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By Alencar Marabiza, commercial and marketing director at Sistran Brasil
The last few years have been marked by the accelerated development of new technologies and the improvement of existing ones. We are about to experience innovations that grow exponentially: computers with great data processing capacity, popularization of the internet, smartphones, cloud computing, machine learning and deep learning. Today we live in the information age, in which the digital transformation brings business to a boil and moves even the most traditional companies, which are already beginning to understand what processes can be leveraged when digitized.
This evolution also reaches the insurance market. Technology has automated, for example, old paper forms. The most intelligent storage and organization of data offers the power of predictability, seeking information in data silos never imagined. The development of tools in the sector has focused on the search for ways to make processes more and more agile and efficient - which need to be thoroughly known before starting the path of digitization and automation.
In this context, insurance companies increasingly increase the experience with their customers (user experience), in order to transform their business. Here is a brief description of the evolution over the past 20 years:
? Non-digital: printed forms, data stored in huge files and a lot of manual processing;
? Digital beginner: implementation of basic systems, which consult premium calculations and reduce human interference;
? Basic digital: portals or apps for making policy sales using information from social media. Here, consolidated data from several sources already exists, but human interference is still required;
? Advanced digital: rewards based on the use of insurance or IOT, discounts by referral (member get member), implementation of integrated systems with great information processing, drastically reducing human interference;
? Extreme digital: direct purchase by the customer, totally paperless. Sinister on the web, chat using robots (machine learning). Here the task is to prepare the algorithms to be processed without human interference;
Machine learning technologies
When talking about automation technologies, artificial intelligence is one of the main trends. We can divide the existing tools into two types:
? Machine learning: if the company has, for example, 600 sources of customer data, it becomes laborious and time consuming for a human being to analyze all these references. With algorithm-based programming, a robot can process and cross-reference information in seconds. What must be defined is the process necessary for the machine to achieve this goal. Thus, any repetitive task can be automated, since there is, in general, a protocol to be followed. This is the case of initial customer service for insurance companies, for example. Machine learning is to teach the machine to act in a given situation. It can predict what the customer wants or needs and trigger a specific journey, using pre-programmable algorithms such as Next Best Action and Next Best Moment.
? Deep learning: it is an evolution of machine learning and uses neural networks. Algorithms are more complex and their development has a higher cost. With it the machine learns by complex patterns. In the not too distant future, when a beneficiary activates the car insurance, for example, after colliding with a pole, he will talk to a robot (machine learning). The machine will be able to identify the above risk through image analysis (deep learning), triggering the type of rescue according to gravity and triggering all validations so that the insured has a less traumatic experience in the face of what has happened. Technologies based on deep learning are developing in various sectors, such as Uber's driverless cars and Tesla Motors' autopilot.
Many insurers are moving towards complete automation of their processes. Some even use machine learning to open a claim, or in customer service. We are in the middle of this learning curve, which is exponential as many companies work on similar projects.
The use of technologies in the insurance sector is changing the way in which insurers, brokers operate and the interaction with policyholders. While the company has greater control and ease in data processing, monitoring of processes for closing contracts more safely, in turn, the insured finds ease and speed in contracting insurance, in addition to being practical when triggering them.
The exponential leap for robotic assistants is yet to come, Eugene Goostman is a chatterbot (software that tries to simulate a human being in conversations) developed in Russia, he was portrayed as a 13-year-old boy from Odessa, Ukraine, who had a pet and a gynecologist father. In 2014, it became the first chatbot to pass the Turing Test, according to which an interrogator is tasked with trying to determine in a game of questions and answers which player A or B is a computer and which is a human.
Alencar Marabiza has been Commercial and Marketing Director at Sistran Brasil for 11 years. Graduated in Information Technology, Specialization in Technology and Business at FGV, 30 years acting as a provider of strategic IT solutions applied to insurance. He worked for insurance companies at Sharp, BCN and Bradesco and at consulting companies Atos Origin and BSI.
Disclaimer: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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