Conventional wisdom holds that artificial intelligence is the next great horizontal technology that will unleash future waves of innovation. Yet AI is not a single type of technology. It takes many forms and encompasses many, many uses. And to focus on AI is to miss the forest for the trees.

Same holds good across all technology; some vendors claim that videotech will revolutionise the way  insurance carriers manage auto and building/property insurance claims. Yes- it will help but what use is reforming just the front end of the claim without addressing the back-end?

Front end only?

• Using photo and video to help scope damage and make authorise/need more info decision
• Show if vehicle is drivable or will need a replacement car/can/truck
• Use claimant self-service to speed up process
• Make video/photo data & ,metadata part of the digital record.
• Creates a single digital record for every claim/claimant that can be shared across all stakeholders committed to serve the customer

It speeds up that part only to hit the barriers of the core  systems of record inflexibility, complexity and delay. So you need more.....

Front, middle and back-end

Reform fraud detection- you can already deter 25% to 35% of fraudulent claimants by having them send photos " Suddenly decided I don't want to send in a claim!". 

Then you can add in tool that analyses not just the photos/videos but also the claims notification form (CNF) including freeform text.  

But now to make this really useful you could do with accessing the 80% of info in emails. letters, other CNFs. And allow a professional investigator to follow up a hunch.

"I seem to remember other claimants using that dodgy bodyshop in their claim. Can I search across all data including even attachments like invoices for a combination of claimant names, passenger names, location like "petrol forecourt" ?"

Ah! Lo and behold two other claims and one of them has the same passenger name!

Better still if I can have the videotech and the "Google  strength Enterprise Search Tool" in a real digital platform.

A platform that can include machine learning, deep learning, cognitive analytics, robotics process automation (RPA), and bots, to name a few.

And what's the good of processing claims faster if you can't reform the supply chain that will deliver the repair, replacement or payout the claimant deserves?

Shares (securely of course) the relevant informatio

n from a single digital record with vehicle hire companies and repair shops, with building sub-contractors, with drainage specialists, decorators, electricians.

Exploits crowd-sourcing

to get quick quotes, and contract the right parties to repair, replace or pay up.

Yes, AI will be increasingly utilised but not by itself. Not for nothing is digital transformation a case for:-

• Strategic Planning
• Commitment and leadership from customer-facing to C-Suite & CEO
• Organisational and cultural change
• Reformation of workflows and processes to focus on customer journeys and not just make current processes more efficient
• Considering analytics and big data not as projects in themselves but as part of this bigger picture
• Realising that you must bridge the gap between core systems ( old, monolithic, inflexible, complex and maintained with difficulty) and new digital platforms
• Aim to link the two so as to rejuvenate the old and enjoy the new.

Deloitte's report summed it up well. Beware the IT vendor's messenger with shiny technologies that solve finite parts of the challenge and look for proof of success in having delivered transformation of the whole process.