Leveraging AI for Insurance Penetration in Rural India

Shwetabh Walter, Chief Product Technology Officer, PB Partners

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Shwetabh engaged in a conversation with the CIOTechOutlook magazine in order to answer queries on how insurance information and education can reach the rural sectors of the country with the help of AI. He is currently the Chief Product Technology Officer at PB Partners. He has headed the customer experience department at Policybazaar and before that he had also been a start-up founder for six years.

How can AI be effectively integrated into insurance processes to improve accessibility and efficiency in remote regions of India?

When we speak about remote and rural regions, reach becomes one of the most important factors. Organizations need to reach out to the rural areas so that insurance products are more accessible to consumers. When we talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI), it involves several problems that are of different variety and also high in volume. In remote areas, multiple languages are spoken by people with different kinds of dialect. Moreover, the volume of population living in the rural areas in India is huge as well. One needs to have a scalable platform that will be able to efficiently serve these people throughout the insurance life cycle right from buying until the maturity of a policy. In this way, consumer trust can be gained. With AI, this segment can progress by means of natural language processing (NLP). There can also be customized content for the end user generated by AI systems. The content is based on the queries and requirements of people based of different locations across the country. Product understanding can be conveyed to consumers in local languages so that they are able to realize the need to buy insurance products.  The consumers need accurate information in order to take informed decisions about their requirements for insurance products. This is where many AI technologies have come into the picture for assisting consumers.AI helps organizations in handling large volumes of consumers by drastically reducing manpower requirement. AI driven chatbots are coming into the picture in order to assist consumers with policy information customized to the languages they are comfortable with. 

Mobile technology is pivotal in reaching underserved populations, what mobile-centric initiatives have to be implemented to increase insurance penetration in remote India?

The distribution of information about why insurance is required by a consumer is done through mobile interfaces. India has good mobile penetration in local areas and a good number of internet connectivity through various service providers at even the most remote locations. Devices and connectivity is the sole responsibility of the businesses that comprise this entire ecosystem. Services must be designed by providers in such a way that it addresses the challenges and requirements of the end users. This is the area where AI is again disrupting the picture. Chatbots or Whatsapp based bots can be easily made which are able to not only provide the consumers with accurate insurance information, but also assist them in making the right choice. These bots are also able to take the consumer through the complete buying process and address each and every query that a consumer might have with the purchase. This is one of the crucial aspects where the usage of AI has disrupted the insurance sector. On the other hand, there are many field agents who are dedicated but require complete information on the insurance products in order to make the consumer those clearly. AI communications platforms are being established by companies that are able to educate these field agents and make them equipped with all the information required by them. They are also making using of these platforms through mobile interfaces. 

Data privacy and security are crucial concerns in any digital initiative. How can insurers build trust in remote communities regarding the use of their personal data?

Data privacy is largely associated with awareness. The end user needs to have access to the information as to why documents are getting sourced and for what purpose are those to be used. Safety protocols need to be made around that transaction and it must be look after that there are no defects and deficiencies in the whole process. Many data protections regulations and guidelines have been rolled out by the government in this regard and all organizations must abide by those. This must be communicated with the customer as well. They must be aware of the fact that all their personal documents are safe and not being used illegally. AI is also able to detect if original documents have been shared by the insurance consumer. This technology has proved to be very beneficial in case of detection of fraud claims as well.

AI-powered predictive analytics can optimize claims processing. How can this capability be utilized to improve customer satisfaction and retention in rural markets?

Claims processing is one of the key aspects in the insurance domain. Insurance providers always try to minimize any level of fraud and a lot of stress has to be put on the business that is being sourced. Implementing AI systems to conduct the insurance process have hugely minimized the number of fraudulent claims and submission of fraud documents. After a claim arises, it is again a process that requires heavy documentation. Depending on the claim that is coming in, strict human intervention is required. AI systems are helping the organizations identify any kind of falsifications that is done in the claim and also identify the extent of damage. This speeds up the process and helps in minimizing human intervention.

 

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