Insure app uses AI to enable customers to buy policies and will soon process repair claims
Elly Yates-Roberts |
Indian insurance firm ICICI Lombard has partnered with Microsoft to transform car insurance in the country. Using a mobile app called Insure, customers can buy policies and soon will be able to use to process repair claims.
According to a Microsoft news story, India has one of the fastest growing car insurance markets with over 230 million vehicles and 1,200 accidents each day. Historically, inspectors have had to get physically involved in processing these repair claims or renewing policies, which often kept cars off the road for days.
ICICI Lombard and Microsoft are trying to simplify this process by enabling customers to upload images of their vehicle and its damage using the mobile app. The Microsoft Azure-based app uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to analyses the images. This reduces the inspection time from the days it would take for a physical inspection to just minutes.
“We had been envisioning something like this for a long period of time,” said Girish Nayak, chief of Customer Service, Operations and Technology at ICICI Lombard. “We were not really successful working with some start-ups. Therefore, we approached Microsoft to see if we could do this together.”
The app’s benefits are clear. Customer can file claims whenever is convenient for them and they can receive cost estimates much sooner than with physical inspections. The AI technology also reduces human error, increases efficiency and improves productivity for the inspectors as they can focus on more complex and less repetitive tasks.
The inspectors are also being trained in new skills.
“With AI coming in, it frees up their time to prioritise complex cases and personal customer interaction, as well as providing career paths in learning new techniques,” said Nayak.
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