Why Human Insurance Agents Can’t Ever Be Replaced By Technology

Phone showing apps and technology

You may have seen or heard news about how technology is invading the way that we buy any kind of insurance. For example, with life insurance, there’s now talk about an app that uses selfies and powerful facial recognition software called Lapetus that can analyze how well you might age. This information is to be used as a major factor in providing life insurance quotes or could even decide if you will even be approved for life insurance!

 

More and more, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to provide quick and easy insurance quotes. Whether it be for auto, home, life or any other sort of insurance, consumers can get a quote for whatever sort of policy they’re looking for 24/7. But are these quotes accurate and actually good in the long run for the consumer?

 

While there are definitely upsides to using technology to help quote insurance, there’s a battle within the insurance industry as to how much tech should really be involved in the insurance sales process. PropertyCasualty360 has a great piece on why the human touch is still necessary in selling insurance. They also published an article about how human insight and judgment is still even now a driving factor in most insurance sales.

 

Technology should always be meant to be used as a tool. It should be used to enhance the buyer’s experience and not become the whole of it. The primary reason that human insurance agents are so important is because a computer can’t necessarily understand what coverage a particular person actually needs. While a great many people like to research their insurance coverage options online, most people still want to speak to an agent before making a final decision. They want a voice they can trust, and not just go by what they might read online.

 

A major issue with consumer-driven insurance sales is that most consumers can’t understand the ins and outs of insurance policies. For good reason, insurance policies can be very complicated, mainly because the type of coverage that you need is everything when it comes to deciding premiums and terms. There are so many factors that go into a policy that really requires an expert to explain.

 

We live in a world where we’re constantly being bombarded with advertisements about how “you’re paying too much for X insurance” and that by getting a “free quote” online, you can save yourself a bunch of money. But what these ads fail to tell you is if you actually speak to an agent, you can get a much better idea of what coverage that you actually need. Plugging numbers into some formula that’s used by an online quote calculator isn’t comprehensive.

 

Especially when it comes to more complex policies such as homeowner’s insurance, you need an agent to ask you all the right questions so that what you need covered is properly covered. Human insurance agents are the only ones that can give you the most accurate quote on the policy you really need. Online insurance quote tools are useful for getting an idea, but only a human agent can sell you exactly what you need.