IBM announced it is building an industry-first insurance platform on the IBM Cloud that aims to improve the processes and economics for new product development, underwriting, and benefits delivery.
Built in collaboration with MetLife and Majesco, the IBM Insurance Platform will feature cognitive computing, data analytics and integration and security capabilities designed to help insurers expand access to their products and capture new customers.
"Our Industry Platforms are designed in collaboration with our clients and partners and intended to dramatically improve traditional business models using deep industry expertise and advanced technologies such as AI, cloud and blockchain," said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president, IBM Industry Platforms. "In the case of insurance, carriers will be able to inject greater innovation and speed into their operating models, and consumers will experience a broader range of products tailored to their individual needs.“
IBM works with 95 percent of the world’s top insurers. By combining insights from those engagements, and with deep industry expertise contributed by MetLife, the Insurance Platform will help carriers better harness their expansive data sets to improve product mix and customer experience. Delivered as a service, the platform will also help insurers sense and respond to the market faster while reducing IT infrastructure and maintenance costs.
MetLife will pioneer the use of this industry-first, end-to-end digital solution, beginning with its small business customers. MetLife will have the ability to tailor and scale its benefit offerings from quote to claim. Through a new digital experience, customers and brokers will have access to a broader selection of affordable group benefits, including: life, dental, vision, disability, voluntary and other products.
Telecom operators approach AI from two directions: as providers of infrastructure for the digital transformation of other industries and as organisations embedding AI into their own processes. A1 Hrvatska has moved from prototypes to concrete products, from customer support to sovereign European cloud services. Daniel Šimić says workforce profiles are also changing, with fast learning, customer understanding and adaptability becoming more important.
Burra was created as a platform for consolidating IT services companies in Southeast Europe, with a commercial focus on Western Europe and the United States. Its first members, Devōt, Tacta and CoreLine, continue to run their existing businesses while integration is planned gradually, primarily through new projects. Sven Marušić says the aim is not to turn founders into corporate employees, but to build a larger organisation in which they remain shareholders and drivers of growth.
Telecom operators are no longer using AI only for network optimisation and routine operations. They are applying it to faster product development and customer conversations. Matija Ražem says AI enables prototypes in hours, quicker market testing, and automation of many standard support questions. The next step may be a world where personal digital agents interact with agents from telecoms, banks and other large organisations.