Smarter Systems for Leaner Teams: The Modern Approach to Claims Operations 

Hello, everyone. Welcome to our webinar on Smarter Systems for Leaner Teams, the Modern Approach to Claim Operations. My name is Aubrey Eyer, and I’m thrilled to be your host today. Today’s program is a conversation between origami risk expert, Dustin Barrington and Mindi Zissman. We’ll have a live q and a at the end. If you’d like to ask our speaker anything, please submit those questions through the q and a function on the Zoom toolbar, and we will address those after the presentation. So we will start that conversation now. Hello, everyone, and welcome. I’m Mindi Zissman, and I’m joined today by Dustin Barrington from Origami Risk. We all know the insurance industry is in the middle of significant operational change. Experienced professionals are leaving faster than they can be replaced, And with them goes years of practical knowledge, institutional knowledge, process intuition, and judgment that really can’t easily be trained or replaced. At the same time, policyholders and business partners expect faster, more transparent service. Right? The Amazon world of today in sales. So insurers are really facing a widening gap. Fewer people with deep experience and institutional knowledge. There’s more work to do and higher expectations from all of those in the audience. Today, Dustin and I are going to unpack how Origami Risk and modern SaaS claims platform is innovating to help insurers manage that balance, capturing expertise in the system, guiding newer staff, and improving efficiency and customer experience along the way. Dustin, welcome, and thanks for joining me on the webinar today and for this discussion. Hey, my pleasure. It’s great to be with you here today, Mindy. Okay, great. Well, let’s start us off. I just spoke about what, you know, into what claims organizations in the industry most generally are facing right now. How is this shift in the workforce experience and the workforce in general aging out showing up in the day to day life of the operations teams? Yeah, that’s a great question. I think you set it up really beautifully as you came in because what we’re seeing is just an overall decline of this institutional knowledge. The tips and the shortcuts, instincts that once got passed down from person to person is disappearing. And not only are people spending less time at their job, but workforce attrition is really evident as experienced folks are leaving gaps and there’s fewer experienced people to pick up the baton and keep moving. So as a consequence, you have supervisors and senior adjusters. They’re spending more time doing training and less time on the complex work that is needed to keep the business running day to day. And then kind of to exacerbate all that, as outcome, you’ve got new hires that are being asked to handle complex files earlier on in their careers without that ramp up period to really get going. And I just read an article really recently about this phenomenon and the writer was writing that they had a roof loss and the carrier sent out a field adjuster and the field adjuster was just too inexperienced to handle the sort of claim that he had. And so he sent them back and the next adjuster showed up and same sort of thing. In fact, he had mentioned that he was flipping burgers just a couple of months before. And that unfortunately ended up with a dispute with the carrier. So the downstream effect of these inconsistencies, the slower cycle times, and this policy frustration just adds to the additional strain that’s being felt right now and carries repercussions of all of that. Wow, That’s a crazy story. So to kind of like add on to that, as we, like, bleed institutional knowledge here from our carriers, like and you gave one example of a claims outcome, which sounds really crazy. Like, how does this, affect team performance and like the overall cycle of working through claims and everything that our teams had to do kind of on the back end in a carrier? So the effects of talent gap can really range wildly from one carrier to another. But one example in inconsistency might be in how reserves are set. Or they could be about how coverage is applied and some of those early on mistakes that happen in building a claim file that can ultimately lengthen cycle times as adjusters are second guessing themselves or wondering how did we get here in the first place. And teams overall are struggling to maintain this claimant experience. And unfortunately we live in a time when anybody can just take to social forums and vent their frustration. And full circle that comes back to haunt the business as it deters future business, but also as the top performers that are still with the company start to take on more and more responsibilities to make up for the natural attrition. Right. And anyone who’s underperforming, right? Like any kind of like the newbies who, like those claims example that you gave or that claim example that you gave, it’s, know, someone’s got to pick up the slack. If you have to pick up that slack, you have that additional attrition that just further exacerbates the problem that we’re talking about. Right. Wow. Okay. So we’ve got to have some tech that can help here. Right? Like, how can origami help insurers respond? Like, what role can tech actually play in bridging this talent gap and, you know, even more than just the talent gap, but that, like, kind of, gap in between like experienced, less experienced staff, new staff, legacy staff? How can tech kind of fill that role? Yeah, that’s a great question because oftentimes when we refer to technology, we’re talking about it in the context of transformation of data and processes and what the system can actually do. But when you have a modern platform, you’re actually helping to operationalize the experience that is really paramount to brand and profitability. And so when we talk about efficiency, it’s not only the productivity gains of the digital system itself, but it’s how the staff interact and depend on it to accomplish their work. So they’re extending the capabilities of the system. And technology is the enabler to fill those gaps when it’s purposefully used. So for example, automation is meant to ensure that business processes are followed absent of the reliance of that long term staffer that has the seen this, done this before sort of perspective that are fewer and fewer these days. But then you also have AI, which is the promise of this immense treasure trove to flag risks and summarize data and maintain standards and basically accelerate processes by making new associations and connections for even better insights. And these are two powerful drivers in the workforce today, but really it’s the platform flexibility that enables both of them to come together to create an environment that enables the changing workforce and still honoring the needs of the business. So it’s powerful combination when you bring all those three elements together. And as a technology platform, that’s what we’re trying to do, is really help carriers be able to use the technology to do more and to do better by their policyholders. Okay. I love that focus. That automation, AI, platform flexibility, that, like, trifecta. Let’s go through those, like, one at a time. Let’s start with automation. Efficiency has always been a theme, right? Always something that we’re working towards. But how do you see automation helping insurers go beyond just doing things faster? Like, what could be different in today’s world of automation than yesterday when it was just about speed? Yeah, well, really modern automation has to move us beyond this checklist driven task sort of approach to automation where you’re just repeating reviews or you’re assigning things by Rembrandt, or you’re generating and posting a document just as all part of a very linear workflow. It has to be much more intelligent, where automation is going beyond just those road activities and starts thinking about, well, what should I do next and what are the repercussions of this sort of thing. And in that way it can sort of fill that talent gap where it’s acting as a coach to make sure things continue to progress as they should. So if you have an AI enhanced workflow, for example, and you start looking at that complex criteria to determine when to initiate tasks or when to craft communications or when to render a decision and how to do it, it starts looking at a set of factors like experience and workload and claim risk to optimally triage and assign claims, which is hugely powerful for a business searching for that additional efficiency. And ultimately, it means that the claims outcomes become more consistent, they come better, and there’s reduced administrative drag across the business. Okay, so if that automation layer sets the foundation, you mentioned AI, let’s go with that How can you start leveling and layering in those AI advanced tools that everyone’s talking about? Where is Origami using AI in ways to help claims teams? Yeah. Coming out of ITC just recently, we can see that everyone’s got a different approach to AI, but everyone’s talking about it. It’s hugely important. So I can share Origami’s perspective on that, and that is that AI should be brought in wherever it can provide the most value. And that might look different from insurer to insurer. So our approach is kind of multifaceted. One is to enable workflows to be able to bring in Insurtech connections so that our clients can build them wherever they need them and however they’re most useful to their business. But we also know the platform needs native capabilities that highlight insights and help adjusters do more. And there’s a few ways that we’ve recently done this that I can speak into. One is a feature called Concierge. It’s a conversational AI assistant that helps adjusters find answers, look up data, trigger actions right in their workflow, and it’s really useful for onboarding newer adjusters who are less familiar with the system, less familiar with processes, but it’s also very helpful for experienced folks who want to make sure that they get an answer right exactly when they need them. Another one would be AI Claim Summaries. So that’s a feature that automatically compiles notes and documents and status updates into concise summaries, which saves hours of digging through screens and reading notes and documents to try and figure out where the claim’s at. And then you’ve got AI Email Assist, and it does basically what it says it does where you can refine claim correspondence with the right tone. That meets company standards and you can ensure consistency while also freeing up staff time in writing those communications. So these are just a few examples of the native tools in the Origami platform. But like I said, it’s really about enabling an insurer to put AI wherever in those workflows that is most beneficial. Okay. So we have automation, we have AI, and now we have like really what’s going to tie this all up into a bow is the flexibility to kind of draw on what you were saying that, you know, you have to be able to to use them and apply them when it makes sense. So, you know, if we have that flexibility that gives insurers the ability to decide where and how to deploy AI and automation features, you know, what what is what’s kind of like the credo of that flexibility? You know what I mean? Like, how does that look in practice? You know what I mean? How does that apply, let’s say, origami solution in general? Yeah. Well, flexibility can mean a number of different things. But when I say it, I’m meaning that insurers can create anything they need in the platform, but also that the platform continually innovates with new features and capabilities for the application of AI, and it’s continually being developed. So from that perspective, it is flexible because it continues to improve and get better and better as technology advances. One example of this is Origami’s workflow tools that enhance automation and embed AI with no code tools that really help teams bring out the best in AI and automation specific to their sort of workflows. And this combination really enables a client to take control of the innovation in the context of their own business model, instead of forcing them to change to match whatever we as the software builder actually creates for them. So we want to build it and then enable our clients to do the most with it. Okay. So now we’ve talked about kind of the digital side. So what about the human side? How can we take that tech and actually improve experiences both on the back end for the insurer’s team internally and then also externally for policyholders? Right. So when you think about the experience, we’re thinking about the policyholder experience, but also the staff who are involved in delivering those experience. So when we do case studies, we continually hear from our clients that self-service is an area where they find immense value, and we hear it time and time again. So anywhere we can decrease demand on staff time while also improving the policyholder claimant experience, it’s a win. So we see this oftentimes with our self-service portal that we set up that enables policyholders to report FNOL, to upload documentation, to track their claims. And that all reduces calls and the manual updates on the staff. So we’re really driving toward that transparency that builds trust with the policyholder and claimants, while also making less manual work and fewer repetitive tasks for the staff so they can focus on what really matters, including some of those more complex cases where you can’t necessarily automate those away. And that results in better experiences on both sides. Happier policyholders, but yet fewer phone calls and faster answers and overall more confidence in the process. Okay, great. Now tell us a bit about how Origami is helping new clients or carriers that are kind of walking in the door that don’t have these modern capabilities yet. How can Origami help them with that flexibility you mentioned? Like to do more quickly and get up to speed? Yeah, I think the term transformation strikes fear in many IT professionals who have to go through a project to do this. So when it comes to how you implement and take advantage of a modern platform, it’s something that we think a lot about. And in fact, just this past summer, Origami rolled out the claims standard solution, which is an out of the box configuration set for core lines like workers’ comp and general liability, commercial auto, property. And they’re meant to bring best practices, workflows, and templates that help reduce the amount of time to get a carrier up and running, and reduce the amount of effort for that implementation. So, you know, we’re delivering a set of these out of the box standards that really serve as a starting point for carriers to begin innovating on. And so that greatly accelerates the time to market. And, you know, we can do it with less risk and a foundation that’s really proven that the processes work and that they’ll be effective and they reflect industry expertise that are helpful for everybody. Okay, great. As a closing thought, Justin, we’d love to hear from you. What advice do you have for organizations that are considering jumping into this and letting, you know, technology help pull that gap together that they feel, you know, at the workforce level? How can they apply all the things we talked about today? Automation, AI, and flexibility into their business? Would love to get some advice from you. Tips and tricks. Yeah, think it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the options that are out there. But I think it’s important to start small but intentional. Pick a process and automate it. Find out where you’ve got some acute pain and figure out how can you leverage AI automation and flexibility to solve some of those problems. And then you can start expanding from there. I’d also suggest maybe focusing on systems that make people better at their jobs. We’re not trying to replace But if we can improve efficiency and reduce some of those recurring kind of monotonous tasks, it helps us shift value to things that add more to the business and help people feel more valued in the jobs. And I think the real win is that when technology captures and scales what your people already do well and they do it better, that’s a real win for everybody. And using technology to solve for some of the industry problems that we started this conversation off with. TalentDrain, for example, and helping newer adjusters get up to speed, helping more experienced adjusters be able to do more and take a look at those complex cases without feeling overwhelmed is really going to be a differentiator as we’re facing the headwinds of talent trade in the industry. Wow, that’s great. Those are great tips. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dustin, for joining us to talk about this important topic of working with tech and leveraging technology to bridge the workforce gap for carriers. Of course, the modern SaaS platform, you know, like Origami is innovating to help insurers manage that balance. Right? We’re capturing expertise in the system, guiding newer staff, and improving efficiency in the overall customer experience. It’s always always the goal when you bring technology in to work with human workforce. So thank you, Dustin, for joining us, and thank you everybody else for being here. Okay. Well, thank you all. That was a great conversation. So we’re gonna open up the program for q and a now. You can type those questions in the q and a section at the bottom of the Zoom toolbar. So we’re gonna start with our first question. Dustin, does the claim standard solution work for all insurer types? We’re a public entity, so our processes and reporting needs can be pretty specific. Sure. That’s a great question. When we, put out our claim standard solution in summer. It was really geared to the carrier use case, but we know that there’s immense application for, pools and for public entities. So first quarter of twenty six, fairly early on, we should see a solution specific for public entities. So watch for that to come, just at the start of the new year. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. We have another question. If we’re already using Origami, how how difficult will it be to turn on the AI features like concierge or claim summaries? Are they plug and play, or do they need configuration? Yeah. So we’re fully aware that each organization kind of has their own pathway, their own direction on how they’re going to adopt AI. So we’ve made it as easy as possible for them, to do that. And, to adopt any of the Origami AI features that are native to the platform, you first agree to the AI terms and conditions that you can review. And once that’s turned on by your administrator, all of the individual features can be toggled on or off. And so you can accept accept some or all of them. No configuration is is needed for those. You can turn on concierge or the AI email assist, or even the claim summaries just with that toggle. So very flexible for however you want to approach that. That’s great. Okay. Well, looks like those were all of our questions today. So, I wanna thank you all for joining us, and I’d like to extend a special thank you to our speakers, Dustin and Mindi. So thanks everyone again for your participation, and have a wonderful day.