Insurers still have room to grow in automation

Here are answers to frequently asked questions about advancing automation solutions in the insurance industry.

Insurers face challenges in today’s business landscape when they make automated processes optional. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Many insurance business processes have been automated, such as such as risk and rate assessments. But there remains a massive opportunity for insurers to further optimize automation technology.

Why should insurers continue to develop automation solutions/? Because new, agile InsurTech startups tend to be more customer-centric, which creates expectations that legacy players will need to meet to stay competitive.

Automating such areas as new business processing, claims processing and finance can help free up time to focus on customer service while still remaining compliant with stringent industry regulations.

Common automation questions

In my job at Nintex, an international technology provider that aims to provide clients with easy-to-use workflow and content automation solutions, I often field questions about advancing automation solutions in the insurance industry. Here are some of the most common ones, along with the answers.

Question: Insurance is a strictly regulated industry. How can insurers embrace emerging technologies like automation while still remaining compliant?

Answer: The term compliance includes essential elements like standards and procedures, oversight, reporting, monitoring and much more. Many, if not all of these, are challenging to enforce when manual or inefficient processes are in place. Automation, in this case, brings necessary governance, audit and consistency to the table. There’s no longer a need to insist that certain individuals do particular steps, they would automatically be part of the process.

Question: What are some of the challenges traditional insurers may face when implementing automation? Can these challenges be avoided? If so, how?

Answer: Well, it can be challenging if you are using an overly complicated tool that your front-line employees can’t modify as conditions change. Choose a solution that doesn’t require a highly skilled developer to update processes when needed.

Another challenge could result from making automation optional. If only a small portion of employees use the automation solution, there will be others who continue to use familiar ways of accomplishing tasks. If you’re concerned about compliance, visibility and efficiency throughout the organization, ensure that using it is optional. It can be a matter of change management, but well worth the effort.

Question: What are the benefits of automation in the insurance industry? 

Answer: Automation reap benefits for the insurance industry in several ways. Imagine a client experience whereby applications, underwriting and claims management are exceptionally fast, only asks for required information (not utilizing a “catch-all” form, for example) and provides visibility without adding additional work for insurance companies.

A second benefit revolves around compliance. As mentioned above, the insurance industry is highly regulated, which comes hand-in-hand with required compliance procedures. By making processes mandatory for employees, you won’t run into missed data points that would be invaluable during an audit.

Question: What practice areas should insurers be looking to automate?  

Answer: It would be a struggle to find a practice area that wouldn’t benefit from automation. If consistency, efficiency and compliance are necessary, process automation should be top-of-mind. When insurers bring those elements to everyday processes, they can gain back additional time to spend on sourcing new clients, developing new products or even focusing on more strategic (or revenue driving) projects.

Jason Tillman is a senior member of the product marketing team at Nintex. He can be reached by sending email to jason.tillman@nintex.com.

See also:

The state of insurance technology in 2018

5 ways AI and data are transforming the insurance space