Robotic Process Automation: Shaping the future of insurance operations
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has emerged as a game-changing technology across various industries, including insurance. RPA is the use of low-code software bots to automate repetitive and rule-based tasks within business processes.
These bots are adept at mimicking human actions and seamlessly interact with different systems and applications to execute tasks like data entry and validation.
Studies indicate that financial services have experienced a potential ROI increase of up to 200% during the initial year following RPA implementation. In the insurance sector, RPA has garnered significant attention and adoption due to its capacity to streamline operations, enhance efficiency and drive cost reductions.
Insurers handle large volumes of customer data for a number of business processes ranging from underwriting, claims processing, sales and distribution, policy administration and even regulatory compliance.
By automating laborious and error-prone tasks, RPA empowers insurance companies to redirect their focus towards value-driven activities instead like decision-making and personalized customer service.
How insurers benefit from RPA
Policy administration
The manual underwriting process in insurance, historically time-consuming and labor-intensive, has been transformed by Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
RPA paired with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) will enable insurers to automatically digitize customer data from registration forms and other printouts. Afterwards, integration with Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning models will bring out useful data insights.
Automating administrative activities like rating and quoting with RPA saves time and resources, enhancing workflow efficiency in the insurance industry. Real-life case studies —covered in the next section—demonstrate significant reductions in time and effort, enabling quicker and more effective processing of applications.
Furthermore, RPA assists in policy renewals by automating communication, updates and premium collection, while also managing policy cancellations efficiently.
Customer service
Insurance companies are leveraging Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to transform customer service operations. By integrating conversational AI and RPA technologies, insurers expedite issue resolution and empower support teams with AI-driven assistants.
These assistants efficiently process unstructured data, generate customer profiles, and provide timely solutions, enhancing overall customer service effectiveness and satisfaction.
As customer expectations evolve towards personalized service, RPA tools play a crucial role in automating standardized and time-consuming tasks. This allows employees to focus on providing personalized interactions for complex grievances.
Case studies
PZU
As one of Europe’s leading insurers, PZU Group harnessed UiPath’s RPA technology to improve customer service. By deploying RPA in its five critical applications, PZU realized a 50% boost in insurance consultants’ productivity. This efficiency enhancement significantly reduced call durations with customers while ensuring 100% accuracy in data entry.
Zurich Insurance Group
Zurich Insurance Group optimized its policy handling processes with Capgemini’s automation solution powered by BluePrism software. Integrating RPA robots early in policy management streamlined tasks like data entry, invoice generation and policy document drafting. This resulted in improved policy quality and a notable reduction in support desk inquiries.
Nsure.com
Nsure.com, an online insurance shopping platform, implemented RPA to automate customer communications. This initiative has transformed their sales and distribution, allowing half of their customers to complete transactions without agent interaction.
ADNIC
Abu Dhabi-based insurance provider, ADNIC, achieved a 30% reduction in work time by implementing RPA bots for quote generation and policy registration. This efficiency gain enabled employees to transition into decision-making roles, enhancing overall operational effectiveness.
Bottom line
Many employers overlook the inefficiency of manual tasks. McKinsey reports that workers spend 1.8 hours daily on non-impactful activities like data gathering and aggregation alone. By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining processes, insurance providers can realize significant cost savings and operational efficiencies.