Given that insurance is all about assessing and minimizing risk, it should hardly be surprising that the industry has traditionally been slow to adopt new technologies, outside of process improvement. Rather than innovating in the customer experience sphere, insurers have typically waited to see what works in other industries first.

But, in a world where customer adoption of technological change is happening faster than ever, insurers simply cannot afford to maintain that position. Doing so, means the risk of not meeting customer expectations, who expect the experience they’ve become accustomed to with other service providers.

The bottom line is that  insurers need to invest heavily in technologies that improve customer experience, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). 

Customer expectations have changed 

A shift in customer interactions, is driving the need to adapt to these new technologies for customer communication. 

Insurance customers want to hear from and be able to interact with their insurer, using their preferred communication channel. Whether the communication customers receive from their insurer is marketing or service based, they expect it to be highly personalized – from content to pricing and of course easy to respond to. Additionally, it should be seamless across channels and consistent in its message. 

The advantage of AI powered customer communication 

Insurers have done well in implementing these technologies for operational efficiencies and are perfectly primed to incorporate AI and ML within customer communications.

Given that customer experience hasn’t traditionally been a strong point for insurers, any improvement is likely to be noticed right away. 

Typically, a customer might only interact with their insurer during a claims process or annual policy renewal. Successfully navigating this change means that insurers must change their relationship with policyholders and interact with them in a continuous cycle. 

Communication can fundamentally be improved using AI processes and the data produced can drive customer action. Moving forward, communication will be hyper-personalized – merging the rich data available within insurers with AI and ML technologies…all with the aim of creating rich relationships and customers for life.

Any insurer that manages to implement this kind of AI-driven continuous communication will achieve a competitive advantage through good customer experience.