OCR is a technology that has been around for several decades. If you have ever found yourself in a foreign country and trying to translate a Menu in a restaurant with Google translate you have discovered that this technology can be really useful. Also depending on the language very inaccurate sometimes. In previous years this technology was considered a gimmick, a nice to have, or a freebie by the Insurance Industry.
What has changed in recent months that has made this type of technology relevant to the industry’s future?
With the new normal expectations towards digitized procedures like purchasing, delivery, and even digital conversations, there are huge opportunities for insurers to innovate. However, digital transformation has its challenges, Insurers need processes that can ensure security, fraud prevention, data privacy (PDPA), and know your customer (KYC) regulations.
In face to face sale or claim, the insurer had a level of certainty about the data and information about the customer. This certainty is reduced by Digital Face to Face interaction. This is where OCR technology starts gaining relevance.
What is OCR added value for the Insurance Business?
Improves customer service — In just a couple of steps, the insurance customers can upload a scan of their official documents and fill in the necessary information in the digital form. On the insurer side, the time to respond to a customer after receiving the documents is shortened improving the overall experience of the customer.
Fraud detection — With a Smart character recognition system, the company can search and validate the information within the document. As the tool index every field the rest is left to data verification and validation within an official database.
Cost and time reduction — Imagine a company that has 10 Million documents to capture, between ID Cards, Passports, Car Registration documents, and many more. With this technology, Insurers will reduce the error risk and the employees will experience a significant workload release.
Enables more accurate predictions — Going from paper to digital, and from digital to data, represents an opportunity for insurers to efficiently use customer data for predictions, prevention, and administration. By combining OCR technology with AI and Machine learning, this technology grants a huge opportunity to enhance and strengthen the Insurers’ capabilities.
By Jaret Carranza