The insurance industry continues to get more advanced as insurtech companies, also known as insurance technology companies, help add automation, digitization, and make insurance-related processes more streamlined, profitable, and efficient.
At first glance, insurers might think that InsurTech is something to view as competition, as there are some InsurTech companies that sell policies efficiently online. That said, many insurance businesses have found ways to partner with InsurTech companies, as many of these technology vendors simply offer support to existing insurance agents and insurance carriers, rather than trying to replace them.
So, existing insurers can leverage InsurTech companies to improve how they run their businesses and serve customers. In many cases, it’s as easy as adding other types of non-insurance software, like a project management tool or customer relationship management (CRM) software. In the case of InsurTech, the technology is often just more oriented specifically to the needs of insurers. Even if the technology is a bit more advanced in some cases, it’s often worth it to implement.
And the good news is that there are many different types of InsurTech companies that exist, so even if you only want to adapt your processes in one area, like processing claims, you can do so. But odds are that once you start to see the many ways in which InsurTech can help you improve your insurance business and ultimately grow, you’ll want to find more ways to leverage these companies.
In this article, we’ll explore several different ways that InsurTech companies can help your business, ranging from improving your sales process and underwriting to managing operations.
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InsurTech Companies for Sales
One way to leverage InsurTech is to use it to improve your sales. Beyond InsurTech companies that directly sell insurance, many types of software also help with the sales process. So, insurance agents and carriers can directly improve in sales areas like providing quotes quickly as well as understanding their customers better to find more opportunities for growth.
Quoting Capabilities
InsurTech companies like Talage, through our platform Wheelhouse, make it easy for insurance agents to provide streamlined quoting capabilities online. Whether agents are quoting directly in the portal or leads are requesting bindable quotes online, 24/7, they can compare rates from multiple carriers in less than 10 minutes. Think of it as a better comparative rater. It also has a number of features that make it easier for insurers to turn quotes into more sales, like by enabling agents to copy quotes into other insurance lines for cross-selling.
Understanding Your Customers
InsurTech companies can also help insurance agents and carriers better understand their customers and leads so that they can grow their sales. For example, Atidot (a top insurtech company that made the InsurTech 100 2021 list from FinTech Global) uses technology like AI to provide insights to you in areas like who’s likely to lapse in coverage and which customers need more service so that you can grow.
InsurTech Companies for Underwriting
Another area where insurers can leverage InsurTech companies is underwriting. This may apply more to those with certain analysis roles within insurance carriers, but it could still be helpful for insurance agents to understand how technology is changing the underwriting process, such as by speeding up the collection and analysis of underwriting data.
Collecting Information
Some InsurTech companies use AI, including branches like computer vision, to collect information that informs underwriting decisions, such as visuals of properties or vehicles. Some physical devices like drones can also be used to collect the visual information needed to make accurate, efficient underwriting decisions.
“Via satellite images, drones, and big data, computer-assisted inspections are now possible,” notes InsurTech company AdvantageGo (also on the InsurTech 100 2021 list), which provides software to commercial insurers and reinsurers.
Analyzing Data
In addition to collecting information for underwriting decisions, some InsurTech companies can help analyze this data. One of the top InsurTech companies in this area (also on the InsurTech 100 2021 list) is Bdeo, which offers services like performing visual underwriting of vehicles and claims assessment, such as by reviewing images of the damage.
In some cases, AI can also be used to analyze data collected through traditional means, rather than having to exclusively be used in conjunction with technologies like computer vision.
InsurTech Companies for Operations
In addition to helping with the sales process and underwriting, InsurTech companies can also assist insurance agents and carriers with other areas of operations that come up once you’ve closed the deal and issued a policy. In other words, InsurTech companies can help you run a better business for existing customers, such as by providing stronger customer service and processing claims efficiently.
Customer Service
Insurance agents want to be there to help their current customers resolve any issues, but sometimes there’s too much going on to get to customers right away. Or, in some cases, clients prefer to use self-serve options rather than having to get in touch with an agent and wait for a response. So, InsurTech companies can help insurance agents and carriers provide better customer service in this regard.
“Automated customer service apps handle most policyholder interactions through voice and text, directly following self-learning scripts that interface with the claims, fraud, medical service, policy, and repair systems. The turnaround time for resolution of many claims is measured in minutes rather than days or weeks,” notes a McKinsey report on what the future of insurance will look like in 2030.
Handling Claims
As the McKinsey report indicates, related to customer service is the fact that InsurTech companies can help insurance agents handle/process claims better. If customers have a claim to submit, they’re likely already dealing with some sort of frustrating situation, so you don’t want to add to that by making it hard to submit a claim and then eventually receive approval with a payment. So, InsurTech companies can help in several ways, whether that’s making it easier for customers to submit claims through a self-serve portal or enabling insurance companies to review the information to make a quick decision.
“Many insurers don’t have the time and resources to check every claim,” notes Tractable, an InsurTech company (also on the InsurTech 100 2021 list) that has products like AI Review to assess damage. “But with AI Review, you have transparency, clarity, and above all scale. You can assess every estimate and audit the entire claims process, end to end, without missing a single claim.”
See How You Can Benefit From InsurTech Companies
As these examples show, insurance agents and carriers can benefit in a wide variety of ways from leveraging solutions from InsurTech companies. Whether you’re looking to improve your sales process, want to speed up underwriting and claims reviews, improve customer service, among other areas of running an insurance business, there’s likely an InsurTech company that can help.
The top InsurTech companies also continue to innovate and release new products and features, so if you haven’t yet found an InsurTech solution that seems to work for your insurance business, odds are that it will only get easier to find high-quality technology to leverage in the coming years. That said, you might not want to wait too long as competitors may be able to get a leg up by starting to integrate InsurTech into their own businesses.