The Covid-19 crisis caused severe disruption in the insurance sector. Like many other businesses, insurance companies were forced to transition to remote working. But remote working was not the only challenge the insurance companies had to face. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, they were faced with several other challenges: a high number of claims, falling interest rates, an increase in policy cancellations, and increased workload due to this unexpected medical emergency. Therefore, technology had to be adopted at every stage of the insurance lifecycle to ensure smooth operations.
The usage of mobile apps, drones, and catastrophe models witnessed incredible growth, and “insurtech” became the new normal for insurance companies.
Digitization was adopted like never before in a bid to enhance customer connection, ensure business continuity, and ease interactions at all levels.
An important point to note here is that before the pandemic, technology growth was never a priority for the insurance sector, but the pandemic served as a catalyst for the acceleration of technology usage in the industry.
The catastrophe model was adopted across the insurance sector for better handling of claims and predicting the extent of damage at a location. Using this model, the claims were handled at a much lower cost, and the process of getting money to the clients was also accelerated.
Drones were other valuable tools that proved extremely important during the pandemic to continue damage assessment while avoiding in-person inspections.
Another area of technological expansion during the pandemic was the increased usage of mobile applications.
As the countries across the globe witnessed nation-wide lockdowns and social distancing became mandatory, insurance companies suddenly had to rely on digital mediums to get the job done. As a result, the attention to mobile applications increased. Mobile applications helped insurance companies a lot to adjust to remote ways of doing business.
Customers also embraced the change wholeheartedly. Insurance policies were bought, and claims were submitted using insurance apps, which were backed by advanced technology and expertise. As per a report, the number of downloads of insurance apps reached 204 million post-pandemic, which is 45% more as compared to the previous years.
The Covid-19 crisis has re-written the priorities and expectations for the insurance sector. With the adoption of technology, the insurance sector was not just able to meet the challenges of the pandemic situation but also bridge the gap between the customers and insurers.
