AIA
Award Category
Finalist Innovation
“Fusion will be the disruptive, breakthrough innovation that helps AIA stand out
from the crowd, attract customers and increase the reliability of AIA as a life
partner”
That’s what the Chief Technology Officer of our AIA Vietnam business, Bill Nguyen,
had to say about new superpowered underwriting engine, Fusion. Combining human
knowledge with machine analytical and processing power, data and bots, Fusion is our
one-of-a-kind, superpowered underwriting solution to the 30% yearly increase in
demand for insurance in Asia. It’s making our underwriting process the envy of the
industry. But why?
Our underwriters are happier, more engaged and satisfied
Here’s the story…
Imagine you’re an insurance underwriter
You’re responsible for taking customers’ applications for insurance and making a
‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision. You’re pretty proficient, and with current rules-based decision
engines processing the straightforward applications, you only need to review the less
straightforward ones – those that need a bit more thought.
You process three applications a minute, which is an already impressive number. But
that 30% increase in applications each year means that number is going to rise, and
rise quickly. Four, then five, six… And before you know, you’ll somehow need to
process hundreds of applications a day. There’s no way you can fit all that into your
working hours, either.
Now, imagine how that would make our customers feel
Frustrated. Under-valued. Forgotten about. They’re used to instant feedback – social
media, chat bots, live problem-solving messenger apps – and instant
acknowledgement, whether that’s a quick like on Facebook or a comment on
Instagram. The keyword is instant. Waiting weeks for us to decide whether to grant
their insurance application is not going to satisfy their desire for a rapid response. The
experience they have with us will be tainted and they’re likely to move on.
We desire another kind of future – for our customers, for our underwriters and
for us
Instead of spending millions of dollars on upgrading our existing underwriting
systems for minimal improvement, or hiring an army of underwriters to tackle the
volume of applications but not really improving the quality of the underwriting, we
decided it was time for a breakthrough. So we developed Fusion, a machine-learning
powered underwriting engine.
“Fusion will make the whole insurance-buying experience a positive one and give
customers a positive first impression of us, too. With Fusion, we can supercharge
the speed and quality of our underwriting and enable immediate policy issuance”
Mark Seifried, Chief Technology Officer, AIA Hong Kong.
Fusion is where machine power meets human mind. It has all the processing
capabilities of a machine – speed, consistency, relentlessness – but our human
underwriters are there to guide it with the intuition and knowledge they’ve gained
from years of experience.
Let’s take a closer look at that.
Underwriting with no limits
Fusion works by analysing our 100+ years of customer data, finding patterns in the
answers on previous applications to inform the underwriting decisions it makes today
and in the future – something our human underwriters just can’t do due to the
overwhelming number of data points involved. This means more optimised decisions,
faster – 3,000 applications a second faster.
But that doesn’t mean our underwriters are becoming undervalued – the opposite, in
fact. They’re spending less time on laborious, data entry work and more time
upskilling themselves in more valuable areas – like becoming subject experts and
leaders of this hybridised superpower, ‘teaching’ Fusion how to process more
complex applications to make the decision-making process even faster.
We’d like to think our team of underwriters are becoming less ‘workforce’ and more
‘thinkforce’. Why? Because they’re free to develop more subject matter knowledge
and contribute in areas of expertise that machines just can’t emulate (yet). They’re
also able to cultivate the skills needed for the undoubtedly machine-learning driven
future.
Now, imagine again you’re an insurance underwriter
With Fusion handling the bulk of the applications that come in, you’re feeling happier
knowing that customers are getting an answer faster, and you’re making a more valuable
contribution to AIA and to your own career. And your work-life balance is
looking a lot healthier, too.
And imagine how our customers feel now
Impressed. Valued. Top of mind. They know that we’re there for them when they
need us most, processing their applications instantly and designing personalised
covers, just for them. We can go above and beyond what they expect from their
insurer – Fusion gives us unlimited potential and our customers unlimited
possibilities.
Fusion is set to help us delight customers and distribution partners in Hong Kong and
the Philippines, and we’ll be spreading that to Thailand, China and Vietnam in the
not-too-distant future, too. Our underwriters are happier, more engaged and satisfied,
and we can grow our business in a way that’s sustainable in the long-term.
Fusion. It really is a win-win all round.