AI-driven ‘Digital Employee’ processes e-mails and documents for Claims Corporation Network
Claims Corporation Network is instructing a digital employee to handle all the claims that come in via e-mail. This digital employee, named Optimus, developed by Simplifai, is like a robot driven by AI and understands and interprets human connection. “Optimus enables us to save up from 10 to 15 minutes per e-mail”, says Cees Werff, CEO of Claims Corporation Network. “This means our human employees can just focus on the really interesting work.”
Because Claims Corporation Network (CCN) is a relatively new player in the insurance market, it has had a flying start in this digital age. “When we set up CCN in 2015 together with a private equity company, we thought about what the claims handling business could look like for the next five to ten years. I concluded that we could completely digitize some or most of the processes”, says Cees Werff.
Customer centricity is key
It’s not just the digital processes that set CCN apart from the rest. “In 2015, Google was just setting up its car insurance business in California, USA. They offered a completely digitized process that was as simple as 1-2-3. Their entire process and strategy evolved around giving their customers the chance to get car insurance in just three steps. That’s the kind of customer centricity we are striving for with CCN.”
CCN serves insurance carriers, brokers, and fleet owners in 40 countries from 6 regional hubs. By digitizing processes and focusing on the customer, CCN creates a horizontal customer experience – an identical customer experience regardless of which hub serves the customer. One of the processes that will be digitized is the handling of claims coming in through e-mail, says Werff.
The Digital Employee
“We’re starting a pilot with our new digital employee, who will be handling our e-mail for our hub in Germany”, says Werff. Optimus is a sort of robot: a software solution developed by Simplifai that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to understand and interpret human communication. In practical terms, this means that Optimus will take documents from an e-mail and fill a new or existing customer file with this information.
“Optimus will execute all the repetitive, boring tasks, freeing up employees for the actual assessment and the more complex tasks. And we can ensure that all e-mails and documents that come in will be handled quickly and flawlessly”, says Werff. And since there’s a shortage of talent in the world in general, and the insurance industry in particular, offering exciting work will help CCN become a more attractive employer.
Simplifai is working with CCN
Currently, Simplifai and CCN are teaming up to map the processes. For the digital employee to do an effective job, it needs to know and learn what documents need to go where. Werff: “The digital employee will take the documents from Outlook and place them in our case management system. It will be able to recognize license plates, for example, or other identification elements, to link the claim to the right file.”
It’s not just filing documents that the digital employee will be able to do. “We’re also looking into sending automated e-mails”, says Werff. “A claim starts with one e-mail, but we often need more information to be able to make the assessment. Receipts, invoices, and photos for example. Currently, our team does the follow-up, but with Optimus, we will be able to automate the whole exchange.”
Saving 10 to 15 minutes per e-mail
So, what are the benefits of this automated handling of case correspondence? Employees take about 10 to 15 minutes per e-mail to match them with the right file, extract the information from the documents and place it in the right file. But that’s just for the first e-mail. All follow-up e-mails also take 10 minutes on average to recognize and file. With the digital employee in place, the human employee has more time for the actual assessment of the cases.
After the pilot, Werff will put the digital employee to work in other hubs. “Our customers often have a similar workload concerning the handling of e-mail and the filling of files. Therefore, we would like to work with Simplifai to implement the solution in our customers’ organizations. And since there is a shortage of people throughout the industry, we know that the impact of this digital employee will be huge.”
