To be honest, though, the majority of us in the profession are aware that it is a sham. Although it appears to be digital, insurance is not really digital. Even though the paper is no longer there, what about the procedures, inefficiencies, and manual workarounds? Cloaked in digital masquerade, they have persevered.
We do not have to live like this. There are currently the means to construct something much better, something genuinely contemporary. All we need is the bravery and clarity to put them to use.
The bottleneck of ingestion: The point at which everything breaks down
The core of the issue is what insiders refer to as ingestion, which is the process of absorbing external submissions, documents, and data and turning them into digital information that can be used. This is particularly nasty in commercial lines. Commercial submissions are a jumble of documents, including loss runs, financials, certificates, declarations of values, and occasionally even scanned handwriting, in contrast to personal lines, which are typically consistent and neat.
300 to 500 different data points can be easily contained in a single commercial submission. However, only a small portion—perhaps 50 of those fields—are extracted using the standard procedure used today. The others? They disappear into the depths of “black data”—unusable and undisturbed, imprisoned behind attachments.
Underwriters are still going through attachments and opening the same documents again, much like archaeologists analyzing scrolls, despite our claims to be digital. The procedure itself has not changed in centuries, even though we replaced paper with PDFs.
Dark Data: The Commercial Insurance Industry’s Sleeping Giant
This is the modern insurance industry’s silent scandal. We gather masses of data every day. However, it does not count because information is not indexed, digitized, or made accessible in systems. It seems as though we never got it.
Rather, we contract out data entry to less expensive teams, frequently located abroad, whose job it is to enter just enough information to advance the application. The remainder is ignored and archived. The outcome? Massive missed chances, slow processing, and insufficient data for underwriting judgments.
Intelligent Ingestion Is the First Step Towards Genuine Digital Insurance
The tide is now at last turning. We are now able to extract data from both organized and unstructured documents with remarkable speed and accuracy because of developments in machine learning, notably the combination of computer vision and natural language processing.
Basic OCR is no longer the topic of discussion. The term “intelligent ingestion” refers to systems that can comprehend what they read, identify terminology unique to insurance, and pick up new information as they proceed. It is understandable why this is currently one of the insurance industry’s fastest-growing tech segments.
For example, a Chinese life insurer has developed an AI-powered risk control system that completely automates applications. That is a real-world transformation, not a trial program.
Insiders Created the MEA Model, Not Outsiders
MEA, a UK-based startup established by insurance veterans rather than developers, is notable in this field. People who understand the intricacy of a submission and who do not require a glossary to distinguish between a bordereaux and a binder.
MEA has developed an extraction catalog specifically tailored to the complex language of insurance. Only laser-focused models trained to comprehend the nuances of our environment are used here, not generic AI. Additionally, they are experts in insurance, so you will not have to spend months describing how the company operates. They are already aware.
Working with carriers, MGAs, and brokers, MEA has demonstrated speed, accuracy, and quality in trials conducted throughout Europe and the United States that withstand real-world circumstances. What seemed like a moonshot is now just a well-run project that will be finished in a few weeks or months rather than years.
Creating the Future: From Touchless Workflows to Email Chains
How do you really begin, then?
Start by identifying instances in which your company is feigning digitalization. The most apparent place to start is with submissions, but you can also start with claims, audits, invoices, and bordereaux. Determine a procedure that involves emailing, uploading, and routing documents while still requiring manual labor later on.
Next, choose whether you want to retrieve all 450 of the data points you are leaving on the table or just the ones you use today. The remainder of your digital journey will be shaped by your response.
Next, decide on your strategy. Some insurance companies are becoming completely touchless right now. Others are adopting a hybrid strategy that combines human assessment with AI intake. There is just development, not right or wrong.
Digital transformation is not all that this is. Digital maturity is what it is.
We have been hoping for genuine change for years. We have made the appropriate statements in whitepapers and boardrooms. However, technology has now surpassed our aspirations.
We have reached a threshold. We have the option to continue acting as though we are overlapping modern systems on top of antiquated operations and moving digital paper from inbox to mailbox. Alternatively, we might start the actual task of absorbing, comprehending, and utilizing the data that currently enters our companies on a daily basis.
Software demos and slogans are unnecessary. We must begin developing actual, intelligent ingestion procedures. That is because that is where commercial digital insurance really starts—with a purpose, not a PDF.
Are you prepared to begin changing and to stop acting? Then it is time to open your front door to the future with intelligent ingestion.
