Singapore: AIA transforms customer service with insurance industry's first humanoids

By Benjamin Ang | 22 Oct 2018

AIA Singapore has made history once again by being the first insurance company in Singapore to introduce humanoid robots in customer service.

The two humanoid robots – globally-recognised Pepper, and home-grown Nadine, which is the brainchild of scientists at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University – were unveiled at the official opening of its newly renovated next-generation customer service centre at Finlayson Green.

Ms Melita Teo, Chief Operations Officer, AIA Singapore, said, “Introducing bots at the service centre is just one of the many digitally-enabled transformation initiatives that we have planned at AIA Singapore. We believe that Nadine and Pepper would be able to elevate the service standards at the customer service centre.”

Pepper and Nadine will engage customers by responding to general enquiries about the insurer and the customer service centres, details on customers’ policy loans and submission on some policy transactions requests, as well as other common enquiries while promoting AIA Singapore’s customer portal, AIA eCare, to encourage self-help.

“As they are able to take on general enquiries, our human colleagues would be able to deal with more complex transactions, and be able to engage with our customers in a very high touch and more personal experience,” she said.

Both are socially intelligent humanoid robots with the ability to perceive emotions and adapt their behaviours to respond appropriately. With AI technology, they will continuously improve with each customer interaction, learning from past experiences and acquiring new knowledge to become more effective.

Elevating customer service to a whole new level

As a leading innovator in the industry, AIA Singapore’s digital innovations include introducing the first-in-market Digital Underwriter in its interactive Point-of-Sales (iPoS) system; POS EZ, the first-in-market innovation that allows customers to authenticate their requests through a remote authentication function, anytime and anywhere in the world; and the award-winning AIA Vitality Weekly Challenge app.

But digital transformation is more than just about technology or introducing humanoids.

“We are single-minded in creating a customer-centric digital ecosystem that establishes a whole new standard that goes beyond how customers are typically serviced to deepen engagement with our customers, supporting them in leading healthier, longer and better lives together with their families,” said Ms Teo.

Customers can decide how they want to be serviced. If they prefer to complete service requests at their own convenience, the AIA eCare customer app enables them to do so anytime and anywhere. If they have more complex transactions and enquiries, customer service representatives and financial services consultants will be able to help them with their requests.

Exciting development welcomed by advisers

The agency force is also very excited about their new colleagues Pepper and Nadine, she said.

“It is our intent that the automation and the digitisation that we do on Pepper and Nadine, and more importantly on the chatbot, would be able to help our financial services consultants with their servicing. This would be on a 24/7 basis, which will further empower them to be able to do sales and service even more robustly and holistically,” she said.