Capitalize on the opportunities unlocked through cognitive automation

Before examining the trends, we need to define what cognitive automation means. Essentially, it can involve everything from chatbots to optical character recognition (OCR). It becomes applicable when part of a process needs to be accomplished.

Jon Walden, chief technology officer for the Americas at Blue Prism, explains: “For the Insurance industry, this can impact ROX by making processes much more efficient. Processes such as onboarding new customers, claims intake, and compliance verifications all have significant portions of work that can be automated.”

He will be speaking about this at a panel session on Day 2 of Claims Innovation USA in a topic stream entitled, ‘Discover the Cutting-edge Technologies Which Will Reshape the Future of Claims’. He will also discuss the rising costs associated with interacting with customers, and how the work of adjusters can be augmented with tools. The panel will debate how to ‘ Capitalise on the opportunities unlocked through cognitive automation’.

Meanwhile, he says that all cognitive technologies rely on confidence factors: “The machine ‘thinks’ it needs to respond in such a way or ‘sees’ something. This is all based on training and needs to be verified and adjusted by humans. When the trust is both learned and earned, these technologies allow humans to be more available or allow folks to use the channel that works best for them—whether that be email or chat.”

As part of a Q&A, Claims Innovation’s team also requested an interview with Walden before the conference to find out more about the opportunities that can be unlocked through cognitive automation. Here are his thoughts, his advice, and his predictions.

How can insurers contain the rising costs associated with interacting with customers and explore how the work of adjusters can be augmented with automation tools?

The rising costs can be impacted first by allowing channel choice. More and more folks are willing to use automated channels. This reduces handling times, error rates and customer satisfaction. It also enables adjusters to focus on outlying customers or cases.

What should insurers do to stay ahead of the evolving technology landscape?

While this may sound rudimentary, understanding business purpose and the processes that support it are critical. It is not just about applying technology; it is about application where the most impact can occur. We have all heard/read about failed artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) projects. This is often because they were done as science experiments by IT, not the digital transformation of existing process needs.

Considering the latest innovations—including ML, natural language processing (NLP), machine vision, emotion recognition, and optical character recognition—how can insurers accelerate and automate the claims validation process?

Each part of the claim’s validation process needs to be considered. What are the systems of records, where are costly errors or fraud introduced, where are the backlogs? Each of these has workflows and specific cognitive abilities associated with it. Do not focus or demand end-to-end automation. Start with the easy parts, gain momentum, and ensure success!

In your view, what are the practical strategies for implementing automation in the claims function? Can you also discuss how to align stakeholders to tackle stubborn legacy challenges?

Cognitive automation is not a technology-only play, nor is it something that should be implemented by end users in isolation. The best approach is to find/encourage involvement by teams of interested representatives. This is driven by vision from management with a plan based on the understanding of desired outcomes.

How can insurers capitalise on the opportunities that can be unlocked through cognitive automation, and can you provide some specific examples of them?

Again, first decide on what you want to accomplish. What are your critical key performance indicators (KPIs)?

What are likely to be the forthcoming trends of cognitive automation in the insurance sector over the next five years?

Automation will be critical as the idea of variable-based pricing gains more availability. With Internet of Things (IOT) devices now on many commercial vehicles or even on individuals’ wrists, the amount of data that will be available can only be processed with automation. Even things such as property and casualty (P&C) or workers’ compensation variables could be affected by video data.

We saw this with COVID-19, when some companies used thermal cameras in conjunction with ‘digital workers’ to verify employees’ temperatures, protecting the health and privacy of individuals.

What would you like delegates to learn from this panel session—particularly from your own involvement?

This may be a disservice, but do not expect a vendor to do this for you. Neither consultants nor technology providers are close enough to your workers and processes to drive cognitive automation.  You need to set up some type of Centre of Excellence (CoE) and understand your desired value. In the end that is what is most critical to Blue Prism —namely that customers receive the value of ‘digital workers’.

My final encouragement would be to get started. Cognitive automation is a great journey that has always amazed me with its return on investment (ROI).

Walden is speaking at Claims Innovation USA Virtual Event (13 to 15 July 2021). The event brings together more than 60 expert speakers on claims transformation and is free to attend for insurers and brokers/agents.  Register now to access more than 15 hours of content live and on demand.