Many core insurance processes are supported by legacy systems and older mainframe applications, but this can be challenging for organizations seeking to streamline their operations. In a 2018 Celent report, 45% of Insurance CIOs identified heavy, disconnected and duplicative legacy systems as a key inhibitor to digital transformation. License-free RPA offers a less intrusive way to automate critical processes than legacy application upgrades or replacements, and carries much lower risk. RPA seamlessly facilitates communication between legacy platforms and newer systems to enable communication and cross-platform data collation that was previously only possible with extensive navigation.

Since RPA does not store any data, and the data RPA bots use is encrypted, RPA helps insurers safeguard sensitive policyholder information – thereby improving risk profiling and compliance.

Along with putting unattended bots to work on data-intensive back-office functions, insurers can also benefit from the use of attended or “desktop” bots. These bots run on the worker’s desktop and are easy for employees to understand and use. They act as high-impact digital assistants to help carry out smaller tasks embedded within larger processes while providing real-time information to help the process move along more efficiently. A CSR can run their desktop bot while on the phone with a policyholder, and the bot will pull all relevant policyholder data and update it in real time so the CSR is able to give the caller their full attention while avoiding lengthy hold times and post-call data accuracy errors. Without the burden of bot licensing costs, insurers can focus on scaling their attended and unattended automations based on need rather than budget limitations.