Customer experience is predicted to be the primary factor driving digital strategies for insurtech in 2025. Unlike other products, however, insurance is generally all but invisible until customers need it most. Insurers' primary opportunities to create a positive CX are centered largely around how well they are able to serve customers at the one reliable touchpoint they do have: payments. More often than not, to be in the business of insurance is to be in the business of creating an effective payments experience, whether it's standard monthly billing or a claims process.
This means implementing new tech based not just on the needs of your company, but on the needs of your customer. This approach might seem obvious in theory—but when it comes to digitization, putting it into practice can feel contrary to traditional business strategy. Still, insurers can implement new tools like artificial intelligence (AI) to help improve customer experience and combat fraud while preserving the trust that is the cornerstone of the insurance industry.
Taking a measured approach
Companies have spent recent years rapidly adopting AI tools to deploy both internally and externally. In 2024, 65% of businesses surveyed by McKinsey said they were regularly using Gen AI tools. Conventional wisdom across the tech sector says that consumers want what's new, always expecting the digital experiences in their lives to mirror the latest Amazon innovations. This would indicate that billers should strive to meet this perceived need by rolling out tools based on the agentic tech that is already forming the next wave of AI transformation as quickly as possible. Companies offering enterprise-level agentic products are betting that they will, with enterprise tech buyers "swamped" by agentic AI options.
And it is crucial for insurers to become comfortable with these tools and determine the most effective use cases. But this process should be undertaken with care, and companies should have confidence in what they're offering before pushing it out to customers. A person's relationship with an insurer is different from their relationship with an ecommerce site, and the insurance policy they rely on to help start their life over after a natural disaster isn't just any product. No number of small, seamless digital billing transactions can compensate for the negative sentiment created by falling victim to fraud or struggling with claims after a catastrophe. According to Deloitte, "As insurers evolve their business models," in 2025, "it will be important to maintain trust with the customers and markets they serve."
Preventing analog fraud in the digital age
Maintaining trust doesn't have to mean forgoing innovation—rather, it means innovating strategically. In this way, the insurance sector can leverage its historic reputation for caution when it comes to change to demonstrate care to customers. As McKinsey predicted, automated augmentation of some facets of customer success through AI has proven to be a boon to both the customer and the insurance agent.
When it comes to other matters, like utilizing AI to improve the efficiency of claims evaluations, insurers can maintain policyholder trust by keeping a human front-and-center in the process. Many customers—in particular policyholders above 65—may always prefer a personal touch when the stakes are especially high. But there are still crucial ways that digitization can help address the ever-present specter of check fraud, worsened by the foundering of the postal service. A digital claims process can reduce the chance that policyholders will lose their payouts to criminal activity. Fraud also comes coupled with the increase in extreme weather events seen in recent years. Being able to not only manage standard billing digitally but also quickly deliver payments when people may not have a reliable physical address will be a defining characteristic of successful insurers.
What's more, research conducted by InvoiceCloud indicates that if a digital experience is convenient enough, adoption is high regardless of age. It's no surprise that younger demographics that grew up online are as comfortable paying a premium or receiving a payout digitally as they are comparison shopping for a new insurer if the experience does not meet their expectations. But when a tool feels seamless enough, and the human touch is within reach should they need it, older policyholders are eager for the increased convenience of digitization, too.
Ultimately, insurance companies should lean into new technology, whether it's agentic AI or the next exciting innovation, with strategy and customer preference in mind. It may be exciting to tout the rollout of new tools, but playing the long game when it comes to pushing along adoption by providing consistency helps build trust. In turn, this trust helps create a positive digital payments CX, keeping policyholders with you for the long term.
