Insurance once considered to be sold over conversations will see new ways of grabbing the target market, says KV Dipu, Head – Operations & Customer Service, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. In an exclusive interview with CIO AXIS, KV Dipu discusses company’s digital transformation and the technologies and trends the company is focussing on in 2021.
What are your proposals to accelerate the digital transformation of companies and return to a new post-pandemic normal?
The “new post pandemic” normal would be completely different from the existing definition of normalcy. The usage of technologies like AI, ML, Blockchain and IoT would play a crucial role in the new era. As the world has drifted towards digitization, most of the services need to be at the click of a button. I recommend digital servicing across all channels as it is the need of the hour. Insurance once considered to be sold over conversations will see new ways of grabbing the target market. Content marketing and digital engagement would be the new ways of conversation to make a sale. Paperless processes, virtual interactions will rise exponentially. Digital claim settlement and Phygital approach to service customers is the key to embrace the new normal.
Can you please share some of the unique lessons learned from Covid-19?
Proactive approach and a bird’s-eye view of global changes helped us predict the lockdown. As we adopted to the changes, we saw a huge difference in consumer behaviour. For instance, the consumers who insisted on meeting or speaking over calls quickly made a transition to digital channels as they realised how beneficial it would be. This sudden change in behaviour certainly proves that, in the time of crisis to get the work done, consumers accepted the change without hesitating. Integrations with various applications like WhatsApp, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, which we had done much before the Covid era had not seen much of traction. However, during the Covid era acceptance of these digital mediums rose exponentially and this helped us achieve ROI.
How is Bajaj Allianz General Insurance taking digital transformation ahead? What technologies and trends will your organization be focusing on next year?
AI infused CX is being tested, right from automating the calls to making voice-bots seem human, the range of transformation is too broad at the moment. We are looking at the low hanging fruits as of now and keen on infusing AI at CX level.
We have our policy issuing bot, Raftaar, based on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) which is lauded by the industry and we are scaling it up. Currently, it handles 60% of the load and we plan to reach 100% soon.
Touch-less UI and Paperless office is one of the key initiatives which is being adopted at various zones; we are exploring new ways of making our offices truly touchless and paperless.
Overall, AI and Data science are going to be a lethal combination to transform the company and reach its customer centric goals.
How will the cybersecurity sector look in a post-COVID-19 world? What do you expect to be different when it comes to cybersecurity and hiring in a post-COVID-19 world?
As a major tech workforce has been working remotely, cybersecurity is a bigger business today. The cyber security threats will continue to rise no matter what precautions are taken. A new type of a hack surfaces every day and disruption is high on the Deepweb.
I believe, following the protocols and taking precautions as instructed in user manuals will cut down the risk drastically.
Hiring the right employees is extremely important during the post Covid era as most of them would work from home.
Internal attacks that are mainly caused by employees need desperate measures as the employees know ins-and-outs of the company and it becomes difficult to reduce those risks. The risk of losing customers to competitors would be high, but it can be eliminated by understanding patterns and employee behaviour. To understand their behaviour,a sophisticated system needs to be in place to track every click of the employees who work from home.
Lastly, AI hacks are on the rise where the hackers get into the system, but don’t steal anything and keep observing the user behaviour for months. Based on the patterns a system wide attack can be initiated causing a huge loss to the entire company. A regular check of malwares can reduce this risk to a certain extent.