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Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the insurance industry – and also offers career opportunities

AI and automation will be essential for success in the insurance world of the future, enabling a new quality of service for customers. As a pioneer in the Swiss market, Zurich Switzerland has been working on these developments since 2019.
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A major leap forward with AI and automation

A major leap forward in the insurance world: artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are fundamentally changing the way the industry works. AI is capable of analyzing large amounts of data within a very short space of time, while automation technology takes over monotonous standard tasks. Both technologies make processes more efficient, improve service quality and enable a more targeted, customer-oriented sales approach. This gives employees more time for demanding tasks – and for dedicated service.

AI: a strategic priority since 2019

Zurich Switzerland already has plenty of experience in this area; the company launched its AI program in 2019 as one of the first national companies to do so within the Zurich Group. The innovative "SPACE" platform (Swiss Platform for Automation & Cognitive Enterprise Services) is the basis for this. AI and automation are a strategic priority at Zurich Switzerland: Executive Management is convinced that intelligent use of new technologies is an important part of meeting customers' higher expectations. This is the only way Zurich can further expand its position as an innovative and customer-oriented insurance provider.

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How Zurich Switzerland utilizes AI and automation today

Zurich Switzerland uses AI and automation in many business areas to become faster, increase efficiency and improve service quality. 

Underwriting: intelligent support through AI

  • Knowledge bots support the risk specialists in underwriting and sales with their expertise.
  • The risk specialists in underwriting use intelligent AI tools to create offers, allowing them to shorten processing times.
  • The risk management cockpit creates detailed risk reports and root-cause analyses. These help the risk specialists to make balanced, well founded decisions.

Sales: AI makes work faster and more efficient

  • Smart Scheduling helps customer advisors to optimally coordinate the locations of their customer appointments to avoid unnecessary travel.
  • An email wizard offers formulation suggestions based on existing customer data. 
  • Thanks to automation, inquiries from brokers can be answered much faster.

Customer Service: AI sorts, triages and documents customer contacts

  • On the customer service hotline, a voicebot identifies customers' needs. The customer is then directly forwarded to the right contact person.
  • Call documentation is used to summarize customer conversations and create entries in the customer relationship system.
  • Emails are also automatically forwarded to the person responsible – this reduces response times and improves efficiency.

Claims settlement: AI and automation for greater efficiency and service

  • AI supports the specialists in processing complex claims, e.g. comprehensive claims documents are summarized automatically. 
  • Thanks to AI, invoices are checked for correctness and employees are informed of any discrepancies – meaning errors and mistakes are quickly identified.

Career opportunities at Zurich in the field of AI and automation

Zurich Switzerland offers exciting career opportunities in the field of AI and automation. What all functions have in common is that employees develop innovative solutions in close cooperation with various specialist departments. We are looking for ambitious talents with a background in AI or automation and with skills in project management, machine learning and data analysis. 

Zurich: an attractive employer
Zurich offers its employees extensive training opportunities, flexible working models and a unique corporate culture: we promote diversity and inclusion, focus on respect and trust, and in doing so offer all employees the framework to continuously develop on a personal and professional level, and to realize their full potential.

AI as support, not as a replacement

At Zurich Switzerland, we see AI and automation as valuable support that complements, but does not replace, human labor. AI relieves us of monotonous and time-consuming tasks so that employees can concentrate on interacting with our customers, developing solutions and working creatively. Decisions and personal contact with customers remain in the hands of our experienced specialists. Our aim is to increase efficiency and continuously improve our service. Nevertheless, human expertise and empathy will continue to be indispensable in future.

Interview with Philipp Borgschulte, Head Workflow Automation & AI at Zurich Switzerland

Philipp Borgschulte
Philipp Borgschulte, Head Workflow Automation & AI at Zurich Switzerland

Why did Zurich Switzerland launch the AI program back in 2019?
"We are convinced that AI offers great potential for optimizing processes and becoming faster, more efficient and more customer oriented. We want to harness this potential across all business areas and in doing so learn from each other and continue to improve together. The aim is to improve existing services, but also to develop new types of service offerings, and, at the same time, we relieve ourselves of monotonous activities and gain time and resources for exciting tasks."

Can AI replace human labor? 
"No, AI has a supportive function, but is no replacement for human employees. This is important to us and a clear requirement. Decisions and personal contact with customers remain in the hands of our experienced specialists. We see AI as a tool that helps us to become even more efficient and further improve our services, but we cannot and do not wish to replace human intuition, experience and empathy."

What role does the "SPACE" platform play in your strategy? 
"SPACE is the backbone of our AI strategy. This platform enables us to transfer improvements in one area to other areas and thus constantly learn from each other. At the same time, SPACE helps us to better understand our customers' needs and offer them faster, more individual solutions."

What makes a career in AI and automation at Zurich so attractive? 
"A career in this field offers those who are interested the opportunity to work at the forefront of technological innovation and actively shape the future of the insurance industry. At the same time, they have the chance to undertake meaningful work in a highly creative way within a framework of clear standards and to make the work of Zurich employees easier and more interesting, all while doing something good for our customers. Aside from all that, Zurich is a very good employer: we have already been recognized as one of the best employers in Switzerland for the fifth time in a row."

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