For years, personal lines has offered digital claims capabilities that have transformed the way consumers interact with insurers – all the while, commercial lines has been left in the dust … or has it? Claims tech is poised to transform commercial lines, but is it in the way that you think?
“[Commercial brokers] are seeing all the ways that you can have self-service claims and artificial intelligence in claims, and they are looking at their industry in commercial lines and going ‘how can we transform this and how can we leverage this?’,” says Laird Rixford, CEO at Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC). “Insurtech is going to transform commercial lines, and it will be more of a revolution, because it will go from faxing all the way to customer self-service.”
The revolution has to start somewhere, with a key area in need of improvement being document submission. Whether it’s sending documents via an internet portal or submitting video documentation, commercial brokers yearn for easier claims processing that can be aided with technology. “I am hoping AI will improve claims processing,” shares Gallagher’s Walker Taylor, senior managing director of the life sciences practice. “Loss often involves a lot of emotions, and I think the more [forms and proof of losses] can be automated, the more it will make the claims process smoother. As a broker, I would like to think that AI could help.”
But according to Rixford, the true value insurtech will bring to commercial claims will not be during the claims process but in the actual prevention of losses. “There is tech that is getting built into video cameras in stores and warehouses that look for anomalies on the floor or things that are out of place, and signalling if there is a spill or [other anomalies]. Commercial claims can get very expensive and be very complicated, so it’s about finding ways to lessen the amount of claims and automation and AI is really helping with that. So whenever we talk about how technology will affect claims, it really is more on the prevention of claims,” he says.
Thankfully, insurers are on board and are investing in ways to prevent losses, while also training brokers and clients about ways to lower risk profiles. And by preventing commercial claims with tech, customers will experience fewer claims, there will be fewer claim payouts and insurers can create better rates for the customer.
“It is no different than how wearable technologies are being used to improve someone’s health and longevity; now it is just being applied to the commercial realm,” Rixford says.
