Transforming the Insurance Industry through API
Jun 29, 2021
Application Programming Interfaces in Insurance
In today’s interconnected digital society, staying consistent is a continual challenge for businesses. Ever-changing market interests are driving companies to embrace digital transformation—leveraging superior data technologies—for ubiquitous connectivity and a seamless course of data/information through the complete business value chain. With connectivity now displaying pre-dominance, the enactment of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and coherent API integrations are at the heart of a flourishing digital transformation for insurance providers.
The Role of API in Insurance
The insurance industry has long been contested by manual processes, legacy systems, and complicated workflows. However, today’s tech-savvy insurance consumers favor digital transactions and require better communication. Insurance companies are now espousing advanced technologies and funding in digital transformation for business growth.
Insurers are increasingly utilizing the power of APIs to stimulate digital innovation and meet the need for excellent digital experiences. API’s allow insurers to generate connectivity and expedite interactions among applications and devices by administering a standard way (protocol) to locate data—whether on cloud or in-house—from any given device or application. Such API-led connectivity supports insurance firms turn repetitive but intricate processes into profoundly reusable ones that drive productivity.
1. Easy Claims Processing
Modern-day consumers do not want to deal with phone calls or paper records, particularly when registering an insurance claim. By combining the GPS functionality of portable devices with the availability of third-party API’s, insurers can advise policyholders of the capacity related to any property damage. In the event of a car crash, API assists in transferring the location of a car accident, inserting a timestamp, and presenting photos of the damage. In some cases, API’s can help track driving performance and movement and assist with car breakdowns, accidents, and thefts. Insurers can also use the received data to pre-emptively communicate with the client and manage medical support, automatically pre-fill a digitized claims form (based on contextual data).
A good example is Allstate’s Good Home service, which combines data from nine different API in Insurance to give customers personalized information and related resources that can encourage them to discover how to maintain and better protect their houses and lives.
2. Customized Products
Insurance is a data-intensive industry. With all the data produced by devices, apps, and ecosystems, providers can leverage means such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to interpret, process and distribute the data to remit customized policies and real-time quotations. API’s expedite this process by transferring data swiftly and securely within the insurance transforming ecosystem whenever a customer makes a specific inquiry. API insurance integration with the ecosystem can extract the relevant customer information, produce applicable insurance quotes, and finally present them to the client.
A good example is a mobile application from Security First Insurance, which helps customers prepare for unseemly weather by leveraging weather and map API’s. It is exceedingly helpful in states such as Florida, which are prone to hurricanes and helps customers track weather disturbances on a custom map. They can also control their insurance policy, compose a payment, or register a claim via the application.
3. Better Risk Evaluation
Through API’s, insurers can obtain larger pools of data which permits them to provide more reasonable risk evaluation, real-time fact-checking (cases of fraud) and reduced underwriting times to their customers. Insurers can analyze API’s correlated to wearables to measure lifestyle constituents of customers (e. g., heart rate, etc.) and assess risk tolerance, thereby conceding personalized plans that incentivize low-risk behaviors.
4. Drive Business Growth
The digitized insurance ecosystem, fueled by API’s, has remodeled the way insurers do business. By tapping into a broader array of business resources, partnering with third-party providers, and uniting data with other players in the ecosystem, insurers can gain passage to distinct revenue channels and disruptive marketing models. An insurer can embed a transactional API into the website, mobile program, and other digital aspects of their ecosystem associates to implement real-time insurance coverage to their clients. This way, property and casualty insurance data analytics can be convenient for partners to combine with their customer journeys, streamlining the complete sales lifecycle from prospecting to quote offering to policy delivery.
The Road Ahead
The contemporary vision of insurance IT relies on API-led connectivity. For insurers looking to deliver the speed, coordination and enhanced digital abilities crucial for optimizing customer contacts, API integrations are a requirement. As the digital ecosystem further develops, the leading carriers of tomorrow will be the ones who leverage API’s for insurance to partner in a more significant network to produce a full suite of best-in-class resolutions and services
