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For many people, the only kind of insurance they consider to be crucial is health insurance, and that’s due to the amount of publicity given to that type of insurance in the media and public discourse. Of course, it’s also because health is something people deal with and feel every day. For an entrepreneur, however, business insurance is another type of insurance that is of great importance. As the past year has demonstrated, business disruptions can happen unexpectedly and at an unprecedented scale, so getting the best insurance is crucial for your business.
Thankfully, technological innovations have also improved business insurance offerings, making them much more valuable. Here are a few you can take advantage of the trend and get the ideal policy for your business.
AI for claims processing and communication
Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days, and for good reason, too. When deployed correctly, advanced machine learning algorithms can access huge datasets and make decisions that are much more accurate, and crucially for you as a business owner, much faster than traditional human-driven analysis. In insurance, this has seen application in two main areas — claims processing and communication with customers. In the first, insurance companies apply AI analytics to analyze insurance claims and make decisions on how to act on them. For instance, a claim might be identified as fraudulent and warranting further investigation. In the second, the companies might use chatbots or similar tools to facilitate the reporting process such that business owners can communicate any claims or issues they have quickly and receive prompt responses.
Both of these are crucial for business owners because any additional day of downtime means an increased loss of money and customers. It’s crucial to make sure that you’re getting your business insurance from a company that is capable of handling requests and making any necessary payments promptly, even if there happens to be a widespread disaster.
Related: What Every Entrepreneur Must Know About Artificial Intelligence
APIs and personalization
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) were, for a long time, the exclusive preserve of nerdy tech startups, enabling them to share information with one another in an automated manner. Nowadays, many large companies have also gotten in on the action and are now creating their own APIs and making it possible for other companies to integrate into their systems in a limited and controlled manner. This allows for a few things, most notable of which is the ability of other companies to develop new business models based on the data provided and cooperate with the insurance company to develop new features and customer value adds. Think of fitness companies sharing the health data they acquire from tracking devices, which help insurance companies improve their risk assessment.
There’s also the fact that companies can now share more granular data in order to get personalized business insurance quotes that cater to their specific needs, as opposed to just ticking boxes on a form and getting generic packages. Now, insurance companies are willing to customize their offerings to suit specific clients, using the information they have to make decisions that will provide much more value to both parties.
Related: How APIs Can Help Rebuild Customer Relationships Going Forward
Online marketplaces, affordability, and improved service
One of the most basic yet most crucial and enduring aspects of the internet is the way that it has democratized access to information and made it easy for people to get detailed updates on things that used to be difficult to find before, like insurance terms. In the past, those used to be hidden behind a screen as trade secrets, but business owners can now find all the information they need to make informed decisions about which providers to go with. The terms offered by various providers are aggregated in several locations on the internet, and business owners must take advantage of the opportunity to compare their options and make the best choice.
That open competition has had the effect of lowering prices, as analyzed by PWC in this report, but it has also resulted in insurance providers being more service-oriented as they work to earn good reviews from customers. The combination of these factors gives business owners a voice in the transaction and the ability to secure better terms than they might have been able to in the past.
