Artificial intelligence (AI) has a significant role to play in the insurance industry. It can help determine premiums, assist with fraud detection and speed up claims processing, so it is becoming far more commonplace. Equally important, is the role AI plays in customer communication. 

Insurance communications seldom extend beyond the policy or bill. Enhancing these communications using AI can improve engagement and help build loyalty by establishing more solid and long-lasting customer relationships.

Insurers can no longer afford to be slow adopters of new communication technologies, which can help meet customer needs and improve the customer experience rather significantly. 

Tech-savvy Insurance startups are already leveraging these technologies and delivering the experience today’s customers expect from their insurer.

Using AI in insurance communication can improve customer experience

One of the major failings of the insurance industry is that it simply doesn’t talk to its customers. 

This not only fosters a sense of distrust for customers but also gives an indication that their insurer doesn’t know or care about them. 

And thanks to their experiences with other industries, such as banking and retail, today’s customer demands highly-personalized products and services, supported by relevant, easy to understand and contextual information – instantly on hand, via any channel they choose.

More than most industries, Insurers are in an ideal position to embrace the opportunities presented by AI. They have access to mountains of data that would allow them to send out valuable, hyper-personalized communication. 

AI can help insurers switch from a reactive to a more predictive approach to customer communication – one that anticipates the wants and needs of their customers. This encompasses everything from ensuring that customers receive personalized, relevant offers, to improving service and communicating with them on their preferred channel.

Insurance CX in 2020 and beyond

Insurers can transform the customer relationship by using AI tools in their digital communication. For example, using predictive tools to provide content that is not only relevant to the customer but also to increase their spend.

Including chatbots in emails will enable insurers to provide another service option for customers, while reducing call center volumes. This ultimately means using AI in insurance communication can improve customer experience significantly.

To varying degrees, these changes are already sweeping through the insurance industry. And they will continue to do so in 2020 and beyond and at an accelerated pace.
 

The business imperative

Insurers that don’t have an AI communication strategy risk falling further behind and having to spend more money to catch up. Meanwhile,  those that have, need to keep working on staying ahead of, or alongside, the competition. 

Whatever new technologies emerge, it’s vital that insurers keep the customer at the heart of all communication strategies, which must be implemented as human-centered and authentically as possible.