Key trends shaping the life insurance industry in 2024

Even though 2024 is nowhere near finished, the year has already seen major advances in the life insurance industry. Innovative companies are implementing AI-powered technology into the underwriting process, resulting in fast applications, instant offers, and personalized policies. As a result, the way people get life insurance has changed for good.

How new technologies are changing life insurance

Welcome to the era of artificial intelligence. Although deep learning algorithms have revolutionized industries of all kinds, this technology is playing a particularly important role in the life insurance sector, spurring an increase in digital direct-to-consumer platforms.

Aspiring policy buyers previously needed to submit a lengthy and frustrating vetting process before being allowed to purchase coverage. With the help of today’s AI technology, however, the customer experience has now been made exponentially faster and much easier.

For instance, today’s AI technology can handle the process of gathering customers’ medical disclosures and other key data. Some platforms are so expertly designed that they can complete this stage in mere minutes.

In particular, the fastest, most efficient online interfaces avoid reflexive questions — those annoying follow-up questions that pop up when you disclose a possible health issue. Since punishing people with reflexive questioning tends to incentivize them to avoid making disclosures, eliminating them actually makes the disclosure process faster and more accurate.

But that’s not all. Next-generation AI technology can complete the analysis phase of the underwriting process itself.

Life insurance that delivers a positive customer experience

In the few moments after the customer has clicked on the final button submitting their responses to the disclosure questionnaire, trailblazing life insurance platforms can calculate the applicants’ risk, survey the insurance policies available, and deliver them a personalized instant offer.

Indeed, the most customer-centric platforms can quickly generate a whole list of options for that individual’s coverage. These can span from the ideal level of coverage, which might have more expensive premiums, to lesser levels that might better fit the customer’s budget.

As a result, customers can view their range of choices in about the same amount of time it takes to make a bowl of popcorn. You could probably even complete the whole process while popping that popcorn.

Moreover, these direct-to-consumer platforms give consumers the power to find the right life insurance policy for themselves.

Life insurance that mitigates risk

This straight-through-processing capability means fewer people are tempted to abandon the process midway. Consequentially, insurance providers are able to guide more people than ever to complete their purchases successfully, which means more revenue for them.

AI technology also protects insurers from unnecessary risk. Groundbreaking AI-based life insurance platforms pull data from industry-approved third-party sources to ascertain whether or not a given application is accurate and complete. The vast majority of data can be tested and validated — or invalidated — automatically, without the need for human attention.

A watershed year in life insurance

This year already constitutes a watershed year in the life insurance industry. The agonizing customer experience of the past is gone and replaced with fast, intuitive digital experiences that reward consumers with the policies they want while protecting insurance providers at the same time. Purchasing life insurance will never be the same.

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Hari Srinivasan is founder and CEO of iCover. Contact him at [email protected].