Hyper automation for P&C insurers: It's time to move beyond simple automation

According to Gartner research more and more P&C insurers are looking to use advanced technologies to go beyond automating basic tasks. They're now looking to augment the decision-making capabilities of skilled workers like underwriters and claims adjusters.

This can be typically achieved through a combination of optimizing the way how data is treated, especially using data analysis tools to help your workers to make better sense of data, but also automizing data extraction and integration to free your employees from data entry tasks. A second example would be to offer them decision-making-support by providing tool to improve underwriting and claims decisions. Not to forget tools personalizing communication during the process, enabling more human-centric interactions.

This hyper automation approach is more of a strategy than a specific technology. The idea behind it is, for business process chains to work more efficient if they are automated. Automated business processes are considered to be faster and more precise. Hyper automation itself is defined as the use of intelligent technologies such as machine-based process automation (RPA), Low-Code-/No-Code Platforms (LCNC), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

The major differentiator between classic process automation and hyper automation is that process automation only affects one process at a time, while hyper automation affects several processes at once. It allows to unify different areas and increases the automation speed across the whole company.

Leveraging these can lead to significant benefits for your team. You can expect increased efficiency and productivity, because your employees can focus on higher-value tasks, which leads to improved customer satisfaction due to more time spend for personalized service. Over time you might see a decrease in costs, as streamlined processes will lower the overall transaction costs. Implementing hyper automation across your departments might even get you a competitive advantage by decreasing turnaround times and allowing a more competitive pricing.

However, due to the high impact hyper automation can cause, implementing it requires careful planning and execution. One of the most important points is to focus on reinventing processes, not replacing people. You should aim to use technology to eliminate mundane tasks, not skilled workers. Always apply a phased approach; start with simpler projects and gradually increase complexity to compare the results you achieved with the results you aimed for. Make sure you closely collaborate with business stakeholders to ensure alignment with overall goals.

In P&C insurance it’s especially important to keep the customer focus in mind: Over-automating processes could lead to a decrease in human interaction, diminishing the value perception of the customers.

Overall, leveraging hyper automation can create a more efficient, customer-centric, and competitive business environment and is definitely worth looking into, to further improve business process efficiency, while still keeping in mind that buying insurance policies for most customers is still strongly connected with a certain amount of trust in the insurance company itself and the people behind it. ?

In case the topic caught your interest our hyper automation specialists can help you to assess how your business can benefit. You can also find more information on the topic on our website at www.intellias.com.