Corinne Southarewsky, Chief Claims Officer, APAC & Europe, AXA XL on the future of claims

Ahead of Insurance Innovators: Summer Festival in Munich this June, we sat down with one of our speakers, Corinne Southarewsky, to kick start the conversation around innovation and the future of claims.

(James Healey) What does the future of claims management look like for commercial insurance?

(Corinne Southarewsky) The power of technology and data is gradually unlocking, creating many opportunities to add value for our clients, claims teams and more generally the insurance industry. The range of benefits is very wide, from faster claims settlements thanks to data capture and process automation, to more accurate loss estimates supported by satellite imagery. It’s an exciting time to be a claims professional and to see first-hand how some of these applications benefit every link in the claims value chain, first and foremost our clients.

I expect to see many more developments over the next months and years, some of which we will discuss at the Insurance Innovator: Summer Festival in Munich.

(JH) Which technologies and tools are insurers looking to leverage?

(CS) Many of the tools we are using aren’t new, but, up until recently, the digital revolution was led by personal lines insurers and focused mainly on underwriting and risk selection. We’ve seen a shift these last few years and a number of new tools are now being developed specifically for commercial insurance claims. The journey started with high-frequency low-value claims and we are now exploring solutions for large and complex claims. Insurers are using AI to better assess damages or to drive claims insights. The industry also increasingly uses smartphones, drones and 3D-simulation to capture images and information after a loss. Ultimately these new technologies allow us to speed up the management of claims, helping our insureds to resume their operations faster.

(JH) What does it mean for claims professionals?

(CS) Claims professionals will drive the development of future applications. They are getting accustomed to these new tools, are learning to use them, and to express their needs when they identify pain points that could be solved by technology. They are upskilling and will keep doing so. Ultimately, with the simplification and acceleration of the claims handling process, claims professionals will have more time to focus on what they’re best at and where they add the most value. They will also have more time to dedicate to clients, which is critical as commercial insurance is very much a people business.

Want to hear more from Corinne? Join her at Insurance Innovators: Summer Festival – 21-22 June at the Munich Airport Hilton. Corinne be joining a fireside chat on ‘Leveraging automation to win customer loyalty in the claims process’ – this is not one to be missed!