Insurance companies currently face a shortage of talent and very high costs employing staff with the right skills. There are also increasing claims pressures on existing staff following the recent series of floods on Australia’s east coast.
According to data and analytics specialist PBT Group, a low-code system – known as a rules engine – can help insurance firms cope with these challenges.
Will Erskine (pictured above), PBT Australia’s general manager, said the technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) to capture business rules and store and maintain them within a centralised repository. The repository can then integrate with insurers’ existing systems.
“Implementing RulesLab [PBT’s rules engine] is certainly an excellent step in an insurer’s digital journey,” said Melbourne-based Erskine. “Using AI to automate simple, rote, repetitive tasks is the way of the future.”
Erskine said the system enables people to focus on high-level human interaction and customer support without wasting time on routine tasks that are easily automated.
This low code system, he said, is relatively easy to use.
“Low-code development tools employ visual interfaces with basic logic and drag-and-drop capabilities instead of complex programming languages,” he said. “That means users don’t require deep technical expertise to build and update rules. Changes can be made by any computer-literate business employee.”
Insurance companies that use a rules engine, Erskine said, don’t require computer programmers “to do the initial work” or make changes as the firm’s rules are updated.
“Low-code tech is becoming increasingly common as organisations shy away from the constraints and expense of complex programming,” he said.
PBT’s rules engine can also test the rules that are inputted.
“It also has the ability for rule authors to complete unit tests via a user-friendly interface, where authors can input the test values, and receive a quick pass/fail result,” said Erskine. “Users get immediate feedback on rule updates before they are promoted to the RulesLab engine.”
Erskine said insurance firms interested in installing a rules engine should analyse all their rules first.
“That ensures all current requirements are considered and the configuration is executed to enable future changes with little to no impact,” he said.
He added that the set-up time depends on an individual insurance organization’s requirements
“Many RulesLab users like to start small, with just some rules, and add to the tool as they progress, so it is an iterative process,” he said.
The PBT Australia general manager said a simple implementation can be up and running in a few days, and RulesLab can triage claims according to their likely complexity.
“Simpler claims that meet all the pre-determined claims management criteria can be approved for payment immediately, improving the customer experience,” he said.
Erskine said the system is also scalable and can manage a large share of the decision making regardless of the quantity of decisions. It’s also useful for compliance and audit purposes.
“There’s no need to ask someone why they made a decision for audit purposes,” said Erskine. “RulesLab shows exactly what rules were applied and how, leaving a clearly discernible pattern to show why a decision was reached.”
He added that RulesLab is “an expert tool” for identifying potentially fraudulent claims, “which is obviously important to contain insurers’ escalating claims costs,” he said.
Other tech companies are also offering possible solutions to ease talent crunch pressures on insurance companies.
“Automate and eliminate processes and resources that don’t add any value to your business,” said David Hampton, CEO of BAIS insurance technology to Insurance Business.
The Sydney-based CEO argued that even a small productivity gain can have a significant impact and may overcome the need to find new staff. Hampton said he is “constantly amazed” at the amount of double keying of data in the insurance industry.
He said optimizing processes and technology, like quoting and binding, can win time and cut back on wastage.
EXL, a global data analytics and digital operations and solutions company, helps insurers automate the end-to-end quality process in their claims operations.
Abhi Bhola, EXL’s APAC vice president of sales for insurance business said in manual quality audits the coverage is only 10-15%, whereas with EXL’s solution insurers can audit almost 100% of their claims.
Brokerages are also upping their digital game, including in the claims space. Recoversure, the motor fleet claims business owned by DKG Insurance Brokers, claims to be a fully digitally enabled claims management solution in the motor claims space.
According to Allan O’Brien, DKG Fleet Insurance’s general manager of claims, his firm’s process is “more digital than most.” O’Brien said they now have the ability to digitally automate almost every part of the motor claims process.
