AI at an insurer does three things in customer contact. It recognises who is getting in touch and why. It handles routine questions about policies, cover, invoices and claim status itself, straight from your systems. And it passes everything else to the right person, with the context attached. A chatbot does this with text on your website or in the app. An AI voice agent does it on the phone, the channel many customers turn to after damage or when they are unsure. Advice, disputed claims and sensitive situations stay with your people.

In short:

• What AI takes over: customer verification, cover and policy questions, the first notice of a claim, claim status, simple changes and invoice questions.
• Chatbot or phone: a chatbot suits short questions online; an AI voice agent picks up the calls, including the peaks after a storm or after a letter to every customer.
• What stays with people: advice, disputed claims, distressing situations and anything that needs judgement.
• What you need: integrations with your policy administration, claims system and telephony, plus a way to test flows before customers hear them.

What Does AI Do in an Insurer’s Customer Contact?

Most of an insurer’s customer contact comes down to a handful of recurring questions. That is where AI pays off:

• Verification. The customer is recognised from data you already hold, such as phone number, postcode and date of birth, so nobody has to key in a policy number digit by digit. How that works is covered in how AI voice agents verify callers.
• Cover questions. “Is my windscreen covered?” is answered from this customer’s policy, not from a generic FAQ.
• First notice of loss. The first details of a new claim, what happened, when and where, are collected during the call and go straight into the claims system.
• Claim status. The customer hears where the claim stands without waiting for a handler.
• Changes and invoices. A change of address, a premium invoice question or cancelling a policy is completed without a specialist.
• Transfer with context. Anything AI does not handle itself reaches the right handler, with the verification and the reason for the call already on screen.

What this looks like per call type is on our page about the AI voice agent for insurers.

Chatbot or AI Voice Agent: Which Fits Which Question?

A chatbot and an AI voice agent use similar technology, but they pick up different customer contact. Someone standing by the roadside after a collision rarely opens a chat window. Someone who wants to know in the evening when the premium will be collected rarely calls.

	Chatbot	AI voice agent	Agent
Channel	Website, app, messaging	Phone	Phone, chat, email
Strong at	Short factual questions, links to documents	Claim notifications, verification, call volume peaks	Advice, disputed claims, sensitive conversations
The customer has to	Type and read	Simply say what is going on	Wait until someone is free
During a peak	Scales	Scales	Queue
Handover	To a live chat or a callback request	Transfer with context	n/a

The difference between the two technologies is explained in AI voice agent vs. chatbot. AssistYou builds the AI Voice Agent for the phone channel.

Why Call Volume Peaks Hit Insurers So Hard

An insurer’s call volume is erratic. After a storm or hailstorm, many customers with damage call within a short time. After a letter about changed cover, customers call with questions about their own policy. During renewal season, questions about premiums and terms go up. Each of those calls starts with the same step: establishing who is calling and finding the policy.

Unigarant saw this in September 2023, when the announcement that fatbikes would no longer be insured triggered a wave of calls. With the AI Analyst, the team saw within a day that fatbike calls dominated. It also showed that some customers had received the wrong letter. Unigarant then split future communications into smaller batches. The AI Voice Agent at Unigarant verifies the caller, retrieves the customer file and handles complete processes on its own, such as cancelling a policy. It processes more than 2,000 calls a day and saves the customer contact team 15 hours a day (Unigarant customer story).

That is where the real return lies: not only shorter waits during a peak, but also seeing faster why customers call, so you fix the cause rather than just the symptoms.

How Far Has AI Come in Insurance?

Insurers already use AI more widely than in customer contact alone. According to the European supervisor EIOPA, AI was used by 50% of responding non-life insurers and 24% of life insurers (EIOPA, 30 April 2024). In the Netherlands, 15 of the 36 insurers in a De Nederlandsche Bank survey said they use AI applications (DNB, 27 March 2025). Customer contact is a logical first step: the questions are recognisable, the volume is large and the result shows directly in waiting time and cost per contact.

What AI Does Not Take Over at an Insurer

AI takes over the predictable calls, not the profession. At an insurer, these conversations stay with people:

• Advice. Which cover suits someone’s situation, or whether an extra policy makes sense: that stays with your advisers. AI can explain what is in a policy, not decide what a customer needs.
• Disputed claims. When a customer disagrees with a rejection or a settlement, that call belongs with a handler.
• Sensitive situations. A death, a serious accident or a customer in financial difficulty calls for a person on the line.
• Complaints and edge cases. Anything that needs judgement is transferred.

Set up well, the AI voice agent recognises those calls and passes them on with a warm handover, so the customer does not have to repeat anything.

What You Need to Use AI in Your Customer Contact

The technology is rarely the problem. The integrations are. Without access to your systems, AI stays a clever call-transfer system.

1. Policy administration. For verification and cover questions, the AI voice agent has to be able to retrieve policy data.
2. Claims system. To take a claim notification or give a status, it has to read and write in your claims system.
3. CRM and telephony. Calls arrive on your existing number, and the outcome lands in your CRM. Read more about integrating AI agents with CRM systems.
4. Flows per call reason. For each question you decide what AI handles itself and when it transfers.
5. Testing before customers hear it. A new exclusion or a temporary claims process after a storm is something you want to run in a test environment first. See version control and a deployment pipeline for AI agents.

Insurance is a regulated sector, with requirements for information security, record keeping and human oversight. We cover those requirements in compliance-first AI for regulated industries.

How to Start With AI in Your Insurer’s Customer Contact

1. Count your call reasons. Take a month of calls and list the top ten. Two or three reasons usually account for a large share of the volume.
2. Choose what AI may handle on its own. Start with questions that can be answered from a system, such as claim status, cover questions and address changes.
3. Record a baseline. Waiting time, transfers, handling time and cost per contact, so you can compare after launch.
4. Test with real calls, then roll out to part of your callers.
5. Expand to the next call reason once the first one runs stably.

Whether it pays off for your volume is covered in when an AI phone assistant pays off. Which call types the AI Voice Agent handles at an insurer is shown on the page for insurers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does AI do at an insurer? In customer contact, AI recognises who is getting in touch and why, answers cover, policy and invoice questions from your systems, takes the first notice of a claim and transfers everything else to the right person with the context attached.

What is the difference between a chatbot and an AI voice agent at an insurer? A chatbot works with text on your website or in the app and suits short, factual questions. An AI voice agent works on the phone, where customers call after damage or when they are unsure, and also absorbs call volume peaks.

Can AI take a first notice of loss? Yes. An AI voice agent can collect the first details of a claim, such as what happened, when and where, and put them straight into the claims system. Assessing the claim stays with a handler.

Can AI replace an insurance adviser? No. AI can explain what is in a policy and handle routine questions. Advice on which cover suits someone’s situation stays with your advisers.

How quickly can you see why customers call after a storm or a change? With analysis of every call, within a day. With the AI Analyst, Unigarant saw within a day that calls about fatbikes dominated. It also showed that some customers had received the wrong letter.

Start With Your Call Reasons

AssistYou builds the AI Voice Agent for the phone channel of large organisations, in English, Dutch and German. See what the AI Voice Agent does for insurers, or contact our sales team to go through your call reasons together.

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