In just the last five years, the introduction of technological advances and mobile applications have enabled services such as telehealth to flourish, allowing personalised remote consultations that were not possible before. Digitisation has moved 80 to 90 per cent of claims online, replacing traditional paper forms. Making appointments has also moved largely online, creating efficiencies that reduce time in the waiting rooms and improve customer satisfaction. Insurance company portals and comparison sites have also benefited consumers and allowed them to more easily find the solutions that are right for them with only a few clicks.
Leading providers are now positioned to leverage advancements across other sectors such as behavioural sciences through dedicated mobile apps such as telematics and wellness apps. The benefits to consumers and insurers alike will be profound. They include the creation of a far wider range of products and services that are better tailored to the needs of individual customers. For example, insurers will be able to analyse customer behaviours and claim patterns to offer flexible products that accurately reflect their particular needs, as opposed to off-the-shelf, standardised policies and certificates. Companies will also be able to price their products more accurately, so that they can provide excellent value to the customer while ensuring reasonable returns.
Now the stage is set for further and more sustainable improvements, particularly when it comes to management, ongoing analysis and usage of data. Based on artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and machine-learning, insurance companies have better capabilities to understand and manage the market, their business and customers data far faster and more clearly than ever before. Other advantages of AI include improving fraud detection, facilitating regulatory compliance, reducing costs and giving customers the confidence that they have appropriate cover.
At Watania Takaful, we are developing Data Lake which deploys Snowflake, a sophisticated data warehousing application. This centralised data and business intelligence platform, driven by AI and machine learning, will sharpen our customer centric focus, allowing us to provide highly accurate product offering and pricing as well as fast quality customer service.
To benefit fully from AI and machine learning, the UAE insurance and Takaful companies must adopt a bold vision and prioritise investing not only in the best new technologies but equally in training their staff to use and benefit from them. This will lead to sustainable growth underpinned by customers that are delighted by the expanding range of products available to them, each with a wide variety of options and features to select as they wish.
