Digital Transformation in the Insurance Industry

Summary

Ray August, President of Insurance and Business Process Solutions at DXC, discusses the digital transformation in the insurance industry. Highlighting DXC's role in automating operations for 1900 global insurance customers, including 80 of the G500, he emphasizes the importance of efficiency and customer experience. With a focus on reducing human interaction in call centers and leveraging AI, DXC aims to revolutionize customer service and reduce costs, showcasing a successful case study with a 20x improvement in call routing.

Takeaways

• 📈 Ray August, President of Insurance and Business Process Solutions at DXC, is a leader in the digital transformation of the insurance industry.
• 🔢 DXC has achieved significant improvements in their services, including a 7x improvement in containment and a 20x improvement in intelligent digital call routing.
• 🌐 DXC serves a global clientele, managing 13 million policies and supporting 1900 insurance customers, including 80 of the Global 500 insurance companies.
• 🤖 Amelia, an AI tool, is utilized by DXC to enhance customer interactions, aiming to reduce human-handled calls from 80% to 10%, thereby increasing efficiency.
• 🏢 DXC operates as a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, understanding the needs and challenges of insurance companies through managing their policies.
• 🛡️ The insurance industry is facing a paradigm shift with the rise of embedded insurance, where insurance is integrated into everyday transactions.
• 📲 Digital transformation in insurance is crucial for efficiency and growth, leveraging digital assets to streamline operations and customer experiences.
• 📈 The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for digital adoption in the insurance industry by at least a decade, impacting both customer behavior and workforce dynamics.
• 📉 Despite the push for digital experiences, the complexity of insurance products often necessitates human interaction, leading to high call center volumes.
• 💼 Millennials, known for their digital preferences, often struggle with understanding complex insurance products, highlighting the need for improved digital education and interfaces.
• 📊 DXC's partnership with Amelia has led to a successful case study, demonstrating a significant reduction in call center volumes and an improvement in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Q & A

Who is Ray August and what is his role in the insurance industry?

Ray August is the President of Insurance and Business Process Solutions for DXC, a company known for its impact on the transformation within the insurance industry. He has a background of over 30 years in transformation, having worked at PwC and Microsoft, and is currently driving change at DXC.

What is DXC's unique position in the insurance industry?

DXC is unique because it is both a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider and operates as an insurance company within its organization. It manages 13 million policies on behalf of its customers, giving it a deep understanding of the daily operations and challenges faced by insurance companies.

What is the significance of the 7x improvement in containment mentioned in the script?

The 7x improvement in containment signifies a significant increase in efficiency, which is a key metric for measuring the effectiveness of processes within the insurance industry. It indicates that DXC's solutions have led to a substantial enhancement in how containment issues are handled.

How does DXC's approach to digital transformation differ from other companies?

DXC's approach to digital transformation is characterized by its ability to achieve substantial improvements in containment, IVR authentication, and intelligent digital call routing at scale. It serves 1900 global insurance customers, including 80 of the Global 500 insurance companies, demonstrating its ability to deliver at scale.

What is the role of Amelia in DXC's digital transformation strategy?

Amelia is an artificial intelligence solution that DXC has partnered with to enhance its digital transformation efforts. It is used to improve the quality of conversations, authentication processes, and call routing, leading to significant improvements in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

What challenges does the insurance industry face in terms of customer interaction?

The insurance industry faces challenges such as the complexity of insurance products, which often require human interaction during the purchasing process. Additionally, there is a growing demand for digital experiences, but the complexity of insurance products can hinder the transition to fully digital interactions.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the insurance industry's operations?

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for digital transformation in the insurance industry. It has increased the volume of calls to call centers, while also reducing the number of available staff due to factors like the 'Great Resignation' and high absenteeism. This has put pressure on the industry to quickly adapt to digital solutions.

What is the concept of 'embedded insurance' mentioned in the script?

Embedded insurance refers to the integration of insurance products into other consumer activities, such as offering trip insurance when booking a trip online or automobile insurance when purchasing a car. This presents a growth opportunity for insurance companies by making insurance more accessible and relevant in everyday transactions.

What is the current state of call center operations in the insurance industry?

Currently, 80% of the calls to insurance company call centers involve human interaction, which is a high percentage compared to other industries. This is due to the complexity of insurance products and the need for personalized service. However, there is a significant opportunity to automate more of these interactions to improve efficiency.

What are the key objectives of DXC's digital transformation initiatives?

DXC's digital transformation initiatives aim to reduce the number of calls handled by humans, improve customer satisfaction, increase operational efficiency, and drive down costs. The goal is to transition from 80% of calls involving human interaction to only 10%, leveraging AI and digital solutions to achieve this.

How does DXC's partnership with Amelia address the challenges of the insurance industry?

The partnership with Amelia brings an AI solution that enhances DXC's capabilities in conversation quality, authentication, and call routing. This helps to reduce human interaction in call centers, improve customer experience, and make operations more efficient, which is crucial given the complex nature of insurance products and the growing demand for digital services.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Introduction to a Digital Insurance Transformation Leader

The speaker introduces Ray August, the president of insurance and business process solutions at DXC, as a key figure in the insurance industry's digital transformation. Ray's impressive background includes significant roles at PwC and Microsoft, and his current work at DXC is highlighted by remarkable achievements such as a 7x improvement in containment, a 6x improvement in IVR authentication, and a 20x improvement in intelligent digital call routing. These accomplishments are demonstrated at scale, serving 1900 global insurance customers, including 80% of the G500 insurance companies. The introduction emphasizes DXC's unique position as both a BPO provider and an insurer, with 20,000 professionals dedicated to automating the insurance industry, and the importance of understanding the core challenges and aspirations of insurance companies in the digital age.

05:03

📈 The Imperative of Digital Transformation in Insurance

The speaker delves into the concept of digital transformation within the insurance industry, explaining it as the utilization of digital assets to enhance company efficiency and growth. Despite the common challenges faced by insurance companies, such as the complexity of their products and the high demand for human interaction, there is a clear trend towards automation, especially in call centers and consumer interactions. The emergence of embedded insurance presents a significant growth opportunity, where insurance is integrated into everyday activities, such as booking trips or purchasing automobiles. The speaker also discusses the impact of COVID-19, which has accelerated the need for digital solutions and highlighted the importance of digital transformation for insurance companies to remain competitive and efficient.

10:04

📞 Challenges and Opportunities in Insurance Call Centers

This paragraph addresses the significant challenges faced by insurance call centers, including increased call volumes and decreased staffing levels during the pandemic. The speaker highlights the need for digital transformation to streamline operations and improve customer satisfaction. The complexity of insurance products often necessitates human interaction, which contrasts with the consumer's expectation for a fully digital experience. The speaker points out that while insurance companies aim to be omni-channel and personalized, the reality is that 80% of calls still require human interaction. The pandemic has also led to an increase in insurance purchases and a greater need for digital communication, putting additional pressure on call centers to adapt and evolve.

15:06

🛡️ Amelia AI: A Case Study in Insurance Efficiency

The speaker presents a case study involving Amelia, an AI solution, which was integrated with DXC's conversational APIs and robust database to transform the customer experience and operational efficiency in an insurance company. The partnership resulted in a system that significantly reduced the need for human-handled calls, improved call quality, authentication, and routing accuracy. The case study demonstrates a substantial reduction in call center interactions, leading to cost savings, enhanced customer satisfaction, and increased efficiency. The speaker emphasizes the potential for this technology to revolutionize the insurance industry by serving both end consumers and brokers more effectively through digital means.

🏆 The Future of Insurance with Amelia AI

In the concluding paragraph, the speaker expresses enthusiasm for the partnership with Amelia AI and its contribution to DXC's service offerings. The integration of Amelia AI is seen as a significant enhancement to DXC's capabilities, making the company more efficient and better equipped to serve its platform users. The speaker thanks the audience for their time and acknowledges the potential of this technology to transform the insurance industry, improving operations and customer experiences across the board.

Keywords

💡Insurance Industry

The insurance industry is a sector of the economy that provides financial protection to individuals and businesses against potential risks and uncertainties. In the video, the speaker discusses the transformation of this industry, emphasizing the importance of digitalization and efficiency in the face of evolving customer expectations and market demands.

💡Digital Transformation

Digital transformation refers to the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how an organization operates and delivers value to customers. The video's theme revolves around this concept, with the speaker highlighting how the insurance industry is leveraging digital assets to become more efficient and effective.

💡DXC Technology

DXC Technology is a global IT services and solutions company that specializes in helping businesses with their digital transformation. The speaker, Ray August, is the president of the insurance and business process solutions for DXC, indicating the company's significant role in the digital evolution of the insurance sector.

💡Improvement in Containment

In the context of the video, improvement in containment likely refers to the enhancement of operational efficiency, particularly in managing and reducing costs associated with risk containment in the insurance business. The speaker mentions a '7x improvement in containment,' showcasing the significant strides made in this area.

💡IVR Authentication

IVR, or Interactive Voice Response, is a technology that allows customers to interact with a company's service through a telephone interface. The script mentions a 'six-fold improvement in IVR authentication,' which suggests a substantial increase in the effectiveness of customer verification processes through automated phone systems.

💡Intelligent Digital Call Routing

Intelligent digital call routing is a system that automatically directs incoming calls to the appropriate service representative based on predefined criteria. The video discusses a '20x improvement in intelligent digital call routing,' indicating a dramatic enhancement in the efficiency of directing customer inquiries to the right personnel.

💡Embedded Insurance

Embedded insurance refers to the integration of insurance products and services into non-traditional insurance channels, such as e-commerce platforms or other consumer services. The speaker discusses this concept as a growth opportunity for insurance companies, highlighting the importance of digital transformation in making this possible.

💡Call Center Automation

Call center automation involves using technology to streamline and manage customer interactions in a call center environment. The video emphasizes the need for automating the experience in call centers as a key aspect of the digital transformation within the insurance industry.

💡Amazon Generation

The term 'Amazon Generation' is used in the video to describe consumers who have come to expect seamless, digital, and automated experiences, similar to those provided by companies like Amazon. This generation's expectations are driving the need for digital transformation in the insurance industry to meet these customer demands.

💡COVID-19 Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on various industries, including insurance. The speaker mentions how the pandemic has accelerated the need for digital adoption in insurance, with more people seeking to update their policies and engage with insurance companies online.

💡Omni-Channel

Omni-channel refers to the ability of a company to provide a seamless and integrated customer experience across multiple channels, both online and offline. The video discusses the aspiration of insurance companies to achieve omni-channel capabilities, although the complexity of insurance products presents challenges in this regard.

Highlights

Introduction of Ray August, a leader in the insurance industry with a 30-year background in transformation at PwC, Microsoft, and now DXC.

Ray August has achieved a 7x improvement in containment, a six-fold improvement in IVR authentication, and a 20x improvement in intelligent digital call routing at scale for 1900 customers globally.

DXC operates as an insurance company within its organization, managing 13 million policies and understanding daily insurance operations and challenges.

Digital transformation in insurance is about making companies more efficient and effective while growing their business through automation.

Insurance companies are focused on automating call center experiences and consumer interactions.

Embedded insurance presents a growth opportunity by integrating insurance into everyday activities like booking trips or buying automobiles.

The impact of COVID-19 accelerated digital adoption by at least a decade, increasing the demand for digital interactions in insurance.

Insurance products are complex, leading to high human interaction in call centers (80% of calls involve a human).

The challenge for insurance companies is to balance the complexity of products with the demand for digital experiences.

DXC's target is to reduce human-handled calls from 80% to 10%, significantly lowering costs and improving customer satisfaction.

Case study: A company saw a 20% increase in call volumes and an 18% reduction in staffing, leading to challenges in IVR authentication and call routing.

Partnership with Amelia: Implementing AI-driven solutions to improve call quality, IVR authentication, and call routing, achieving significant efficiency gains.

AI implementation led to a seven-fold improvement in conversation quality and a four-fold improvement in IVR authentication.

A 20x improvement in call routing accuracy reduced customer frustration and increased efficiency.

DXC's partnership with Amelia represents a triple crown in business process operation, enhancing customer satisfaction, reducing costs, and increasing efficiency.

Transcripts

it is my distinct privilege to

to introduce to you

a giant in the insurance industry who's

actually affecting

this transformation

the president

of

the insurance and business process

solutions

for dxe

ray august now there's a big difference

here not only his background you could

say 30 years of transformation

of having done that at pwc having done

that at microsoft now doing it for dxc

csc obviously the precursor but

i ask you you would say many giants we

have seen and all those other things

i'll ask you a mathematical question

how many of them are actually achieving

7x

improvement in containment

7x

700 that is improvement in containment

how many of them are achieving

a six-fold

improvement

in their ivr authentication

and how many of them are achieving a 20x

improvement 20x

in their intelligent digital call

routing

and doing it at scale for 1900

customers

of insurance globally

where 80 of g 500

insurance companies are being managed

by a giant

this

is the difference

to ray august

and every other futurist he's actually

doing it

please join me in welcoming ray to the

stage

thank you

that introduction will be hard to live

up to but i appreciate it very much you

know we're very excited to be here with

all of you today

talking about

insurance and talking about the digital

transformation of insurance and you know

dxc

we have about 2 000 companies who use

our software around the globe to

automate their business

but the the real interesting thing about

us is we're a bpo provider we are an

insurance company within our

organizations in fact we have 13 million

policies that we run on our systems on

behalf of our customers who are

insurance companies so every single day

we really understand what insurance

companies are doing we understand what

insurance companies think about and we

understand the challenges that insurance

companies have by automating their

operations on their behalf

and each and every day at dxc we have 20

000 professionals who come to work with

that mission and that is to automate

insurance companies so it really is an

opportunity for us to transform how

insurance companies think but also make

our own people more effective more

efficient as they serve insurance

companies and our combined solution

really does just that and i'm excited to

talk to you about it but to talk about

insurance companies you really need to

take a step back and understand what are

insurance companies worrying about what

do they think about each and every day

and if you think about insurance

insurance is pretty simple it's

people serving people it's people who

are looking to insure themselves

and they're being served by individuals

each and every day so it's entirely a

people business and it's a business

where people are the biggest part of the

cost equation

and if you look at what's on the mind of

insurance company

it's how do i get more efficient more

effective operations

how do i grow my business and how do i

really make my business get closer to

the customers

and the way they do that is through

digital transformation now digital

transformation is kind of a topic like

what does it really mean

in the insurance industry digital

transformation is taking all these

digital assets and using it to make

companies more efficient more effective

and grow their companies it's that

simple and the solutions that we have

together really put us at the forefront

to make that happen

and if you look at insurance companies

what are they focused on

they're really focused on automating the

experience in the call center automating

the consumer interaction now i have a

list up here of all the things insurance

companies are thinking about and if i

put this slide up

10 years ago

it would have been the exact same slide

but with the advent of covid with the

advent of how people think it's really

become an imperative on how to automate

what companies need to do to get more

efficient get more affected there's some

really interesting trends that are

underway in insurance industry i'm not

going to talk about all these but one of

the biggest is the notion of embedded

insurance

so think about when you go out and you

book a a trip online

there's an opportunity and you usually

get sold or the opportunity gets sold

trip insurance think about when you buy

an automobile now typically in that

process we try to you you try to get

sold automobile insurance so the process

of embedding insurance into every single

activity is really presenting a growth

opportunity for insurance companies and

we need to have that digital

transformation to make that happen

but so why are companies making the

investment in these interactions it's

pretty straightforward

now

if you look at this slide

you know in our operation you know

today people want to be entirely digital

they want to be entirely automated it's

the amazon generation where people

expect to be able to go online

buy a product serve a product return a

product and that's what people are

accustomed to

but insurance is a different game right

now the challenge with insurance is the

product is

very very complex whether somebody's

buying a life insurance policy whether

somebody's buying a homeowner's policy

it's not as simple as going to amazon

and clicking and buying a book or a can

of tuna fish it's a very complex product

so what's happening in the insurance

companies today is 80 percent of the

time there's a human interaction

involved with that call coming into the

call center 80 percent of the time now

think about the last time you called

amazon when's the last time if ever you

spoke to a human being

an insurance company eight out of ten

times you're dealing with with the

individual and of course insurance

companies aspire to be omni-chan i'll

have personalized orchestration but it

just doesn't happen because of the

complexity of the product it's not a

lack of desire by the insurance company

it's the complexity of the product

that's being bought and sold

and if you look at the typical insurance

company

they're spending a tremendous amount of

money in making this happen think about

the cost of answering calls 80 percent

of the time the call center cost and

this has been compounded by the trends

that we're seeing in the overall

industry now covet has had a dramatic

impact to all of us and the insurance

industry is no different obviously

there's things like the great

resignation

but one of the things that's happened in

insurance is as people began to think

about their own mortality

people went and bought more insurance

they wanted to make sure their insurance

is up to date they want to make sure

their beneficiaries were up to date so

covet has had a dramatic

impact on not only the workforce but

also the inflow the inflow of

conversations the inflow of of making

sure that my information is up to date

so i could provide for my family and if

you think about the millennial

generation a lot's been made about how

millennials are digital nomads and they

demand a digital experience

well in our industry one of the

challenges we're seeing is millennials

really don't understand the products

that they're buying

you know the the the the thing about

insurance is very infrequently does

somebody go out and buy a life insurance

policy very frequently does somebody go

out and buy a homeowner's policy

or per or an automobile policy or an

umbrella policy it's usually a once a

decade type of thing and so when you

have a very complex product and the user

is demanding digital but the product is

so complex it's actually putting a

greater emphasis on the telephone right

now because they're calling up because

they're confused they don't know how to

handle they don't know how to navigate

it's extraordinarily complex and the

third

trend that we're seeing is of course the

need for digital whether it be embedded

products

digital communications the industry is

seeing this dramatic need for these

digital vehicles and of course covet

hasn't done nothing but accelerate that

you know the way i the way i think about

it is covet accelerated electronic and

digital adoption by at least a decade

you know whether it be the older

generation who is unfamiliar with

computers where now they have to go in

and they had to understand it to do

grocery shopping to pay for things to

communicate with their family it really

accelerated digital adoption by at least

a decade and that really put a burden on

the insurance company of the

of today

now if you think about the impact this

had on call centers it's pretty is

pretty significant

if you look at the number of calls

coming in the number of calls increased

dramatically into these call centers at

the same time during covet the number of

people available decreased dramatically

so more calls with less people whether

it be the great resignation which had an

impact but also absenteeism was very

very very very high

the other issues the insurance industry

had

is that they had to take these

centralized call centers and move them

to distributed locations

everybody went to their home so when you

when you have a highly regulated

regulated industry like insurance

what happened was you had to push out

policies you had to push up practices

you had to push out new systems to

individuals and it was very very

difficult typically you know in a call

center you communicated one way so you

had to go digital and you had to go to

these to these different individuals

the consumer experience had to be fast

and nimble in these insurance companies

and

you know the the increased volumes of

people looking online looking for a

policy looking for more information it

was required that it was completely

digital and that was something that

wasn't happening in the insurance

industry in the past so we had a

phenomenal opportunity but of course

insurance is a business it's a business

for the insurance carriers it's a

business to the brokers that they serve

and it's a business for dxe to make sure

we're as efficient and effective as

possible so we're driving down looking

at how do we drive costs down how do we

drive down it drive down the number of

calls at the same time improving

customer satisfaction at the same time

in improving the interaction with

individuals and i'd like to point out

what's happening in the industry

if you look in the insurance industry

today you look at a typical call center

in industry

55 of the time somebody is calling and

looking for information 55 of the time

35 percent of the time they're looking

to execute some sort of transaction

and 10 percent of the time they're go

they're looking for resolution of an

issue so 80 of the time it's a

transaction that should be handled

digitally but it's not like i said

earlier 80 percent of the time today a

call is coming to the call center we see

this 35 percent of 55 percent as pure

opportunity for the industry an

opportunity to better serve their

customers an opportunity to reduce their

costs and an opportunity to to

cross-sell their solutions

so at dxe our targets are a little bit

different using this this fantastic tool

amelia we have an aspiration to go from

eighty percent calls coming in to only

ten percent calls that are that are

handled by a human so think about that

if you go from eighty percent down to

ten percent so the cost savings that

would incur the improved customer

satisfaction

the improved efficiencies and if you've

ever done anything with insurance you

know there's really two customers

there's the end consumer who's very

important but there's also the broker

dealer the broker or the agent really

drives the insurance industry they're

the ones communicating with the

individuals and it's extremely important

that these individuals have a great

experience with the insurance company

itself and they would prefer to go

digital but today is mostly voice so we

have a phenomenal opportunity in this

industry so let me give you a real life

real life case study

today we had a situation where we had a

company and the company saw about a 20

increase in volumes of calls coming into

their call center

at the same time they saw an 18 percent

absenteeism rate or reduction in

staffing

the other thing that was happening is

their ivr was not authenticating people

was too complex there were too many

different items and they weren't being

authenticated so what we did is

partnering with emilia we looked at the

amelia artificial

intelligence solution

we married that with our robust

conversational apis and our solutions

which interface with our robust database

and we brought a system to market we did

in about four months

and piloted with this company and you

heard the stats a seven time improvement

in the quality of the conversation

we saw the fact that we had a four times

improvement in the authentication of

this

the ivr it was fantastic and we saw 20

times improvement of the um

20 times improvement in the routing to

the right individual 20 times and proven

before every one of these calls would

have been routed to the wrong individual

it would have meant you had to pick up

the phone and talk to them but even more

importantly it meant the consumer was

frustrated the consumer was frustrated

with the interaction and i've been this

business a long time and it's safe to

say that it's very rare you see this

kind of payback with the ultimate

solution

that will have an opportunity to grow

customer satisfaction whether it be the

customer excels the end consumer whether

it be the agent itself you can reduce

costs for the insurance companies and

you can make us more efficient and more

effective so we i really look at it as a

triple crown in our business process

operation and we see it as an

opportunity where every single person in

the in the solution gives a more

efficient more effective operation so

we're real excited with our partnership

with amelia we think that it makes a

very robust and

strong part of our arsenal it makes us

very more much more efficient and allows

us to serve everybody in our in our

platform in a more efficient and

effective way so

thank you very much for your time today

[Applause]