INSURTECH: DIGITISATION
Staying prepared: And it’s not just about tech
Change forecast Here’s a conundrum. As the insurance industry uses ever-more advanced versions of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), big data, the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearables to customise policies to people, a major survey has revealed that almost 60 per cent of us want to speak to a real human advisor when signing up. And there’s more. Seventy-two per cent of respondents say they would prefer a physical location to do so. Can this circle be squared? Renaud Dumora, CEO of insurance giant BNP Paribas Cardif, which commissioned Ipsos to carry out the poll among 26,000 people in 26 countries across Europe, Asia and South America, is convinced it can be. People, he says, want the best of both worlds and, if that’s what
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TheInsurtechMagazine | Issue 3
Amid the tectonic plate shifting going on in insurance, BNP Paribas Cardif Chief Executive Officer Renaud Dumora is remaining calm they want, then that is what they’ll get. “It’s true that if you fully automate insurance – the customer journey for underwriting, for example – your net promoter score increases by 40 or 50 points. It sounds like a contradiction but, in fact, it is not. People want to have automated, very lean, very fast processes, but when they raise their hand and say ‘I want to speak to someone’, you have to create an exit door and allow them to,” says Dumora. “That’s the best combination for customers.”
Maintaining human contact was one of four fundamental challenges identified from the survey by BNP Paribas Cardif, a wholly-owned subsidiary of banking giant BNP Paribas, which has 100 million insurance customers across three continents. The others were strengthening recognition of distribution partners as insurance providers (banks were in second place to standalone insurance firms, according to poll respondents); reconciling individual and collective benefits and supporting policyholders beyond compensation. Somewhat reassuringly, the survey also overwhelmingly demonstrated the continuing demand for insurance products, particularly those that cover financial loss and serious illness. Having insurance was at the very heart of respondents’ expectations regarding www.fintech.finance
