Legacy systems and fragmented processes continue to create challenges for insurance lines across underwriting, claims and customer experiences. Modernizing these processes with
Looking forward, Cincinnati Insurance anticipates an even greater need for digitalization among stakeholders across the insurance industry, especially in the property-and-casualty market where manual processes are still prevalent.
Cincinnati considers itself an early adopter of AI-powered automation. The insurer was the first to deploy Acord Transcriber, which uses machine learning and LLMs to automate data extraction from any insurance document. Cincinnati has applied the technology since 2021 to several departments, including sales, claims and commercial lines, as well as to its subsidiary, Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters (CSU).
As a large insurance carrier, Cincinnati faces a number of challenges from manual data entry, and developing a proprietary platform was both risky and expensive. Manual data entry is an intensive process, according to the insurer, and rekeying data also creates opportunities for transcription errors, impacting data quality.
Keeping form information up-to-date is another critical, but challenging, aspect of data consistency management that becomes increasingly difficult at scale.
Transcriber uses machine learning and LLMs for automated data extraction from any insurance document, leveraging over 800 Acord forms in over 4,700 versions to create digitized, structured data for downstream systems without the need for manual rekeying. According to Cincinnati, by adopting an intelligent document processing system, the insurer has achieved nearly 90% time savings for data entry and a 90% reduction in AI platform development time.
"Acord Transcriber was greatly welcomed and continues to add significant value. We're no longer just moving data around, but spending more time focused on underwriting and claims," said Frank Neugebauer, vice president and generative AI director of The Cincinnati Insurance Companies.
According to Neugebauer, the application of generative AI in processing and managing form data will enable underwriters and adjusters to spend more time developing expertise and building relationships with agents and policyholders.
"When we first created AI workflows that included Transcriber, we spent almost no time developing the Acord form capability. This got our entire solution into production significantly faster. We originally allocated eight months for Acord Form reading development; it took us less than a month," said Neugebauer.
Acord's technology is meant to be versatile and to accommodate the many different form types that insurers handle, said Rakesh Tangri, senior vice president and global chief solutions architect from Acord Solutions Group.
"Insurance carriers process thousands of Acord forms every day in a variety of formats–from paper forms to fillable PDFs to fully digital e-forms," Tangri said. "To keep businesses moving, they need an intelligent solution that can accurately extract and validate critical data, ensure alignment with Acord Standards and seamlessly populate downstream systems with confidence."
