How would insurance customers like to contact their provider?

When there's a crash in the street or the kids kick the football into the window pane, most of us are glad to have insurance. However, the insurance business, which until recently was characterised by on-site consultations and visits to the agent's home, is increasingly digital, as not only we report continuously on //next - but also the digital association Bitkom has now confirmed: According to a recent survey, four out of ten policyholders would like to handle the entire process, from notification to payment, completely digitally.

This wish is similarly widespread across most age groups (16 to 29 years: 44 percent, 30 to 49 years: 48 percent, 50 to 64 years: 44 percent), only the older ones over 65 are somewhat more reserved at 27 percent. This is the result of a survey of 1,002 people in Germany commissioned by the digital association Bitkom.

Older people in particular are sceptical if the claim is processed completely automatically, for example through a software-based check or with the help of AI chatbots. While almost three quarters (72 percent) of older people aged 65 and over find automatic processing worrying, the figure is 59 percent for those aged 50 to 64, 49 percent for those aged 30 to 49 and only 44 percent for younger people aged 16 to 29. Across all age groups, 58 per cent find this idea disturbing.

"Especially in the insurance industry, artificial intelligence offers enormous opportunities, from personalised advice to claims processing, for example also with the help of image and pattern recognition," Bernhard Rohleder comments on these results: "Convenient digital communication and the use of digital technologies are not only expected by the younger ones from their insurance company. At the same time, however, there is also reticence and scepticism among older people." The Bitkom CEO adds:

Two-thirds (66 percent) want a human contact person like their insurance intermediary to handle the entire claims process for them - regardless of how they are contacted. The wish is most widespread among older people over 65 (74 percent), but it is also a majority among younger people from 16 to 29, at 63 percent.