Conversational Agents for Insurance Companies: From Theory to Practice

Abstract

Advances in artificial intelligence have renewed interest in conversational agents. Additionally to software developers, today all kinds of employees show interest in new technologies and their possible applications for customers. German insurance companies generally are interested in improving their customer service and digitizing their business processes. In this work we investigate the potential use of conversational agents in insurance companies theoretically by determining which classes of agents exist which are of interest to insurance companies, finding relevant use cases and requirements. We add two practical parts: First we develop a showcase prototype for an exemplary insurance scenario in claim management. Additionally in a second step, we create a prototype focusing on customer service in a chatbot hackathon, fostering innovation in interdisciplinary teams. In this work, we describe the results of both prototypes in detail. We evaluate both chatbots defining criteria for both settings in detail and compare the results and draw conclusions for the maturity of chatbot technology for practical use, describing the opportunities and challenges companies, especially small and medium enterprises, face.

A Matter of Trust? Examination of Chatbot Usage in Insurance Business

“…The ability to automate and simplify existing complex processes is one reason why chatbots are increasingly being developed by companies in the insurance sector [6,9,10]. Generally, in the insurance sector, customer contact usually exists for two reasons, namely the conclusion of an insurance contract or the notification of a claim [11]. Both aforementioned areas could benefit from several advantages using chatbots such as 24/7 availability and fast processing.…”

“…Given that insurance companies are becoming increasingly similar, customer data is seen as a key factor in adapting services to individual needs [12]. By communicating and exchanging information with the customer, chatbots offer new cost-effective ways to influence the customer's value creation process within the dialog and present individualized offers [11,12].…”

Explaining Policyholders’ Chatbot Acceptance with an Unified Technology Acceptance and Use of Technology-Based Model

“…Likewise, the interaction with bots has negligible digital barriers since even a conventional phone is able to use them. In any case, chatbots have fewer impediments to their use than other digital technologies, such as apps [28]. Therefore, this factor is not considered in this analysis.…”

“…They are capable of providing assistance 24 h a day, 7 days a week, and are more flexible than humans in terms of when they are available [14]. Moreover, they have fewer barriers to use than other digital technologies, such as apps [28].…”

Interpreting Human Responses in Dialogue Systems using Fuzzy Semantic Similarity Measures

“…In this sense, agents are helpful tools for human-machine interaction, allowing the input of data via natural language, processing sentences, and returning answers appropriately through text. DS, sometimes known as conversational agents, have been used in a wide range of applications such as customer service [1], help desk support [2], Educational [3,4,5,6], Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for young adults [7], insurance [8] and healthcare [9]. Dialogue understanding has become more valuable to companies with the easier ability to gain insights from unstructured text through Google's AutoML and natural language API [10], to Amazon's use of supervised machine learning to allow correct interpretation of natural language vocabulary reducing, for example, the detection of false positive responses [11].…”