FWD Group receives SBR Technology Excellence Awards for the Digital - Life Insurance

FWD is changing the way people feel about insurance with cutting-edge conversational AI.

Fast-growing Pan-Asian life insurer FWD Group has won the Digital-Life Insurance accolade at the SBR Technology Excellence Awards. The SBR Technology Excellence Awards recognises companies that ride the digital disruption wave with technological innovations that have successfully transformed industries and business models, from adapting to changing needs to surpassing customer expectations.

FWD Group’s project aimed to offer omnichannel, integrated solutions to be where their customers are and offer their insurance services across multiple digital touchpoints. Responding to questions about their products and pricing on their social media page was labour-intensive and time-consuming. Additionally, their responses focused on pinpoint resolution with a missed potential to nurture toward a sale. 

To turn this challenge into an opportunity, FWD Group and FWD Thailand partnered with AiChat to develop an automated experience that made it easy for people to receive instant quotes for their insurance products on the messenger platform.

The project introduced a new and cutting-edge innovation that used Ai-based conversational scripts that would learn and evolve responses over a period by listening to customer interactions. The responses would be increasingly more curated based on initial chats to nudge towards a sale. This portable solution is deployable across any API-driven messenger platform, both externally and internally.

As a result, FWD saved 133,000 man-hours via automated responses, achieved a 5.6x lower cost per quote, experienced a 6x higher sales conversion rate, and achieved 9x incremental sales from social channels. 

In addition to that, this project has vastly improved the customer experience and speed of engagement. Instead of push selling, it uses conversational selling providing personalized journeys and seamless transitions from social off-platform to on-platform websites. It also immediately addresses product and pricing queries, improving iterations of products and ensuring an easy understanding of price and promos and it also allows customers to learn at their own pace. This technology has proven to be flexible, progressive, and customer-centric, providing personalized experiences that help drive sales and growth.

"We wanted to create a seamless and frictionless customer journey for people to easily interact with us. As several of our more digitally savvy customers use messenger platforms, it was a great opportunity to test the customer journey within automated messaging flows. We are happy with the results and aim to replicate this success in other markets," said Kurush Madon, Head of DTC, Marketing and Analytics at FWD Regional.

The project's benefits extend beyond quantitative metrics. Client feedback on products was directly fed back into product enhancement and development, and the next best product suggestions directly from the customer have helped fuel FWD Group's cross-sell engine. The project's success has demonstrated FWD Group's flexibility and progressiveness in embracing digital disruption and innovation. 

The project's success demonstrates FWD Group's dedication to providing customer-centric solutions and embracing technological innovation to provide customers with personalised experiences. 

The company's cutting-edge conversational AI technology has set a new standard in the insurance industry, and the project's flexibility and progressiveness have positioned FWD Group as a leader in digital transformation.

FWD Group is a pan-Asian life insurance business with more than 10 million customers across 10 markets, including some of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world. FWD reached its 10th anniversary in 2023. The company is focused on making the insurance journey simpler, faster and smoother, with innovative propositions and easy-to-understand products, supported by digital technology. Through this customer-led approach, FWD is committed to changing the way people feel about insurance. 

The SBR Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].