Onesurance supports brokers, intermediaries, and carriers with AI technology that can predict customer behavior. Dennie van den Biggelaar and Jack Vos founded the data science company in the Netherlands in 2022. Since the beginning of this year, Jan Andel has been responsible for the Belgian market.

Where did the idea for Onesurance come from? Jack Vos: “As a financial and insurance advisor, I've advised many individuals and business clients. When the online insurer Lemonade entered the Dutch market in 2019, I thought that digital underwriting and claims processing might become a significant threat. I found it a very interesting technology, but I also noticed that it's challenging for Lemonade to acquire and retain customers. That's because we also need human advisors, but data- and AI-driven solutions can make customer retention strategies much more effective.”

In the Financial Daily I read: ‘Dennie van den Biggelaar emphasizes that in insurance, there is more of an evolution of specific AI than a revolution of generative AI.’ What do you mean by that?

Dennie van den Biggelaar: “Generative AI, like ChatGPT, has been a huge hype since November 2022. With generative AI, we can mimic human skills, but the outcome isn't reliable enough for many applications in the insurance sector. AI solutions specifically designed for such a task and capable of executing it with high reliability are.”

For example?
Dennie van den Biggelaar: “With our AI solutions, we can, for example, predict whether a customer plans to switch to another provider within a week, a month, or a year. The broker who knows this can take timely action to prevent the customer from leaving. After all, insurance is mainly about long-term customer relationships. Losing an insurance customer has a much larger financial impact than losing a customer in the retail business.”

Jack Vos: “We can predict with 90 percent certainty which customers will want to cancel a policy (or policies) within twelve months. But if an insurance broker has 100,000 customers and 20,000 are in the danger zone for a policy cancellation, it becomes difficult to keep those 20,000 on board by calling them one by one. That's why we also predict the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). This is the future net customer value. This way, the insurance office can initiate a targeted action to approach customers with a high churn risk and a high CLV first to retain them.”

Dennie van den Biggelaar: “We've noticed the churn can dramatically decrease, up to 50 percent. We know this for sure because we work with control groups. If the churn is under control and efficiency is improved, we can deploy AI modules to grow revenue. An example is the Next Best Policy module. This predicts which policy a customer will need shortly. The best way to grow is by selling more policies to existing customers. We can also use our data and AI solution to look for the most interesting new customers in the region.

Which services are most frequently requested?

Dennie van den Biggelaar: “Our assistance is most often sought to reduce churn... or to stop cancellations as quickly as possible. Once that's done, we often help grow a portfolio.”

Who are your main target groups?

Jan Andel: “Our AI technology can be used by insurers and brokers. But the number of policies must, of course, be sufficiently high.”

Jack Vos: “We can't help an office with 500 customers because it's pointless to set up an AI process for such a small number. Those brokers know all their customers and therefore don't need us at all. They can already judge who the defectors will be.”

Jan Andel: “But for brokerage firms that work in groups, our services can indeed be interesting. In the Netherlands, we offer a group module through ANVA, the Dutch equivalent of BRIO. That could also be done in Belgium. Or through the brokerage organizations FVF, BZB-Fedafin, and Feprabel. We offer modules for groups; it doesn't matter who those group members are.”

How do you determine the price?

Jack Vos: “We look at the number of customers. The more customers, the higher the rate, but because we've set up our technology to be scalable, it is now also very affordable for brokers.”

You conduct predictive analyses based on data from brokers' and insurers' back offices. How do you ensure ethical use of the data and protection of privacy?

Jack Vos: “In two ways. First, we follow all ethical rules imposed by the EU, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and we go a step further. For each offer, an ethical cycle is provided. We always ask ourselves which stakeholders play a role in the process. We check whether the involved customers, brokers, insurers, and perhaps other parties could be disadvantaged by the predictive algorithm we want to integrate. If that's the case, for example, if certain groups are discriminated against, we try to mitigate that disadvantage. We, therefore, think about this before the process is designed. Secondly, all data is anonymized upon collection. We never work with data or combinations that can be traced back to a person.”

Jan Andel: “And our methods are continuously screened by the Cronos Group. We are part of this innovative technology group which participates in more than 570 companies and collaborates with Belgian insurers and banks. “ and provide predictions back to the relevant system. Sooner or later, even the less innovative players will have to work more with data- and AI-driven solutions. If you wait too long, you will shortchange your customers in quality and cost of service in the near future. That's why I advise you to explore how you can connect your existing IT landscape with innovative solutions that use AI now. Even though it can be challenging with older systems.”

Jan Andel: “Change always involves investments, but companies with legacy systems can already make their basic processes more customer-friendly to customers (and brokers) without too much investment.”

Will AI applications further widen the gap between pioneers and followers?

Jack Vos: ”Yes, the pioneers are taking a spectacular lead. According to the latest research, they are often twice as profitable. And I believe that lead will become even greater because AI applications offer exponential possibilities. That exponential aspect is still underestimated.”

Jan Andel: “Our solutions can also be interesting for smaller brokerage firms.”

Dennie van den Biggelaar: “Moreover, all our algorithms are transparent and explainable. Additionally, we are in the process of registering our algorithms, even though this is not yet mandatory.”

Consultant Capgemini writes in her reports that insurers must become ‘data masters’. But our insurers are still tied to legacy systems dating from before the internet. Do you have a solution for that?

Jack Vos: “We certainly have ways to extract data from legacy systems in a standardized way. It's not easy, but technically it can be done.”

Dennie van den Biggelaar: “We extract the data with APIs from legacy systems. This is how we train our algorithms.

Jan Andel: In Belgium, Onesurance works intensively with Jan Andel. He is an author and transition coach with 35 years of experience in commercial and insurance technical functions for Belgian and Dutch intermediaries and insurers. Jan is also fluent in French, making him our expert for the Belgian and French markets.

Dennie van den Biggelaar: Econometrician and data scientist with 15+ years of experience as an AI strategist in the retail and service sector.

Jack Vos: With 30 years of experience in the insurance sector, he was also the owner of a Dutch brokerage firm.

Read the original article published in the VVP here.