That’s one small click for man, one giant data-set for AI.

Like the monumental paradigm-shift which resulted from man’s first steps on the moon, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on various businesses is truly life-changing. Niches as varied as restaurants, e-commerce, banking, and public transit are levelling up, thanks to AI.

The same goes for the insurance industry.

The first thing that comes to mind when linking AI with customer experience into the sphere of insurance are AI-powered underwriters, tracking large data sets through telematics, and smarter predictive technology.

But insurance is, after all, a business first. Anywhere there is a need for lead generation, AI and data analysis can promise to streamline, transform, connect, and, ultimately, disrupt the “business as usual” mantra. The shift makes it “better business” instead.

It’s an outlook that insurers themselves share. A study by Accenture shows that 80% of insurance executives believe AI is going to transform the way insurers gain information from their customers. Half of these executives foresee the biggest benefit being the ability to harvest better data for improved customer insights.

Customers are equally intrigued: 74% say that they would be delighted to receive computer-generated insurance advice.

Sounds like all parties agree. As such, here are four ways to get that change going in favour of smarter, better, and more insightful customer acquisition methods through AI.

Enhancing Existing Business Models

Part of customer acquisition is effective cross-selling and reducing customer churn. Insurance companies that use AI and data analysis to make data-driven decisions can enhance existing business models through these fronts.

AI learning tools in the context of insurance companies could target clients who stand to bring in the highest value. It could also target those with the highest potential to convert or purchase more services.

Having this sort of insight into a customer’s “stage of awareness,” as well as a predictive insight into what a potential client brings, changes the acquisition process for the better.

Suddenly, traditional lead-generation marketers or insurance agents can close highly-targeted leads on a shorter cycle. This is thanks to more effective messaging and resources aimed at these potential clients.

And, when it comes to eliminating customer churn, AI insights can predict customers most likely to leave or whose experiences, patterns, or data might mean they’re probably taking a look at other insurance companies. From here, businesses can take steps to improve retention or even identify additional sales opportunities.

Strengthening Customer Relationships through Conversations

Conversations—that’s another sphere where AI is likely to make its presence felt.

AIA Australia, a leading group insurer in Australia, found that, “AI will better enable conversations.” These are the conversations that occur between agents and customers, between customers and chat bots, and between business goals and executives.

In fact, TAL Life, another leading life insurance company in Australia, is busy developing Cora, the chat bot “dedicated to the claims journey and Alfred, the life-insurance broker with a penchant for dad jokes.”

AI learning and analytics tools also help to strengthen broker relationships with clients. Customer relationships don’t only get nurtured in the lead generation process. Once a customer is on-board, AI can be a powerful ally in helping to manage the carrier-customer relationship by providing empathetic and assistive conversations.

Streamlining the Buying Experience

Acquiring a customer and keeping a customer are two sides of the same coin. Using AI allows insurance companies to bring together diverse and often large databases and streamline the buying experience by aggregating data.

Imagine an online survey that invites a customer to get started. AI analytics could rapidly learn a customer’s position and pull data from numerous databases to present a significantly fewer number of questions, making the process easier and faster.

As they go along, the survey is designed to learn and respond in real-time. This doesn’t just make for a more intuitive experience for the customer. It also provides a more accurate process for the insurer.

Analysing and Acting on Customer Intent

How can we quantify customer intent? What is customer intent? These are some of the questions businesses have to at least try to answer when it comes to customer acquisition and retention.

According to research by Think with Google, demographics “rarely tell the whole story.” This holds true as much as customers who are arriving with various intentions will take action based on these intentions.

AI’s predictive nature can be used by insurers to look for active signals or indicators of a customer’s intent. Based on this feedback, which insurers know are relevant and reliable, the right products and offers can be brought in to spur a customer’s purchase.

The larger benefit, of course, is that this highly accurate technology serves the potential client by giving them a solution that actually fits their needs.

Learning customer behaviour and the actions that flow from this behaviour can also help insurers shore up new business. Let’s say a land development company is a potential client, part of the insurer’s funnel or database. They’ve just won a new contract that might present the perfect opportunity to add more coverage. This is the moment when the insurer can act.

It is precisely these kinds of key moments where the predictive insight of AI comes in. It gives insurance businesses the data they need and presents the next best actions as well in a faster, more streamlined, and efficient manner.

To take it a step further, insurance companies can choose to extrapolate this same data and current customer insights to then predict trends. This allows them to identify other related businesses to pursue.

Acquiring customers and retaining them is clearly a multi-part process that is constantly evolving. As potential customers are identified and move further down the cycle, closer to making a purchasing decision, their preferences may shift. Through AI, Big Data, and related technologies, insurance companies can create more business, nurture their current clientele, and better prepare for future trends on customer behaviour.

However, to fully utilise data and AI, you must have the tools to do so.

At Latize, we specialise in helping organisations make the most of their data, with the help of data analysis, AI, and machine learning. Using our intelligent data management platform Ulysses, we enable AI-driven insights and turn data into actionable insights businesses can use to inform and enhance their customer acquisition strategies, and improve their other internal processes and operations. Get in touch with us today to know how we can help you.