Hyperspeed: Law firm uses AI to slice months off insurance claims

Maurice Blackburn Lawyers has rolled out an artificial intelligence-infused solution that cuts the time taken to assess a client’s entitlement to a superannuation disability insurance claim from months down to the span of the client’s initial phone call.

Developed by Microsoft partner, Arinco, the system saves time for the client while also freeing up the lawyers who would otherwise have their time taken up with combing through insurance policy fine print.

Maurice Blackburn’s insurance claim lawyers provide a no win, no fee service to clients and it’s imperative that the initial triage of claims is fast, inexpensive and accurate.

A ground-breaking solution developed using Azure Cognitive Search and Services uses AI to review life insurance policies to assess rapidly whether a claim has merit and should be pursued.

Maurice Blackburn’s General Manager Digital & Technology, Greg Emsley says it’s a very significant breakthrough for the law firm’s Superannuation and Insurance practice.

“The solution allows us to triage new claims, assess them for eligibility and then make that insight available directly to our insurance law claims team in a matter of seconds,” Mr Emsley says.

“The use of artificial intelligence allows us to extract only those aspects of the policy documents pertinent to the claims process, and then correlate that to a client’s specific event to quickly and confidently identify the cover in place for them at the time.

Maurice Blackburn’s National Manager of Operations for the Superannuation and Insurance team, Jason Brown agrees it will vastly improve the clients’ experience.

“Knowing what you’re entitled to is the first step in getting access to justice so by couplingAI with trained staffwe can provide clients with greater certainty more quickly.

“For many,  finding out whether you have a claim can now be as simple as a call to our office and we can start work on a claim virtually immediately and move it along quickly,” Mr Brown says

“Automating the process also means we can free up our team to spend more time with clients and make quicker decisions about how to proceed with claims”.

Arinco used Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services to develop the AI-infused solution which in turn uses Azure Forms Recogniser to  accelerate business processes through automating information extraction.

Principal Consultant at Arinco, Chris Padgett says Azure was an ideal tool to deal with complex and lengthy policy information.

“These policy documents can be dozens, if not hundreds of pages long and dense with legal jargon.

“Using Forms Recogniser, we recognise content within these document files, extracting the key phrases from them as well as tabulated data, and then surface that to a business application used by the lawyer,” Mr Padgett says.

“Maurice Blackburn’s claims triage team don’t have to navigate their way through hundreds of pages of documentation to find these key sections and instead are presented with a  very readable, easy to navigate way to help them expedite a claim.”

While Arinco has structured this solution specifically to support insurance claims triage, the underlying framework, machine learning and AI could be applied across multiple industry sectors with tailored solutions spun up rapidly to meet specific requirements.

Microsoft Australia’s Chief Technology Officer, Lee Hickin says it’s rewarding to see the Azure suite employed creatively to improve business services.

“Cloud, data and AI are the trinity that deliver immense value to businesses in every sector.

“The array of Azure Cognitive Services means that these sorts of applications can be developed and deployed rapidly, supporting employees with tasks that would otherwise be time consuming, laborious and quite costly,” Mr Hickin says.

“The methodology that Arinco uses and its deep skills across the Microsoft Azure ecosystem can be brought to bear rapidly, driving real impact and measurable value for clients in multiple sectors.”