TAL automates quality assurance to enhance consumer outcomes

As part of its ongoing commitment to ensuring positive consumer outcomes, TAL, a leading Australian life insurance specialist, has partnered with Deloitte to deploy a Regtech solution using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and voice recognition. This solution will be used on up to 100 percent of its phone-based sales calls and will feed directly in TAL’s quality assurance model and program. 

The AI solution will analyse call recordings to look for matches to phrases, statements and key words that TAL has identified as potential indicators of risk or poor consumer outcomes. These calls will then be assessed by TAL’s quality assurance program, improving the overall responsiveness and mobility of the program. 

TAL sees Regtech and voice analytics as an area of high potential and Sue Sdregas, TAL General Manager, Operational Risk & Support, Individual Life, said that TAL decided to apply voice analytics to up to 100 percent of its phone-based sales calls because of TAL’s commitment to driving good customer outcomes.

“While there are numerous potential ways to leverage AI, TAL chose to focus firstly on those that have significant customer benefit – making sure customers are sold the right products for their needs and circumstances and that they are underwritten appropriately. 

“We know it is important that customers choose the insurance they want and understand and this automated quality assurance capability will help us achieve this as well as further strengthen our risk management frameworks.

“TAL decided to accelerate its work in this area some 18 months ago and as a result we now have voice analytics in full production and deployed on all of our sales calls. This is just one part of our end-to-end application of AI in the life insurance process, with AI also playing a significant role in several steps of the underwriting process,” she said.

In 2018, TAL was recognised for its use of AI and machine learning to improve quality assurance in the underwriting process at the Efma Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards. This enabled TAL to audit 100% of underwriting cases in order to identify inconsistent cases that can then be targeted by TAL’s quality assurance team.