Conversational AI for Insurance Firms: A Guide to Implementation and Success

The benefits of conversational AI for insurance firms are evolving all the time. In the over $7 trillion insurance market, consumers are demanding more convenient, consistent, and personalized services from both small and major brands.

As economic uncertainty continues to affect customers worldwide, insurance vendors need an effective way to connect consistently with their audience, manage an increasing influx of interactions, address inquiries and claim requests, and streamline efficiency.

That’s where conversational AI and conversational messaging solutions come in. Cutting-edge AI solutions can empower insurers to convert and retain more customers, reduce costs, and increase operational agility. Here’s everything you need to know about conversational AI in insurance.

What is Conversational AI?

Let’s start with the basics: what is conversational AI?

Conversational AI (artificial intelligence) is a set of technologies that enables machines to understand and respond to human language. It basically allows computers and bots (like chatbots and virtual agents), to mimic intuitive conversations with human beings.

Notably, when it comes to understanding the difference between conversational AI vs chatbot solutions, the most important thing to remember is that not all chatbots leverage artificial intelligence. There are plenty of “rule-based” chatbots out there that simply respond to input based on pre-configured rules and decision trees.

Conversational AI, on the other hand, takes advantage of AI algorithms, natural language processing, and machine learning to actually understand human queries and respond in a more natural way.

The Use Cases for Conversational AI in Insurance

In virtually every industry, conversational AI has emerged as a valuable tool for enhancing customer experiences, optimizing marketing and sales strategies, and improving operational efficiency. For instance, conversational AI for finance teams is allowing banks and investment companies to deliver personalized financial recommendations and guidance to customers across various platforms.

Conversational AI for insurance can deliver a lot of the same benefits. It empowers organizations to deliver intuitive self-service experiences to customers, streamline marketing strategies, and even give companies access to valuable data and insights.

Some of the biggest use cases for conversational AI in insurance include:

• Intelligent claims processing: Conversational AI tools can automate claims processing steps, allowing users to initiate claims, share information with companies, and even receive real-time updates on their application’s progress.
• Policy inquiry automation: With AI-powered two-way messaging apps, customers can reach out to companies with questions about new and existing policies, and access 24/7 support and guidance. Chatbots can immediately direct customers to the right service or provide them with details on their policies, without human intervention.
• Reminder texts: Just like other service companies use text message appointment reminder services to reduce no-shows, insurance companies can send reminders to customers about upcoming consultations. Or they can issue reminders about policy renewals.
• Data analysis: Conversational AI can help insurance companies analyze various forms of data at speed. This can help businesses to more effectively conduct risk assessments and customize insurance policies to different customers.
• Task automation: Conversational AI can automate various tasks in the insurance sector. It can help schedule appointments and even transform the underwriting process, by extracting necessary information from applications instantly.
• Marketing automation: With an SMS blast service and conversational AI, insurance companies can rapidly send personalized messages to customers about new products or services, increasing sales and conversions.

Optimizing Insurance: Conversational AI Benefits

Regardless of how you choose to use conversational AI for your insurance firm, there are numerous benefits to taking advantage of this cutting-edge technology. In insurance, conversational AI can help businesses stay one step ahead of the competition with:

Improved Customer Experiences

Using conversational AI, insurance companies can deliver personalized, intuitive support to customers at scale, without significant costs. Chatbots and virtual assistants enhanced with conversational AI can deliver guidance to customers 24/7, helping them submit claims, track down the perfect policy, or even make changes to their accounts.

Intuitive AI solutions can even draw on data about a customer and your market, to provide more personalized recommendations to specific customers. Plus, with conversational SMS tools, you can deliver support to customers through their preferred channel, in a range of languages.

Greater Operational Efficiency

One of the biggest benefits of embedding AI into your workflows in any industry, is that it can help to make teams more efficient. AI solutions can automate a wide range of tasks, from handling standard claims to storing data for auditing purposes and HIPAA compliant texting.

Conversational AI can even streamline the underwriting process, gathering information from applicants instantly, and using sentiment analysis to detect insights into customer intentions and risk levels. Plus, AI tools can expedite the time-consuming process of claims settlement, drawing on numerous sources of data to verify documents and initiate the claims process.

Reduced Operational Costs

Since AI can automate a lot of repetitive tasks and streamline time-consuming processes in the insurance industry, it can also help to reduce operational costs. With AI solutions handling common customer queries, data entry, and underwriting tasks, companies don’t need to hire as many experts.

This doesn’t mean that human beings become unnecessary in the insurance industry, of course. However, using conversational AI for insurance effectively can help companies to scale faster and keep budgets relatively low.

Enhanced Compliance and Security

While there are some compliance risks involved in using conversational AI, insurance firms can also use advanced algorithms to reduce security risks. Conversational AI tools can monitor conversations throughout the insurance landscape (from texts to voice calls) for signs of potential risks.

They can identify when employees might not be adhering to compliance standards, like asking for permission when recording a call. Plus, some solutions can spot anomalies instantly in claim requests, using historical data. Some conversational AI tools can even use biometric data in a customer’s voice to authenticate specific users and fight back against fraud.

Getting Started with Conversational AI for Insurance

Unlocking the benefits of conversational AI in insurance doesn’t have to be complicated. All you really need is a goal, a strategy, and the right technology.

As a leading provider of insurance conversational AI and SMS solutions, here are our top tips for implementing intelligence into your business strategy.

Step 1: Define your Objectives

As mentioned above, in insurance, conversational AI can serve a range of use cases, from helping you to automate and scale your insurance text message marketing strategy, to transforming customer service. Before you dive in with your new technology, you’ll need to decide exactly what you want to accomplish. Ask yourself what matters most to your business right now.

Are you trying to deliver new services, like conversational banking style applications that allow customers to manage their insurance policies from anywhere? Do you want to create and send personalized marketing messages at scale to customers on various channels?

Identify what you want to achieve and consider what kind of metrics you’ll need to track to ensure your initiatives are successful.

Step 2: Choose the Right Technology

There are plenty of apps out there that can provide access to conversational AI technologies, from build-your-own chatbot solutions, to fully-fledged platforms, like Clerk Chat.

The right option for you will depend on your goals for conversational AI in insurance. If you’re trying to boost your marketing and customer service strategies with intelligent SMS, for instance, then you’ll need a fully-fledged platform that allows you to use AI for text messages, create automated campaigns, and even track the results of your messaging strategies.

When assessing your platform options, focus on:

• Ease of use: A convenient platform should make it easy to configure your conversational AI tools with your brand’s specific messaging and tone of voice. It should offer access to convenient templates, and a straightforward dashboard for building campaigns.
• Compliance: Make sure your solution adheres to compliance standards, particularly when it comes to SMS compliance. Ensure you can track messaging opt-in and opt-out rates, schedule messages for appropriate times, and leverage end-to-end encryption.
• Omnichannel: If you’re taking an omnichannel approach with conversational AI for insurance, it makes sense to look for a platform that supports all of the right touchpoints, from SMS to instant messenger apps, social media, email, and even voice.
• Integrations: Check that you can connect your platform with critical tools, like your customer relationship management platform and archiving solutions for compliance purposes. Integrations with collaboration and scheduling apps can be helpful too.
• Customer service: Look for a provider that offers exceptional customer support. For instance, Clerk Chat offers end-to-end guidance and assistance to all of our customers, whether they’re looking for number porting tips or help navigating TCPA compliance.

Step 3: Constantly Experiment and Optimize

Once you’ve chosen your conversational AI platform, you’ll need to configure your “bots” and tools based on the use cases you’ve established. Make sure you think carefully about how you’re going to schedule automated messages, and what kind of language you’ll need to use.

Remember, even after you’ve implemented your conversational AI strategy, the work doesn’t stop there. You’ll need to consistently fine-tune and upgrade your system based on what you learn about your customers, evolving security requirements, and new trends.

A good platform offering conversational AI for insurance should give you insights into reports and analytics you can use to optimize your strategy over time. You might even be able to run A/B tests to determine which messages and campaigns drive the best results for your business.

Take advantage of these features, and use them to consistently improve your customer’s experience with your firm, and increase your return on investment.

Leveraging Conversational AI for Insurance with Clerk Chat

The power of conversational AI for insurance only continues to grow as algorithms and apps become more intelligent and sophisticated. Fortunately, today’s insurance teams don’t need extensive technical expertise or experience to unlock the benefits of AI for their firms.

With an intuitive platform like Clerk Chat, you can take advantage of conversational AI tools, automated workflows for SMS, and powerful analytics, all in one convenient ecosystem.

If you’re looking for insights into what you can do with conversational AI and SMS in the insurance industry, check out our insurance SMS samples here.

Alternatively reach out to the Clerk Chat team for a demo of our software, and discover the benefits of conversational AI for yourself.