The insurance sector is full of paperwork, obfuscated pathways, and endless back-and-forths. Even the simplest tasks can feel like a maze.
Luckily, AI chatbots can cut through these complexities. Simplifying claims, directing users, assessing needs, and booking meetings are all well within their wheelhouse.
Interested in getting started with an insurance chatbot? Here’s everything you need to know.
What is an Insurance Chatbot?
An insurance chatbot is an AI-powered assistant designed to help users navigate insurance services. It provides instant responses to queries, such as policy details, claims status, or premium calculations.
These chatbots can handle customer support, recommend coverage options, and streamline claim submissions.
16 Ways to Use Chatbots in Insurance
Instant Policy Guidance
Navigating the fine print of insurance policies can be daunting.
Chatbots simplify this by providing immediate answers about coverage limits, premium details, and policy specifics, helping customers make sense of their plans with ease.
Efficient Claims Processing
Chatbots guide users step-by-step through claim submissions, assist with document uploads, and offer real-time status updates.
By automating these processes, they reduce errors and speed up resolutions, transforming a tedious task into a smooth experience. Filing a claim doesn't have to be a headache.
Lead Generation and Qualification
Chatbots engage potential customers right on your website or app, gathering essential information and qualifying leads for your sales team. They ask targeted questions to identify high-quality prospects, a key part of an AI-enhanced sales funnel.
Automated Renewals and Reminders
Never let a policy lapse unnoticed. Chatbots send automated reminders for renewals, provide quotes for updated coverage, and even process renewal transactions.
24/7 Customer Support
When customers have questions at midnight, who answers? Chatbots.
Providing round-the-clock assistance, they handle FAQs, policy changes, and procedural inquiries whenever customers need help.
Personalized Cross-Selling and Upselling
Chatbots analyze customer profiles and interaction history to suggest relevant insurance products or policy upgrades.
For example, if a customer has just added a teen driver to their auto policy, the chatbot might recommend an umbrella policy for extra liability protection.
Fraud Detection Support
Vigilant against inconsistencies, chatbots can flag suspicious activities during claim submissions and alert human agents for further investigation.
By leveraging AI to detect unusual patterns, they add an extra layer of security against fraudulent claims, saving insurers from potential losses.
Seamless Onboarding Experience
Welcoming new customers is crucial. Chatbots guide them through the onboarding process by:
- Explaining benefits and coverage options
- Collecting necessary personal and payment information
- Assisting with account setup and initial policy documents
Efficient Support During Peak Periods
During times of high demand – such as policy renewals, enrollment seasons, or after widespread events affecting many customers – immediate assistance is crucial.
Chatbots provide quick access to support services, help with urgent claim filings, and offer real-time updates across various types of insurance like medical, car, and more.
They can handle a surge in inquiries without delays, ensuring customers receive timely assistance when it's needed most.
Policy Comparisons
With so many options available, choosing the right policy can be overwhelming.
Chatbots help customers compare multiple insurance products side-by-side, highlighting key differences and benefits.
Dynamic Risk Assessment Tools
Chatbots can evaluate user-provided data – like driving habits or lifestyle choices – to calculate personalized risk scores.
They then suggest tailored coverage options, aligning insurance solutions closely with individual risk profiles.
Interactive Education on Insurance
Demystify complex insurance jargon with interactive tutorials and quizzes. Chatbots educate customers about insurance terms and coverage options in an engaging way.
Agent Support Chatbots
Not just for customers – chatbots assist insurance agents too. They provide quick access to:
- Policy information and details
- Training materials and updates
- Sales resources during client meetings
Internal chatbots, like HR chatbots and AI assistants, are becoming more and more popular in the workplace.
By enhancing agent productivity and effectiveness, these bots can support better customer service and sales outcomes.
Regulatory Compliance Updates
Keeping up with regulatory changes is vital in the insurance industry.
Chatbots inform customers about new laws or regulations affecting their policies. They guide them through necessary updates to remain compliant, ensuring both the customer and the insurer are up to date with legal requirements.
Localized and Multilingual Support
Insurance needs are global, and effective communication is key. Chatbots offer language-specific or region-specific advice, making services accessible to a diverse customer base.
After all, LLM-powered chatbots can communicate in dozens of languages for free. ChatGPT, for example, offers over 80 languages.
Assistance with Complex Forms
Filling out complex insurance forms can be overwhelming. Chatbots make this easier by guiding users through forms step-by-step in a conversational way.
By breaking down lengthy documents into simple questions and offering real-time assistance, they simplify the process and reduce errors.
Examples of Chatbots in Insurance
Waiverlyn, the digital concierge for the Waiver Group
Navigating Medicaid Waiver Programs is a high-stakes challenge for healthcare providers – delays and errors can lead to funding losses or compliance issues.
To tackle this complexity, Waiver Consulting Group asked Hanakano (a Botpress-certified partner) to build an AI chatbot to simplify processes for both their team and their clients.
Waiverlyn handles consultation bookings, qualifies leads, and accelerates client onboarding – all seamless built-in to the company’s existing tech stack.
The results were immediate and impressive:
- 25% increase in consultations
- 9x boost in visitor engagement
- Full ROI achieved in 3 weeks
Read the full case study: Waiver Group’s 25% increase in leads delivered full ROI after 3 weeks.
Zurich Claims Bot
To help users navigate their insurance claims pages, Zurich offers a Claims Bot to guide visitors.
The Bot asks users questions to determine their need, and either directs them to the correct information webpage or connects them with a human agent.
Molly, the virtual assistant at Sensely
Sensely started off their virtual assistant with a narrow use case: accessing health insurance services and healthcare resources.
But after finding success with their initial design, Sensely expanded their AI assistant to include
- Checking symptoms and triaging
- Offering a self-care and wellness library
- Assessing health risks
- Monitoring chronic conditions
Benefits of Chatbots in Insurance
24/7 Customer Support
Chatbots provide instant assistance anytime, improving customer satisfaction and reducing reliance on human agents during off-hours.
Streamlined Claims Processing
Chatbots streamline claims processes by guiding users step-by-step through filing procedures.
They can verify claim eligibility by cross-referencing policy details, collect necessary documents via file uploads, and even provide status updates in real time. This automation reduces errors and bottlenecks common in manual claims handling.
For instance, instead of waiting on hold or navigating complex websites, a customer can quickly file a car accident claim by interacting with the chatbot, saving time for both the customer and the insurer.
Cost Efficiency and Scalability
By automating repetitive tasks like answering FAQs or policy lookups, chatbots reduce the need for large customer service teams.
They can handle thousands of inquiries simultaneously, allowing insurers to scale their services during peak periods, such as natural disasters, without incurring extra costs.
Personalized Customer Engagement
Chatbots use customer data, such as interaction history and policy details, to provide tailored experiences.
They can recommend additional coverage based on a customer's lifestyle, send reminders for policy renewals, or alert customers to potential savings.
For instance, a chatbot might notice that a customer travels frequently and suggest a tailored travel insurance plan.
Data-Driven Insights
Every chatbot interaction generates data that can reveal customer preferences, common issues, and service gaps. Using AI chatbot analytics, insurers can identify trends, such as frequently asked questions or claims types, and adjust their offerings accordingly.
For instance, if many customers inquire about coverage for natural disasters, insurers can use this data to promote relevant policies or develop new ones.
Chatbots also allow real-time monitoring of customer sentiment, enabling insurers to adapt their communication strategies swiftly.
Best Insurance Chatbot Platforms
There are many AI chatbot platforms designed for insurance providers, from open-source options to enterprise-level suites. Some focus on customer support, while others can handle claims, policy management, and lead qualification.
The best platform aligns with your business goals. Look for one with the capabilities, features, and pricing to meet your specific needs.
1. Botpress
Botpress is a versatile AI chatbot platform, endlessly customizable and extensible. It’s always up-to-date with the latest LLM engines, ensuring its chatbots and AI agents are always powered by the most recent technology.
Botpress offers a visual drag-and-drop canvas for developers, automatic translations for over 100 languages, and endless customizability.
The platform includes pre-built integrations to the most popular software and channels, but allows developers to connect their bot to any knowledge base or internal platform. This endless extensibility makes Botpress an excellent platform for professional, enterprise-grade AI agents.
The company has over 750,000 active bots in production as of June 2024, processing over 1 billion messages. Their AI chatbots span customer service, HR, IT, governments, tech, and more.
Botpress comes with a thriving community. If you’re looking for a developer to build your chatbot, Botpress offers an extensive partner network of expert builders. And their active Discord community of 25,000 bot-builders provides 24/7 access to other developers.
Learning the ins and outs of the platform is made simple with their YouTube video tutorials and by their expert-curated courses at Botpress Academy.
Key features
- Advanced analytics
- Endlessly extensible – connect your bot to any platform or channel
- Pre-built integrations
- Military-grade security
- Automatic translation to over 100+ languages
Pricing
Botpress offers a Pay-As-You-Go tier (which includes a free plan), a Team Plan, and an Enterprise Plan.
The free plan comes with 5 bots, 2000 incoming messages a month, 100MB vector database storage, and $5 AI credit. The Pay-As-You-Go model allows users to purchase small add-ons as they expand their usage – you can purchase an extra 100,000 table rows for $25 CAD, an extra 5000 incoming messages for $10 CAD, or an extra bot for $1 CAD.
The Team Plan includes $1000 worth of add-ons, but is sold for $495/month.
The Enterprise Plan is entirely customized to an individual company – each will have different chatbot needs. It comes with high-level dedicated support and volume discounts across the board.
2. IBM watsonx Assistant
IBM watsonx Assistant is a conversational AI platform designed to build virtual and voice assistants for customer service applications.
It leverages artificial intelligence and large language models to learn from customer interactions, aiming to improve issue resolution efficiency and reduce customer wait times.
Unlike traditional chatbots, watsonx Assistant can query knowledge bases, seek clarifications, or escalate to a human agent as needed. It’s adaptable for use in various environments, including cloud and on-premises setups.
The platform also offers voice capabilities, allowing integration into telephonic customer support systems. IBM promotes watsonx Assistant as a tool for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of customer service interactions.
Key features
- Agent assistance
- Artificial intelligence integration for better customer understanding
- A range of integrations with existing tools
- Enhanced security measures
- A visual builder for easy chatbot creation without extensive coding
Pricing
IBM watson Assistant offers a Lite free plan, as well as Enterprise pricing. The latter is fully customizable for companies – price will vary based on their needs.
Their Plus plan includes a base cost of $140 USD per month, with additional costs for more integrations, additional MAUs, and additional RUs.
3. Kore.ai
Kore.ai provides a multifaceted AI chatbot platform designed for enterprises and small businesses, aimed at enhancing customer, employee, and agent experiences.
The platform stands out with its no-code approach, enabling users to create intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) without coding skills. It also offers low-code options for deeper customization.
Kore.ai also focuses on security and compliance, crucial for sensitive sectors like banking and healthcare. Analytics and reporting tools provide insights for optimizing customer service strategies.
The platform's adaptability across different industries, from banking to healthcare, helps businesses streamline processes and enhance customer interactions. Kore.ai’s free trial option allows companies to evaluate the platform's fit with their specific needs.
Overall, Kore.ai positions itself as a comprehensive solution for creating and managing AI-driven customer interactions, aiming to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction across various sectors.
Key features
- Support for over 120 languages and channels
- Pre-built bots for various industries
- Advanced dialog management
Pricing
Kore.ai offers two pricing plans: Standard and Enterprise. They don’t include a set price for either plan, offering instead a customized service for their users.
Their Enterprise plan includes all their Standard offerings, as well as unlimited notifications, unlimited dialogues in their builder, unlimited FAQs, and an increase from 200 to 1200 requests rate limit per minute.
4. Dialogflow
Dialogflow is an AI chatbot platform developed by Google, offering two editions: Dialogflow CX (advanced) and Dialogflow ES (standard).
It facilitates 24/7 customer self-service through virtual agents and interactive voice response (IVR) systems capable of handling routine tasks and queries, while also providing seamless transition to human agents for complex issues.
Dialogflow's versatility enables many conversational forms across various platforms, ensuring instant, accurate responses to common queries.
As for its choice of LLMs, Dialogflow is always built on Google AI.
Dialogflow also emphasizes ease of management and scalability, supporting a wide range of use cases like voicebots for customer engagement and chatbots for B2C interactions.
Key features
- Omnichannel implementation
- Multilingual support and 30+ language supported
- Visual flow builder
- State-based data models for managing conversation flows
Pricing
Dialogflow is priced monthly, like other chatbot builders, based on the edition you choose and the number of requests that are made to your chatbot each month.
Dialogflow ES (Essentials) and Dialogflow CX offer different features – the latter supports up to 20 independent conversations flows and models that can detect conversation detours. It also allows builders to reduce development time by 30% with a visual builder.
5. Amazon Lex
Amazon Lex is a comprehensive service designed to build conversational interfaces for customers in applications using both voice and text.
The platform is powered by the same technology as Amazon’s Alexa and can easily integrate with AWS Lambda and other Amazon services.
Amazon Lex chatbots will work with intents, utterances, and slots to provide request fulfillment for their users. As a fully managed service, it also eliminates the need for users to manage infrastructure.
With Amazon Lex V2, the service enhances its capabilities, offering even more intuitive and flexible conversational interfaces, integrating easily with AWS services and simplifying bot creation – without the need for deep learning expertise.
Key features
- Integration with other Amazon services
- Advanced voice features
- Drag-and-drop conversation builder
- Increased speech recognition accuracy
Pricing
Amazon Lex changes clients based on the number of speech or text API requests processed by the bot. For example, 1000 speech requests in a month would cost $4.
How to implement an insurance chatbot
Implementing a chatbot for insurance can feel overwhelming at first. The complexities of building, deploying, and monitoring a chatbot can seem daunting.
But the best way forward is to start building a clear plan to deploy and optimize your chatbot. When broken down into steps – and guided by an experienced CSM team – implementation is only weeks away.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Define Your Objectives
Decide what your insurance chatbot should accomplish. Is it directing website visitors to the right page? Or is directing them to the right page, helping them fill out the form, and offering follow-up services?
Your objectives will shape everything from the features you prioritize to the type of chatbot you choose.
Most chatbots today are LLM agents – software that uses large language models for flexibility, content handling, and built-in natural language processing.
Clearly defined goals will guide the design of workflows and the selection of the best platform for implementation.
2. Select the Right AI Platform
Picking from the wide array of AI chatbot platforms is critical. Look for one that aligns with your business needs, with features like:
- Customization for tailoring the chatbot’s capabilities to specific use cases.
- Integration options to connect seamlessly with CRM, claims management systems, and other tools.
- LLM-agnostic frameworks for flexibility in choosing your AI model.
A good platform ensures your chatbot can scale and adapt as your requirements grow.
3. Integrate Core Systems
Insurance chatbots thrive when they’re connected to the right tools. Ensure your chatbot integrates with:
- CRM platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce to manage customer data.
- Claims management systems for real-time status updates.
- Document management tools for handling claim-related files.
- Analytics platforms like Google Analytics to measure performance and gain insights into user behavior.
These integrations ensure your chatbot becomes a valuable part of your overall insurance infrastructure.
4. Build and Test Thoroughly
Develop the chatbot’s workflows, conversation scripts, and responses to align with your objectives. Use testing tools to simulate real-life customer interactions, identifying gaps in performance or usability.
Iterate on this process, refining responses and capabilities based on feedback and testing outcomes.
For more support on building, check out:
- Our article on how to build an AI chatbot
- Botpress Academy
- Our YouTube channel of how-to videos
5. Deploy and Monitor Performance
Once live, closely monitor your chatbot’s interactions using built-in analytics tools. Track metrics like response accuracy, user satisfaction, and task completion rates.
Make iterative improvements over time, whether it’s adjusting prompts, refining workflows, or adding new features.
If you’re new to deploying a chatbot, it will help to work with a strong Customer Success Management team. Look for CSM offerings when picking a chatbot platform.
Deploy a chatbot next month
Insurance companies are using AI chatbots to simplify claims, assist customers 24/7, and personalize policy recommendations – all while cutting costs and improving efficiency.
Botpress is the enterprise-grade platform for building custom AI chatbots and AI agents.
With powerful integrations, developer-friendly tools, and top-tier security, you can automate processes and enhance customer experiences seamlessly.
Start building today. It’s free.
Or talk to our team to learn more.
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