Insurer and financial services provider Liberty Life plans to launch a chatbot in the third quarter of this year that’ll allow consumers to get quotes for Liberty short-term insurance for things like vehicles using a mobile app,WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or the Liberty website. The company is also introducing telematics to its mobile app to allow customers to complete a two-week driving test that will help the insurer calculate the appropriate premium.
The as-yet unnamed bot will guide users through the process of getting a quote, and if they’re happy with it, buying a policy, all in under 10 minutes. Users can scan their driver’s licence and car licence in the app to make the application process simpler.
Liberty says its been working on the chatbot for two years, and that its research has suggested consumers prefer instant discounts to reward systems, and want signing up for new products to be easier, involve less time spent dealing with call centres, and offer transparency.
To this end, its drivers’ test doesn’t require any special hardware beyond a smartphone with the Liberty app installed on it. With the consumer’s permission, the app will track how they drive over 25 trips or 300km or two weeks, whichever comes first.
The app will create an “aggression score” derived from speed and cornering data, a “distraction score” based on braking activity, and an “environmental score” based on average distance driven and time of day. After the two-week test period, policy holders will need to redo the test annually, or can opt-in to ongoing tracking, for which they’ll get rewards like Uber vouchers when certain distance milestones of practical behaviour are reached.
The chatbot will go live in the third quarter of this year and will initially offer vehicle insurance and full, comprehensive insurance for home content, mobile phones and the like.
[UPDATE: An early version of the chatbot is live over here].