Leveraging Automation to achieve Business Continuity for insurers in the new normal

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic caught the world unaware bringing businesses to a temporary halt. Yet enterprises quickly swung into action and put in place business continuity plans to face the new normal.

Technologies like AI, ML, Robotics and Automation came to be put to use like never before. The new normal also prompted a need for the businesses to secure networks from cyber-attacks.

For Insurance companies, apart from securing their networks, delivering service with speed and agility was an additional focus. The fear of the pandemic has sentpeople rushing to enquire about policies mainly about health and life.

Insurance companies have been overwhelmed with claims and enquiries prompting them to rethink about their digital and on-ground strategies.

Although a lot of insurers had already embarked on their digital transformation and AI journey, yet many were not ready when the pandemic hit.

This unexpected situation has warranted a greater need for seamless insurance services not only for carrying out regular and repetitive backroom operations but also to meet changing customer expectations.

Insurers are now leveraging Automation and Smart solutions by creating smart platforms that can help them launch new and innovative product offerings swiftly.

Auto-settlement of claims within hours has become essential for insurers to stay relevant and with such demand for insurance services in the COVID-19 situation, the time and speed is everything for the customer and the insurer alike for making possible availability of the information they need as efficiently as possible along with deploying business continuity plans with a sense of urgency.

Ensuring seamless workflows, enabling faster customer responses, addressing a sudden surge in demand or fulfilling unexpected customer requirements is now a priority. New technologies and automation bring with it a plethora of benefits like reduced turnaround time (TAT), elimination of human touchpoints, improved efficiencies, higher employee morale by reducing redundancies and enhance customer experience while utilising the expertise of an insurance technology professional and making the processes more efficient and streamlined.

By adopting automation technology for their business continuity plans, the insurers who were till yesterday driven by face to face meeting for underwriting and policy issuance are now driven to go increasingly digital via video sales, face-recognition techniques and geolocation tools and more with available resources.

Needless to say, while there is greater momentum than ever before in the Insurance sector to digitize and automate their processes, much ground remains to be covered to realise its full potential. However, this pandemic will certainly transform global insurance services permanently for the best.

• Pradeep Satya, CEO and Founder, Synergy Strategic Solutions