AI Case Study
LV= Brokers reduces the call volume from brokers by 91% by piloting a chatbot for queries
LV= Brokers are an insurance company piloting an internally facing chatbot to help their broker partners with queries.
Industry
Financial Services
Insurance
Project Overview
According to LV='s website, "LV= Broker is launching a new online virtual assistant tool on its Broker portal. Pilot brokers are able to ask a virtual assistant a wide range of questions, 'live' chat with an LV= employee, and instantly download and upload documentation. The knowledge assistant 'aLVin' has been built featuring extensive knowledge of the ABC car insurance product and brokers can type in their query and answers will be provided... Nuance Communications has worked closely with LV= to build the virtual assistant, aLVin. The technology is currently being piloted with a small number of brokers with plans to roll out to other products and a wider range of broker partners over the rest of the year." The initial pilot took place from May to June 2015, involving 4 broker partners.
Reported Results
LV= claims "We have received some staggering feedback - far better than we anticipated. Things like the fact that in excess of 49 per cent of conversations had social interactions like ‘hello', 'goodbye' and 'thank you', and 98 per cent of brokers said that if it was offered as a full-time service they would use it... Over the period, the volume of calls from those partners reduced by 91 per cent and that could have been higher had it not been for a technical problem we encountered half way through the pilot, which was quickly fixed."
Technology
From Computing: "The core components of aLVin does actually include an FAQ-type section, but what differentiates it from the norm is what is known as 'decision trees'... This is where you can build question-and-answer upon question-and-answer and go through a series of those conversations in order to reach a good end-result. So we actually deal with underwriting queries and referrals through the virtual assistant: it can provide tailored or generic rates, and terms and conditions that the broker would have to apply". However, "for all of aLVin's benefits, Hickman said that the virtual assistant can't quite be described as artificial intelligence."
Function
Customer Service
Other
Background
From Computing: "Alan Hickman, head of personal lines operations at LV= Broker, told Computing that the decision to use an online virtual assistant was due to frustration caused because there was only one method for broker partners to be able to get in touch with LV=, and that was by using a phone. 'To date, the most effective method for communications with our broker partners in the UK when they had a query or a referral was to pick the telephone up, and we really wanted some new options in a world where the evolution of secure technologies is at a faster pace than it has ever been'."
Benefits
Data