Using artificial intelligence for even better customer relationships
Last year, we developed AI Trio, a virtual assistant, at Triglav. It was our experiment, designed to explore the full potential of artificial intelligence in serving our customers. With this assistant, we investigated how to engage users in the most natural way, providing them with relevant content.
Starting with an experiment
Today, the response an AI tool gives a customer asking to add extra cover to their insurance policy differs from the information a salesperson receives when they ask the same question. For the customer, it might direct them to i.triglav, our digital branch, or suggest calling an agent or our call centre. For the salesperson, it provides instructions on how to prepare a contract addendum in the underwriting application. The response also adapts to the user's communication style – if someone uses a less formal tone, the AI follows suit, and vice versa.
Challenges are always opportunities for development
Even in this initial phase, my colleagues and I faced several challenges. The first is security, specifically determining how much detailed information can be shared. For instance, if we use AI in our internal workflows, it can provide employees with very detailed data about individual claims and their resolution. However, for customers, it can only offer a high-level overview. The second challenge is managing the knowledge base or data sources from which AI tools draw their answers. The Triglav Group has multiple such sources, so we're actively working to standardise them, both in terms of content and management. This will ensure consistent information and responses across all our channels and make it easier to adapt data when changes occur. We're also prepared for situations like major CAT events, as we'll introduce a special claim reporting method. This way, a single change in our unified knowledge base will provide the foundation for adapting information across various customer touchpoints.
Tria – our pride
Tria is an integral part of our Triglav.si website and the i.triglav app, where it answers customer questions and offers both general information and specific responses for logged-in users. We also effectively use AI tools within our customer contact department, where they assist colleagues in drafting email replies and routing emails to our support service departments. We've also activated AI in the analysis of customer feedback, allowing us to quickly identify issues and strengths in our service delivery. We're also implementing it in claims assessment, where AI already prepares data overviews. It analyses photos, identifies damage and can even estimate costs, for example. This allows our colleagues to review the prepared documentation and, in more complex cases, dedicate their time to thoroughly reviewing the loss event itself. We're also developing additional uses for AI tools in the area of fraud detection and prevention.
Contribution of digital tools is significant
Why? Because it saves us time and aids decision-making. Today, AI can help anyone gather and summarise information that would otherwise take hours, or even days. When a tool prepares material with in-depth information or compares data from different countries, markets, industries, etc., in a matter of seconds or minutes, it allows us to use that saved time more creatively and productively. Instead of operational data collection, we can focus on improving the substance of our work, finding new solutions and making higher-quality decisions based on data that was previously harder to access.
Time is money: How AI helps us save both
I regularly use digital tools for summarising documents, preparing in-depth analyses of our past projects and structuring information for concrete next steps to improve our processes. I often use them in Teams meetings, too, to prepare summaries of agreements. For example, I recently asked an AI to compare all insurance companies that use digital sales channels. I was interested in how they present their services, their pricing, how they engage with customers and how they segment them. If I had searched for and compared this information manually online, a 10-page analysis like that would have taken several days. With the help of AI, I completed it in a matter of minutes.
AI steps into private life
As a father of two teenagers, to be honest, I'm sometimes not entirely clear on everything the children are learning at school, even though their expectations are clear: "Dad knows everything!" Recently, the question came up at home: why is the electron shell in a helium atom saturated, but an oxygen atom's isn't? Of course, I turned to artificial intelligence for help in providing an answer suitable for a ninth-grader. I like that my sons are now empowered enough to find information on their own in a way that suits them. For example, they might ask AI: "I'm a ninth-grade student. In physics, I'm not entirely clear why air resistance increases with the square of velocity." The AI then provides an answer in a way that a fifteen-year-old can easily understand. When we were younger, this wasn't available. Back then, we could only choose between books or tutoring.
For the disbelieving Thomases
I believe that the use of artificial intelligence will soon be as commonplace as calculators are in schools today. If I recall correctly, when calculators first appeared, many people weren't keen on them and advocated for using logarithm tables instead. Young people today don't even know what those are anymore. Therefore, I believe that if we're not afraid of AI and start using it, it can help us become more responsive, faster and create more with our work. By using it, we can develop our thinking in a more creative direction, make better decisions and enthusiastically achieve our goals. Let's not be afraid of using artificial intelligence, because the Co-pilot will still need its pilot to help it take off and achieve new successes.
Gregor Kovačič is the Executive Director of Digital Operations and Client Experience Division and Co-Chair of the Tech Council of the British-Slovenian Chamber of Commerce.
