Asia Insurance Review, Singapore: Director at Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work Says Insurance Companies Must Embrace Automation to Stay Ahead

“The insurance industry is on the brink of a major disruption brought on by changing customer behavior, new technologies and business models,” writes Benjamin Pring, Director at Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work and co-author of “What to Do When Machines Do Everything: How to Get Ahead in a World of AI, Algorithms, Bots, and Big Data”. “In Asia-Pacific, growing demands for technology-driven solutions are pushing insurers to enhance digital capabilities.” Excerpts:

“The insurance industry will be disrupted, with or without the participation of insurers. In order to stay ahead, insurance companies need to embrace automation, and that begins by understanding the opportunities and threats that stem from it.

The robotic age is already here in the form of Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Today, we have robots that ‘do’ simple tasks for us and to a certain extent, ‘think’ for themselves. The next stage of development in automation and machine learning is just around the corner: a new generation of systems that adapt and learn on the fly.

Automation is certainly changing the industry, but to imagine that the entire profession of insurance broking will move to robots is to over-extrapolate how fast technology will change things in the real world.

The good news is automation can actually help insurance companies deliver a superior customer experience as robo-advisers and other automation technologies help create more tailored offers and experiences for each and every customer. Meanwhile, this also frees up the time of brokers and other professionals to focus on building relationships with their prospects and customers.

Since data collection has always been at the heart of insurance business processes, insurers also need to understand that data analytics is a game-changing technology for their business. Robo-advisors or other automated solutions can analyze the data and then write the code for the data to be acted on without human intervention. The analysis of data then allows brokers and insurers to better understand and anticipate risks and customer demands with far greater precision than ever before.

By harnessing the power of automation and robotics, insurers will be able to create customer experiences through new combinations of information, business resources and digital technologies.”

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