Since the dawn of the Insurtech movement a decade-plus ago, we’ve had three waves of innovation concerning the customer experience. The first was based on the fear of being “Amazoned.” Insurers looked at the company’s One-Click capability and general ease-of-use, then stared in dismay at all the forms that were required in insurance, at the legalese in the lengthy contracts, at the lengthy back-and-forths. Insurers worried that some tech giant could do a cannonball in insurance and displace the incumbents as Amazon had done to so many traditional retailers, so they tried hard to become friendlier to the customer. Nobody would confuse insurers with Amazon, but they made progress. Then the second wave came along. That was caused by COVID. Suddenly, it was no longer possible to meet face-to-face to talk through insurance issues or to sign documents. It wasn’t even possible for a while for insurers’ employees to get into the office to mail checks. A burst of innovation had to occur to bring insurers more into the digital age, removing a lot of inconveniences for customers. Now we’ve moved into the generative AI wave, and this should be the most important yet. Already, Gen AI is proving itself to be a remarkably efficient compiler of data. That allows speeding up all the processes that touch (and frustrate) customers – from interactions with agents or brokers and, through them, with underwriters to, down the line, the handling of any claims. Gen AI is also helping agents and carriers to communicate more often and effectively with customers. By generating rough drafts of emails, the AI makes it easier for agents to keep in touch with a customer in a situation where they might have been sidetracked in the past. Using an AI also makes an agency’s or carrier’s communications less dependent on the individual writing them and, thus, more consistent. And the AI helps the agency or carrier to keep a weather eye on compliance issues. Gen AI could take the customer experience to the next level if insurers can deploy chatbots that make them more accessible, 24/7, while providing natural, human-like interactions. I’m not sure we’re there yet. I still get frustrated with almost any chatbot I encounter. But I’ve seen exponential change before, and we’re on an exponential curve in terms of how AI is improving, so my dissatisfaction today doesn’t at all mean I’ll be unhappy in a year, or even six months. To get a sense of how far chatbots have come and how far they can go, I talked with Adam Fischer, chief product and innovation officer at Clearcover, which I’ve long thought of as an exemplar for customer experience. He started out as a chatbot skeptic when he joined the company eight years ago but has deployed an AI that he’s very happy with and has big plans for the future. I think you’ll find the interview provocative. Cheers, Paul | 
