Claims – A Leader’s Perspective – Waseem Malik, Aviva

I’ve approached several Executives from different areas of the claims market to share their thoughts and opinions on a number of topical issues impacting the sector and looking at the key challenges and opportunities for the future.

Today’s review is with Waseem Malik, Chief Claims Officer, UK General Insurance, Aviva

AI is increasingly being rolled out across insurers’ processes. What is your attitude to AI and how do you see this developing over the coming years?

AI will be transformative for our industry, and we have always looked at ways that we can use technology to provide better outcomes for our customers. We have already identified opportunities and we only see these increasing in the coming years.

Whilst there are clearly benefits – such as freeing up our colleagues to concentrate on helping customers with more complicated queries or emotional situations – we need to factor in the potential risks of AI. One consideration is the impact AI could have on fraud cases and in particular, ‘shallow fakes’ or ‘deep fakes’, which is when people use AI to alter and generate false documents, in order to submit a fraudulent insurance claim. We are seeing an increase in this area, and we have specialist teams in place who are trained to detect and deter fraud in all its guises.

Will the increased usage of AI reduce indemnity spend and/or improve customer service?

From our perspective, AI has the potential to make claims processes more efficient, for example, by assisting our claims teams with administrative tasks, or summarisation tools. Consequently, our teams will then have greater bandwidth to focus on helping our customers.

Are insurers becoming truly digital?

Over the past few years, after the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen an accelerated shift to digital, and many of our customers expect to be able to transact digitally, and that includes dealing with their insurance claims. As such, insurers, including Aviva, have responded to this positively, but we do believe there is a balance.

For example, we know some customers are happy dealing with us digitally, and we have products such as Quote Me Happy which are tailored for these customers. But we also know that some customers want the ability to speak with us if they need to, and so we have a number of products for customers who want to call us.

How is the impact of customer duty affecting your business and with many involved in the claims process seeing an increase in complaints, what do you consider the reasons for this to be?

Consumer duty is fundamentally protecting the customers’ needs which is something we fully support. When the regulatory requirements changed, we responded accordingly, and made changes where they were needed

We take complaints very seriously and we are committed to providing an excellent service for all our customers. Where we fail to meet customers’ expectations, our first priority is to resolve the matter as quickly as possible and to act on the feedback we receive. Although we aim for no complaints, the ones we get represent less than 4 per 1,000 General Insurance and Health policies in the UK.

What more can be done to validate the ESG credentials of insurance supply chains?

Supply chain contributes to indirect emissions that occur in our value chain. We are engaging with our suppliers and working to align them to our Net Zero ambitions. To deliver this, we implemented a number of initiatives in 2023:

• We are supporting new and existing suppliers with clear sustainability guidance as part of the contracting process.
• Sustainability and carbon questions are included in all our Request For Proposal (RFP) and Request For Information (RFI) processes and form part of our consideration for purchasing decisions.
• Sustainability and carbon questions are a part of our supplier onboarding process.
• We introduced incentives for suppliers that meet our sustainability requirements.
• Sustainable sourcing training will be conducted annually to upskill all our buyers to equip them with the knowledge required to engage suppliers on sustainability.

By the end of 2023, 35% of suppliers by spend had already signed up to Science-based targets.

What more can the industry do to promote careers in the claims sector?

There are so many fantastic career opportunities within the insurance industry, and specifically, claims. When I look at my colleagues in my team, many did not follow the traditional insurance route and started their careers in other sectors such as other areas of financial services or the legal sector. I myself am a Chartered Accountant!

I’m always keen to promote the career opportunities within claims; our teams are the ones who are there for customers when they need us most and there is something very fulfilling about that. Claims teams very much have a noble purpose, and one which is an attractive career path.

Where is your organization in its DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) journey?

When I joined Aviva in 2022, one of the factors that struck me was how seriously Aviva DE&I. There are six employee resource groups, called the “Aviva Communities”. One of these is Aviva Origins, which influences inclusion at Aviva by celebrating cultural harmony, supporting the differences that unite our people based on race, ethnicity, faith, belief, cultural and social mobility, and I am delighted to the be Co-Chair Executive Sponsor of this.

Aviva takes a number of steps to ensure that we have the best and most diverse talent, so we can service and support our customers in all communities. We adjust for vulnerable customers and customers with diverse needs.

We also spearhead initiatives to celebrate vital cultural dates, raising awareness and fostering allyship across the business. One of the policy changes which I was proud to implement is flexible bank holidays, so our people can choose to take the time off to celebrate their own holidays and festivals which may have greater significance to them.

It is so important that we champion diversity, so we have the talent to drive our business and industry forward. We need to take brave steps and be bold, to think differently, challenge others where needed and step away from the norm. The power of allyship should not be under-estimated and this is where everyone has a very significant role to play. I am proud to be an advocate for change and a role model to others, and I know that together we can achieve so much more!

Right International are market leading recruiters to the claims management, supply chain and wider Insurance market.

If you are looking to add to your team now or in the near future or are considering your next career move, please contact myself or one of the team.

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All the best,

Gary Pike

Founder & MD Right International