news

economic daily | author yu yong

the third plenary session of the 20th cpc central committee clearly proposed to actively develop science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, and strengthen high-quality financial services for major strategies, key areas, and weak links. in recent years, with the continuous advancement of scientific and technological means, the insurance industry is taking scenarios as the guide, using digitalization and intelligence to enable product innovation and service innovation, improve operational quality and efficiency, and provide consumers with more diversified and personalized products and services.

improve customer service experience

digital technology helps insurance services in many ways. it not only changes the way insurance companies operate, but also improves the consumer experience. in recent years, both life insurance companies and property insurance companies have increased their investment in digital technology and its application scope, especially in the areas of insurance, underwriting, claims, customer service, etc., where digital technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence have been deeply applied.

recently, china life insurance company limited (hereinafter referred to as "china life insurance company") released the claims service report for the first half of 2024. the report shows that the company's overall payment time in the first half of 2024 was 0.34 days, a year-on-year increase of 13%. in recent years, china life insurance company has continued to deepen the field of full-process non-manual claims, and has made unremitting efforts to achieve full-process non-manual intervention in the settlement of cases after customers report the case. at present, the project has covered 23 provincial institutions, and the automation of medical claims has been accelerated by more than 90%. liu xiuping, deputy general manager of the underwriting and claims department of china life insurance company, said that the company pioneered the intelligent operation mode of life insurance death claims in the industry, and the review time of life insurance claims has been improved by more than 60%. in addition, china life insurance company took the lead in the industry to launch the digital application of medical electronic invoices in the claims process. in the first half of 2024, the number of electronic invoice claims exceeded 4.31 million, and the amount of compensation exceeded 4.2 billion yuan.

during the interview, the reporter learned that in terms of improving customer experience, digitalization enables customers to quickly interact and communicate with insurance companies directly through online platforms, mobile applications and other channels, which improves the convenience and accessibility of services. in terms of personalized services for customers, by using big data and analytical tools, insurance companies can better understand customer needs and provide customized insurance products and personalized services. in 2014, ping an good car owner app was launched. as an insurance tool application, it mainly provides customers with insurance business needs such as online insurance purchase and compensation. cao xiaochen, deputy general manager of ping an property & casualty insurance's online customer platform team, introduced that based on the needs and feedback of auto insurance customers for the aftermarket of auto services, ping an good car owner upgraded its positioning to a car owner service platform. ping an property & casualty insurance has integrated industry chain resources and deeply linked maintenance outlets, repair shops and auto dealers, etc., with more than 260,000 cooperative merchants, and has successively launched 82 services such as annual inspection, discounted refueling, car washing, and designated driving. as of now, the number of registered users of ping an good car owner has exceeded 200 million, and an average of more than 3 million people use various types of auto insurance and auto services on the ping an good car owner platform every day.

actively apply artificial intelligence

if traditional insurance companies use new technologies by actively embracing digital transformation, then emerging insurance intermediary platforms and internet insurance companies are more active in investing in the implementation of artificial intelligence applications.

with the technical support of the big model, robot customer service can answer complex questions of insured customers more accurately, and can even recognize the user's emotions and give answers that are closer to human customer service. at the same time, robot customer service can save a lot of manpower and help companies reduce costs. at present, customer service robots have a large number of application cases in the insurance industry, including customer consultation, policy inquiry, customer return visit, claim service, etc. taking yuanbao insurance brokerage co., ltd. as an example, the company's independently developed voice robot has a voice recognition accuracy of 95% for insurance issues. judging from the evaluation of customer satisfaction alone, voice robots have surpassed human customer service in some scenarios. for example, robot customer service can not only be online 24 hours a day, but also recognize multiple dialect accents. if it finds that the customer is anxious, it can comfort him and say, "don't worry, take your time."

at the same time, with the development of mobile internet, online precision marketing can select insurance products suitable for users, let insurance products find people who need them, and greatly improve marketing efficiency. at the same time, internet insurance can break away from the geographical limitations of offline agents, enter mountainous areas and villages, and open up a broader market space. according to zhang likai, chief actuary of yuanbao, many of yuanbao's users come from third- and fourth-tier cities, which is a market that traditional insurance agents find difficult to expand in depth. the reason why yuanbao can achieve accurate matching of user needs and products is that there are thousands of model networks driven by ai to support operational decisions behind the scenes.

with the choice of the insured customer, insurance sales are only the first step. the subsequent underwriting, claims settlement and many other links are inseparable from the support of technological means. as early as 2018, huize insurance brokerage co., ltd. launched the "da ze underwriting" system. when users take out insurance through huize, they only need to answer relevant health questions truthfully through "human-computer dialogue" to obtain product selection and underwriting recommendations based on customer health within a few minutes. lv xiaolin, deputy general manager of huize technology product department, introduced that users do not need to provide personal sensitive information before obtaining underwriting conclusions through "da ze underwriting", avoiding the risk of being rejected by other insurance companies after directly entering the insurance company's underwriting system. this is equivalent to protecting the user's health and privacy information.

with the increasing number of consulting services and sales performance of internet insurance products, regulators have also strengthened compliance supervision of the content and quality of insurance industry services, which has posed a challenge to the compliance quality inspection of internet insurance companies. in order to improve the quality inspection efficiency and quality of insurance consultant voice services, huize has designed and developed an intelligent quality inspection system for insurance consultant voices, which effectively improves the quality inspection coverage and quality through a combination of man and machine, controls from the source, and reduces the company's complaint rate. the first quarter report of 2024 released by huize shows that during the reporting period, huize has accumulated 9.56 million insured customers and 220,000 new insured customers. the average and repurchase rates of long-term insurance policies have increased, maintaining the industry's leading level. among them, the average age of long-term insurance policyholders is 34.8 years old, and second-tier and above cities account for 66.4%; long-term insurance repurchase customers account for 40.4%, an increase of 4.5 percentage points year-on-year.

giving equal weight to development and security

as early as 2022, the former china banking and insurance regulatory commission issued the "guiding opinions on the digital transformation of the banking and insurance industries", which clearly stated that banking and insurance institutions should strengthen the management of strategic risks, compliance of innovative businesses, liquidity risks, operational risks and outsourcing risks, while guarding against model and algorithm risks, strengthening network security protection, and strengthening data security and privacy protection.

subsequently, financial regulatory authorities in many provinces issued specific work plans, strictly implemented relevant laws and regulations, strengthened data security management responsibilities, focused on building a data security protection system, and established and improved customer information protection systems, mechanisms, and processes. strengthen data security risk monitoring and disposal, incorporate data security and customer information protection into the comprehensive risk management system, strictly implement the national requirements for data outbound security assessment and security review, strengthen third-party data security assessment, and prevent compliance risks of external data sources.

in may this year, the state financial supervision and administration bureau issued the guiding opinions on doing a good job in the five major financial articles in the banking and insurance industries, proposing that in the next five years, the digital transformation of the banking and insurance industries will achieve significant results, the digital management system will be basically established, and digital services will be widely popularized, providing effective support for the development of the digital economy. the digital regulatory framework process has been basically established, and the level of digital and intelligent supervision has been greatly improved.

industry insiders said in an interview with reporters that from digital transformation to digital finance, regulators have made clear their requirements for the application of digital technology in the financial industry. on the one hand, financial institutions should be guided to accelerate digital transformation and use digital technology to improve the convenience and competitiveness of various financial services. on the other hand, risk management such as data security, network security, and technology outsourcing should be strengthened to prevent risks brought about by the application of new technologies and improve operational resilience.

in august this year, the financial regulatory bureau issued the "notice on strengthening and improving the supervision of internet property insurance business", proposing to support property insurance companies to develop small-scale, decentralized, convenient and inclusive property insurance products based on specific internet scenarios, and improve the convenience and availability of insurance services. the 2024 semi-annual report released by zhongan online property insurance co., ltd. shows that in the first half of the year, zhongan provided health and accident protection for more than 1 million new citizen groups and flexible employment personnel such as takeaways, express riders and online car-hailing drivers. zhongan has launched more than 100 exclusive products for specific groups, covering more than 1 million chronic disease patients, women, and the elderly. customized insurance products have been developed. in addition, in response to the many pain points of domestic small and micro enterprises in their operations, zhongan provides more than 1.33 million small and micro enterprises with multiple types of insurance, including corporate property insurance and liability insurance, to help enhance the risk resistance of small and micro enterprises.

how to minimize the probability of insurance fraud and reduce the losses caused by insurance fraud is a problem that the industry has always faced. according to the international association of insurance supervisors, 20% to 30% of insurance claims worldwide are suspected of fraud each year. on august 1, the "anti-insurance fraud measures" were officially implemented. the heads of relevant departments of the financial supervision administration said that the "anti-insurance fraud measures" are centered on promoting the high-quality development of the insurance industry and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and use strengthening technology empowerment and big data applications as a means to build an anti-fraud work framework of "supervision-led, institution-based, industry joint defense, and coordination among all parties."

during the interview, the reporter learned that, taking commercial health insurance claims as an example, ai-enabled intelligent claims can use intelligent anti-fraud technology to identify the authenticity of user materials based on accurate identification of medical documents, effectively reduce the probability of insurance fraud and reduce the insurance company's compensation costs.

(source: economic daily)

for more exciting information, please download the "jimu news" client from the application market. please do not reprint without authorization. you are welcome to provide news clues, and you will be paid once adopted.