The research below highlights that even Millennials wedded to phones and tablets need more than chatbots and "personalised messaging driven by machine learning". 

They need the advice and support of humans as well and the older the claimant the more the need for the human touch. It is not only the claimant however- insurers need to value the intuition and expertise of human claims handlers.

In the drive for automation and the parallel seduction of AI, Robotic Process Automation and Machine Learning fraud will probably increase rather than decrease! How can that be?

Take simple Accidental Loss, Theft and Damage. Many such claims seem bona fide and will be passed by automatic claims processing. 

When you use "self-service" claims handling in which the claimant is given the opportunity to describe the reason for the claim and then  add photos and video evidence strange things come to light.

The photos do not support the initial evidence e.g.

  • The photo is older than the claim
  • The photo is taken in a different location than the address of the damage
  • The damage looks deliberate rather than accidental
  • The claimant either sends to little info ( suspicious) or too much (equally suspicious).

The addition of video adds even more evidence- it gives context to the claim and shows up damage that is obviously not related to the incident but still claimed.

To work effectively this must be all part of a single digital record with all inputs encrypted, time and date stamped with an audit trail. Do this and what a suprise" You will find 30% to 40% of claims overstated or complete fraud and not detectable by AI!

Why not? Because AI and machine learning need massive training sets of data- far more than that collected by insurers and accessible for analysis.

See "Are you unlucky or lying? Can the machines or your social network know?" by Maarten Ectors Chief Data Officer at Legal & General GI. 

Self-Service claims as an integral part of a digital platform will deliver more data including all the metadata in video and photo evidence. But nothing can beat the combination of insurtech and human intuition that will drive customer satisfaction up, drive claims processing times and costs down. This is the digital platform for all types of insurance from AD, Theft and Loss to more complex Escape of Water, Draining and Subsidence to full blown Hurricane and Catastrophic Storm Damage . Not to mention Auto Insurance, Pets, Travel etc.

For more on this see: "The Single Digital Record"  which optimises competitive advantage when combined with the human touch by:-

  • Claims Handlers
  • Fraud Team
  • Supply Chain
  • The engaged and happier customer