Bethany Jansen of American Family discusses insurtech & life insurance

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Transcription:

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Patti Harman (00:06):
Welcome to the latest edition of the Dig In Podcast. I’m Patti Harman, editor in chief of Digital Insurance, and I’m joined today by Bethany Jansen, strategic technology program manager at American Family Insurance and one of our 2023 Women in Insurance Leadership Next honorees. Thank you so much for joining our podcast today, Bethany.

Bethany Jansen (00:30):
Thanks, Patti. Happy to be here.

Patti (00:32):
So let’s just start with a general overview of your company and your primary focus and responsibilities there.

Bethany (00:40):
Alright. Yeah, so I work for American Family Insurance. We are a Midwest Mutual, so we are based in Madison, Wisconsin as our national headquarters and then we operate in 19 other states as well as then our subsidiaries and other companies we own kind of reach the rest of the 50 and I am in our data science and analytics lab within American Family, which is in our business development area. So kind of emerging AI tech and opportunities is where I sit and my job really is just kind of focused on strategy, partnership, stakeholder engagement in a management role and part of the desal management team.

Patti (01:21):
Well then with everything going on, especially with the use of generative AI, you’ve probably been a little bit busier I would guess, and there’s been a lot of attention lately on generative AI and the use of large language models. Can you tell us how you’re using these tools at American Family and then maybe discuss some of the risks that are associated with them and how to mitigate them?

Bethany (01:43):
Yeah, so I think it’s important to understand how rapidly these types of tools are changing. So OpenAI is one of the fastest platforms to reach a hundred million users, so even faster than TikTok per se. And there are lots of opportunities that we’re still kind of working through to explore use cases, flush them out, make sure they kind of fit and are right sized within our company. So it’s difficult to be specific, but we are focusing on a co-pilot type of use case. So efficiencies and enabling humans to be more effective, more informed a little bit faster, where a human touch will and continues to be better because of these technology tools. I’ll say on a personal note, I’ve used generative AI in terms of helping write my goals for the year and my performance review. So I told my boss that, so it’s okay that he knows this isn’t a secret to everyone, but I found it to be really helpful and kind of gleaned some other areas where I maybe had blind spots in terms of my professional and personal development and use it in that way. I think we’re always looking for new and improved capabilities and there’s some risks there where we know that models can be misused, mismanaged, they could be a little bit biased, and so we’re kind of taking our time exploring that and how to kind of correct those before we unleash it all over the company and to our customers to use.

Patti (03:13):
It’s interesting, I just was aware of some different ways to use generative AI and I was like, wow, I had no idea it could do that. So how it can be used is pretty exciting, and you’re right, there are some good things and some not so good things associated with that. The insurance industry hasn’t exactly been on the cutting edge of technology and yet I think especially with the last two years with the pandemic and some other areas, I think that perception is gradually changing, which is exciting to see. How are carriers utilizing in InsureTech in new ways and what are some of the benefits to them that they’re finding in making this transition?

Bethany (03:56):
So I’d say with looking to the InsurTech space, we’ve kind of seen that more rapidly grow over the last few years since the pandemic in which then has sparked ourselves and as well as our competitors to think about some of the technology in the use cases they have and how to bring it inside. So we’re always looking for more improved capabilities. We continue to evolve our IT infrastructure to make it easier to ingest these new capabilities in our venture arm of American Family is actually a tremendous help in this case with insurtech. One of the use cases is they have an excellent focus on software engineering and data science, which is an area now that we are kind of starting to focus more on and kind of take some of what they’ve been doing and bring it to the insurance industry space and not just insurtech. So there’s a lot more focus on great software engineering and advanced data science.

Patti (04:55):
I know I was really amazed at what an important role data science plays in all of this now, and I don’t think a lot of times people quite realize that. Are there certain areas of the insurance industry where you find the adoption of InsureTech is maybe moving faster or a little bit more easily than some other areas?

Bethany (05:15):
I would say it’s starting to move a little bit faster in our claims and call center spaces within the insurance industry. I think that’s when you think of automation and efficiencies, that’s the first place people go to because they may be a not so great touch point with a claim. So how do you make that better? How do you get the response faster? How do you have a little bit more of a personal touch to it? Same with the call center, you don’t always want to just be in a phone tree. So that’s two of the areas. And then that advanced data science aspect that we were just talking about is starting to work its way into underwriting and then we’re kind of still behind the times, but we’re getting there. And within underwriting, how do you more accurately, more profitably write business, decide what your underwriting appetite is or expand and contract that in more real time?

Patti (06:06):
Yeah, that’s really important. How is the use of InsurTech changing the customer experience then?

Bethany (06:13):
So I would say we’re still kind of focusing on how to digitally enhance our touch points within the customer journey, and we recognize the importance still of our agency distribution. And so there’s kind of this unique balance between digital innovation and our digital channel and also our current distribution model that we still use. And blending those together is where really the magic happens and starting to offer more personalized insights with a customer. Whether that is within maybe their quote to bind experience or a conversation with a customer, even just when they’re interacting with our app, things like that is what we’re focused on.

Patti (06:55):
Do you find that customers are generally comfortable using technology for different aspects of their insurance experience? I mean that has changed significantly over the last couple of years.

Bethany (07:06):
I would say it’s a blend, right? Customers are segmented and I would say there’s some that are more of our digital adopters that are really looking for that enhance capability, more personalized digital space. And then there’s customers that we have that they don’t own a smartphone, maybe they don’t really interact much with email and so they’re still looking for that personal human touch. They’re still a little weary of some digital enhancements that are coming. So it’s bringing them together, enhancing that agent to be more digitally focused and enable them, but still not lose sight of the human aspect. I mean, we’re in the relationship business after all, and so really making sure the customer feels supported.

Patti (07:53):
Yeah, that’s so true. I’ve always told people that insurance is just so relationship driven and so with the use of all of this new kind of technology, you want to make sure that you don’t lose that personal relationship for sure. How are you utilizing InsurTech in the life insurance industry and how is technology even changing this aspect of the industry?

Bethany (08:18):
I think when we think about life insurance and in the industry and how do you utilize some of this emerging tech, one of the great ways is kind of in that quoting process, kind of streamlining, maybe segmenting certain customers and utilizing other data aspects to then streamline them through that process so it’s quicker. It doesn’t take as long for them to get a quote or get approved. But also life insurance is one of my biggest areas of interest because I think about a lot of people my age and young professionals who have life insurance through their employer, and that’s it. And when I’m sitting with my friends, they all know that I work in insurance, so I’m going to ask them, but do you have life insurance outside of what your employer provides? And a lot of times they say no. And then I have that conversation with them, well, what if something was to happen where we’re seeing a lot of layoffs just in the economy right now where you get laid off and then something happens to you the next day.

(09:19)
And a lot of us are kind of in this generation where we’re raising small children and maybe I, myself included, have some student loans and we want to make sure our families are taken care of. So it’s so important to have that life insurance outside of what your employer provides. And the industry being able to focus on that and start to drive more of a conversation that way, I think really helps individuals who don’t think that they need it. Coming from my parents’ generation, they just have policies with their employer and they’ve been with their employer 30, 40 years, which is great, but what if something happens? Then they’re at an age where when it goes through underwriting, it’s going to be a higher premium, less coverage. So why not do it while we’re young? And now that there’s a lot more digital enhancements to the products that are offered in the life insurance space, I think it’s a wonderful opportunity. Yeah,

Patti (10:17):
I would agree with that. What excites you the most about working in the life insurance industry now and what areas have even changed? I think people have a very specific idea when they consider life insurance and what that looks like. And I think that there have been a lot of evolutions and updating in that industry over the years.

Bethany (10:38):
So I think some of the evolution has come from, the conversation had always tended to be people wanted to steer away from talking about death and dying, and it’s more about how to set up your family or yourself or anyone you would want to be a beneficiary of that policy for success in your absence and just how to be a more informed customer and have a better picture of your finances as well. And I think that’s what’s really exciting about being in the industry right now is that we’re bringing that all together. We’re utilizing stuff within InsurTech, we’re bringing in more open data sources, we’re having more positive customer touchpoints and doing more of a give get where we understand that customers, they’re looking for certain things. So we will give them those certain interactions in exchange for maybe more data from them so that we can better build out maybe what they’re looking for or suit their family’s needs on a more individual risk basis.

Patti (11:35):
Wow, that’s really important. I mentioned earlier that you’re one of our 2023 Women in Insurance Leadership Next honorees, so congratulations on that. What does receiving this recognition mean to you?

Bethany (11:49):
Thank you for the honor, I think it means, especially being a working mom, I myself have twin toddlers, two little girls who very much want to work in the insurance industry. Partially they just want to be me, but they were with me for two years in the pandemic where I worked from home and we had no childcare. So it was me and them every day sitting on phone calls on Zoom, and they really started to pick up the insurance lingo. And so seeing them light up when I talk about work really gives me a sense of purpose. And I wanted so badly to still after becoming a mom, be successful in my career and not let it stop me just because I had young children to take care of. And so being able to receive this honor is a way that I can show my daughters and other women that you can do it.

(12:44)
You can be a working mom, you can be a great friend, a good mother, a good partner, a good daughter, and also advance your career at the same time. And I would say the biggest thing for me was that you never know unless you ask. And that’s how I kind of got in even to the digital and InsurTech and advanced data science and AI space was, Hey, that sounds interesting. I would like to talk to you about creating a position in this area kind of thing. And so being able to watch that one little bit of courage kind of go all the way now over two years into getting this honor has been amazing.

Patti (13:27):
It’s kind of cool that your daughters at that young age really understand what you do and what an amazing opportunity that we as parents have when we work from home. I did it for many years too, and my children, they used to just say, oh, mommy’s going down in her office. But then they really do kind of have the opportunity to see what you do and how we’re much more than just being a mom who takes care of all of the mom responsibilities and that sort of thing. So what’s one closing thought that you’d like to leave with our listeners with today concerning the use of AI or other technologies?

Bethany (14:06):
So I would say, I would like to leave our listeners with the thought that adoption of AI and other emerging tech is not a project to execute today. This is a new way of working for all of us, and we need to be able to both adopt new AI or tech today while changing the way we work because it’s evolving so rapidly. As I mentioned, you can’t afford to spend months and months deploying something. You have to kind of just be agile and iterative in it. So this requires more of a fundamental change and infrastructure architecture and then just employee mindset. So it’s not something that you have to do right now, but we need to start taking steps to make it happen tomorrow or the next day.

Patti (14:49):
Very true. Or it’ll make a huge difference later on. So thank you so much for joining us today, Bethany. Thank you for listening to the Dig in podcast. I produced this episode with audio production by Kelly Malone Yi. Special thanks this week to, as I said, Bethany Jansen with American Family Insurance. Rate us. Review us and subscribe to our content at www.digin.com/subscribe. From Dig In, I’m Patti Harman and thanks for listening.