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You’ve heard the chatbot hype, now get ready for the chatbot reality – the robots are not just coming to insurance, they’ve arrived.
That, at least, is the case for Zurich UK which has announced it has just commenced a “six-week chatbot pilot” for its first notification of emergency home and motor claims.
Like all good robots, the concept has a name – Zara – and, according to the insurer it, or should that be “she”, is already proving her worth. Following the recent nationwide snowfall and high levels of melt water, the insurer received much higher call volumes than normal – and Zara was able to immediately log the first notifications by working at all hours, seven days a work.
Zara’s arrival doesn’t mean the end for humans, however – instead it simply passes the data to a human claims handler who can respond to the claim within three working hours.
“In a digital age many of our customers expect to be able to interact with their insurer online and this pilot has allowed us to gauge interest in this type of innovative and exiting technology,” explained David Nichols, chief claims officer at Zurich Insurance. “The recent launch of Zurich’s UK Innovation Foundry also demonstrates that we’re truly dedicated to exploring new technologies for our customers and will seek out the innovative start-ups that will ultimately benefit them.
‘'The move to use robotics shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a hindrance. New and innovative technologies will help customers, but also empower us to redeploy people so they can develop new skill sets beyond traditional career paths.”
‘Zara’ was developed using themes of behavioural economics with external partners Spixii, an insurtech start-up that came out of Zurich-sponsored StartupBootCamp.
