, banks have become the front runners in using technology as algorithms and machines take over most of the tasks. We are not far away from the day when branches will get completely automated, offering customers the most complex of financial products and services without the need for any human intervention.

Within the BFSI sector, insurance is another segment that is leveraging the advances in Artificial Intelligence. Insurance industry has hitherto focused on manual processes. From underwriting to claims processing, from policy sales to renewals, it has relied mostly on human intervention and paper work. The focus has been on the physical presence of someone reliable, an expert in the field, to guide customers through the product purchase and usage cycle. However, this approach is changing fast. The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) recently released a report on the Insurance industry in India.

‘Recent technology trends such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, blockchain and robotic process automation (RPA) have significant potential to streamline insurance operations and enhance customer experience,’ the report noted. It further predicted that ‘the trend of using AI in the insurance industry will accelerate in the near future’.

Today, it is mandatory for companies to adopt quickly to technology advancements to simply stay relevant in the market place

We are already seeing multiple insurance brands leveraging on AI to offer innovative customer centric solutions. Many companies have introduced products and services that deploy technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchai, and others, as the core drivers. At ICICI Lombard, we have been at the forefront of leveraging these technological developments for the benefit of our customers. We have introduced robotic assistance solutions using a chatbot platform called MyRA that allows our customers to get their queries resolved without any human intervention. Further, customers can purchase insurance policies in certain categories e.g. two wheeler insurance right through the chatbot, thereby ensuring convenience of purchase from anywhere and at any time. In another case i.e. fire insurance, the chatbot provides quotes to clients through email conversations. The introduction of MyRA has resulted in reducing the customer turnaround time by 50 percent and generation of quotes is faster than ever.

As our experience shows, AI brings improved operational efficiencies; automation in underwriting, claims, and customer service; and analytics that work faster and smarter. Further, coupled with machine learning, AI can unearth innumerable customer insights enabling brands to interact better with their customers and offer them far superior propositions helped by granular customer understanding. In fact, as AI gets integrated with the larger ecosystem, we will witness processes such as claims intimation being automatically triggered at the occurrence of an event without any need for the insurance beneficiary to inform the insurer of the incident. We are already seeing such possibilities in the case of travel insurance wherein a flight delay triggers a claim without the customer having to inform the insurance company of the same.

Using an integrated approach of dovetailing the advancements in AI with other technologies such as analytics, cloud services, social media etc. brands can derive the maximum for customers by deploying solutions on a real-time basis. This will ensure that customer needs are met on the spot thereby ensuring greater customer satisfaction.

We have come a long way in a short period of time as far as technology is concerned. Gone are the days when technology adoption was an option for companies. Today, it is mandatory for companies to adopt quickly to technology advancements to simply stay relevant in the market place. As Artificial Intelligence gets more intelligent, we will see lot more innovative use cases being deployed by companies. In the end, the benefit will be realized by customers and in the process, by brands that keep pace with these new trends.