Smartphone applications and websites are welcomed by members, and artificial intelligence (AI) has helped break down large data sets in group insurance, according to findings from Zurich/OnePath.
Speaking at Zurich/OnePath’s Innovation Xchange event, David Neate, OnePath’s solution delivery manager, said the message they had learned was that anything member facing now had to be accessible via smart phones.
“Our hypothesis was no member having a life insurance plan would want to log onto a website, they’d always want to speak to a human being,” Neate said.
“Man, how wrong were we? 60% of members that get issued credentials log-on, they log-on on average, about six or seven times over the life of their claim.
“The biggest users of the portal at the moment are blue-collar workers in Queensland – the demographic we absolutely thought would not use those portals.”
The company was also working on improving its analytics side to better understand the methods insurance was claimed.
They had utilised customer relationship software Salesforce’s Einstein AI system to bring over data from Excel, in a method that was more effective at analysing data trends and presenting those findings.
“You can ask Einstein questions: show me stuff for females, show me stuff for 25-year-olds… we can look trends or geolocations, because it’s visualised, it’s really easy to see,” Neate said.
“What the AI tools are doing to us now is giving better customer communications, better education, targeted prevention and better overall outcomes.”
The insurance company has joined this year’s awards as a principal partner.
The $135 billion fund has transitioned away from TAL Life Insurance following an “extensive tender process”.
The $80 billion fund is facing legal action over allegedly signing up new members to income protection insurance by default without active member consent.
In a Senate submission, the Financial Services Council has once again called for further clarification that the government will assess the consumer outcomes of group insurance against the enshrined objective of superannuation.