With customer expectations evolving rapidly and AI reshaping how insurers do business, the life insurance industry in Asia-Pacific faces a challenge – how to maintain the human connection that sits at the heart of protection. Simon Smallcombe, APAC Insurance Partner at Capco, discusses how technology and human empathy in tandem can help insurers to close the protection gap.
Simon touches on how rising customer expectations are driving digital transformation, the critical role of AI in improving speed and personalization, and why human interaction remains indispensable in a sector built on trust. He also reflects on how technology will help bridge the life insurance protection gap in APAC, offering a roadmap for insurers to balance innovation with empathy.
How do you see changing customer expectations shaping the imperative for transformation in the insurance sector?
Simon Smallcombe: Over the last decade, customers’ expectations around service, speed and simplicity have fundamentally changed. We’ve grown accustomed to instant gratification – whether it’s transferring money on a mobile app or booking a flight in seconds. That expectation of immediacy and ease has naturally extended to all aspects of life and insurance is no different.
Customers now expect onboarding to be seamless, claims to be processed faster and every touchpoint to feel intuitive. In short, insurers can no longer rely on legacy processes – they must deliver experiences that feel as simple as any other digital service people use daily.
What role will artificial intelligence play in helping insurers deliver those improved customer experiences?
Simon Smallcombe: It is a significant role, right across the insurance value chain. We’re seeing speech-to-text tools that record advisors and client conversations that will ensure completeness of the advice process and deliver efficient financial needs analysis, risk assessment, product suitability, affordability and demonstrate know your customer requirements. This automatically pre-populates documentation and underwriting processing. AI will help the advisor flag any missing information to ensure compliance, all while reducing the administrative burden.
In claims, AI can analyze large volumes of data and assist human underwriters in making faster, more accurate decisions. This means customers no longer have to wait weeks for claim approvals. It also ensures that the advisors can focus on the client and engage in meaningful discussion, which research tells us is most valuable to them.
While the potential for AI to transform customer experiences is clear, few insurers seem to have reached the necessary level of technological sophistication. What’s holding them back?
Simon Smallcombe: There are a few reasons. The first is a degree of caution – insurance companies are traditionally run by actuaries and accountants, and by nature they’re risk-averse. Investing heavily in new technology or re-organizing core systems can feel daunting when the return on investment isn’t immediately visible.
There’s also underinvestment in some cases, as leadership teams balance short-term profitability with long-term transformation. Replacing legacy systems or building a single source of truth for customer data requires significant capital, and not all C-suite executives feel empowered to make that call; especially in markets where executive turnover is high.
That said, we’re now seeing positive momentum. Advances in AI and lower-cost deployment models are reducing barriers to adoption. Many insurers are running proof-of-concepts of MVPs for AI agents and claims automation that are already demonstrating measurable value.
Where does the ‘human in the loop’ fit within this increasingly AI-infused ecosystem?
Simon Smallcombe: Insurance remains at its heart a very human and emotional proposition to clients. People don’t wake up one morning and decide to buy life insurance on impulse. It’s often prompted by an emotional trigger such as starting a family, a friend’s experience, or a personal loss – and that emotional foundation means the human connection will always be critical.
Personalization, enabled by AI, enhances rather than replaces that connection. We’re seeing examples where customers receive personalized onboarding videos from their advisors, explaining their policies in detail – the cover, benefits and duration – in a way that feels unique and relevant.
These moments of personalization build trust and emotional connection, turning what could be a transactional experience into a relationship. They also have a measurable impact: such initiatives have significantly improved insurers’ Net Promoter Scores by turning routine policy issuance into a moment of delight and reassurance.
For simple, commoditized products like travel, mobile device or embedded insurance, customers prefer a fully digital experience for convenience and speed. However, for more complex products that involve financial planning, wealth transference or tax considerations, customers seek a trusted advisor who can guide them through their options and provide reassurance.
The same is true across the customer value chain. As you move from mass-market and mass-affluent segments towards high-net-worth clients, the more sophisticated the needs become – and the more essential the human relationship is. Those clients expect not only expertise, but also empathy and discretion that technology alone cannot replicate. Finally, technology should enable empathy to scale – delivering speed, simplicity, and personalization without losing the human connection that defines trust in insurance.
Claims are often a critical and emotional moment in the insurance journey. How can technology and human support work together to improve that experience?
Simon Smallcombe: The claims process is where the promise of insurance is truly tested – and it usually happens at a vulnerable time for the customer. Yet today it can take 10 to 14 business days to receive a decision on a health claim, even when all the required information has been provided. That delay is often caused by manual back-and-forth between doctors, underwriters and administrators.
So, there is enormous scope for improvement. AI can streamline the process by automatically ingesting medical data, flagging missing information, and enabling faster decision-making. But just as importantly, the customer still needs human guidance through that moment – someone to explain, reassure, and empathize.
Customers buy insurance for peace of mind. When something goes wrong, they want a familiar advisor or representative to help them navigate what can be an emotional, high-stress situation. This is where technology and human empathy must come together, ensuring efficiency without losing the trust and care that define the purpose of insurance.
That desire for peace of mind is certainly an important motivator – yet the gap between the level of insurance coverage people have and what they actually need remains one of the biggest challenges facing the APAC life insurance industry…
Simon Smallcombe: Absolutely. Even in Singapore, which has the highest life insurance penetration in the region, the rate is only around 7 or 8 percent. In markets such as Thailand, it’s closer to 4 or 5 percent. To put that into perspective, on average 50 people die in road accidents in Thailand every day – but only three of them will have any form of protection. Our collective goal must be to lift that number dramatically to get 5 per cent closer to 30 or 40 per cent, ensuring families are financially protected when the unexpected happens.
There are five core needs to be addressed – protection, health, education, retirement and legacy. Every active life insurer in Asia designs products around these, but penetration remains low largely because of accessibility, affordability, and awareness gaps. Technology and AI can play a vital role in addressing these challenges.
Chief Data Officers are under significant pressure to provide the right data foundations and tools to support innovation. AI has the potential to simplify onboarding, automate underwriting, improve claims, and make insurance more inclusive. However, as we move towards agentic and autonomous systems, insurers must be able to explain both to regulators and customers how these AI-driven decisions are made. Transparency and accountability will be key to maintaining trust.
So, closing the protection gap isn’t just about technology or cost reduction – it’s about using these advances responsibly to protect more lives and making insurance a more human, accessible and trustworthy experience.
As insurers look to modernize and integrate AI to help close the protection gap, where should they focus their efforts to turn potential into measurable impact?
Simon Smallcombe: The opportunity lies in using AI not just to automate, but to elevate human performance. A great example is agent enablement. Imagine a training agent powered by AI that can simulate customer interactions, for instance: “Here’s Lee. He’s 50, his children have left home, he has $100,000 in savings, and he plans to retire in six months. Practice your first meeting to identify his priorities with him.”
These kinds of intelligent tools can help financial advisors and agents practice, learn, and refine their approach in real time. They provide feedback on professionalism, empathy, compliance, and communication style, ultimately creating more confident, capable advisors who can connect better with customers. AI can also deliver phenomenal onboarding experiences by simplifying product recommendations, guiding agents through compliant sales processes, and ensuring customers receive advice that’s both personal and precise.
Beyond that, technology is bringing the cost ceiling down. Coding and deployment are now far more affordable than they were even a few years ago, meaning insurers can scale AI solutions faster and at lower cost. When used thoughtfully, these technologies can speed up processes across underwriting, onboarding, and training – delivering benefits for insurers, agents, and customers alike.
Beyond training and onboarding, what are some of the other practical ways AI is transforming insurance and what should insurers be mindful of as adoption accelerates?
Simon Smallcombe: We’re seeing the emergence of smart tools that can completely redefine the insurance workflow. As mentioned earlier, AI solutions can now summarize customer conversations, pre-populate application forms, assess risk, and ensure every interaction remains compliant. This significantly reduces administrative effort while improving accuracy and speed.
Wearable technology is another exciting frontier. People are increasingly willing to share personal health data in exchange for more tailored, value-driven products – for instance, life or health policies linked to fitness or wellness outcomes. The opportunity is enormous, but it requires trust and clear governance. Strong governance frameworks, transparency and explainability are essential to ensure that AI is used responsibly and delivers genuine value to customers.
Looking ahead, what’s your message to the industry?
Simon Smallcombe: Insurers have a real opportunity to use AI for good: to build trust, simplify customer journeys and ultimately protect more people from loss. The key is to combine technology with empathy. If we can make insurance easier to buy, easier to understand, and easier to claim – while preserving that human touch – we can significantly close the protection gap across APAC. That’s a win for customers, a win for insurers and a win for society.
