Gen AI with Allianz Trade, part 4: how it could enhance the customer journey

No one likes to spend their time waiting in line. That’s true at the grocery store, but also when purchasing an essential business service – like trade credit insurance (TCI). 

Time is of the essence when it comes to trade credit insurance, which covers companies’ receivables due and indemnifies them if their buyers fail to pay. One emerging technology with the capacity to save time in this context is generative artificial intelligence, or gen AI. This subset of artificial intelligence produces complex outputs such as text, images, and even audio and video. No longer just a futuristic concept, gen AI is a practical tool that will change how we work, and what customers will come to expect. That is why at Allianz Trade we are exploring ways in which we can use gen AI to enhance our customers’ experience at various touch points. 

Say you want to safeguard your company’s transactions against unexpected risks. What would it look like if your relationship with your TCI provider were enhanced with gen AI? Let’s explore some possible applications and look at how this technology could play a role at each step of the customer journey.

Step 1: securing your personalized insurance coverage

To protect your company’s cash flow, the first step is to cover your business with a trade credit insurance policy. Gen AI can help us to accelerate the execution of certain tasks such as creating the first draft of a contract meeting your expectations, so we can save time for other added value ones (better serving our customers, or investing in our relationship). By analyzing texts and suggesting appropriate clauses from a vast database, gen AI could support us in ensuring that your contract is tailored to your needs. Of course, meticulous human oversight remains essential for nuanced discussions and final approvals.

Step 2: making your claim if a buyer fails to pay

If a buyer defaults on a payment, you’ll need to file a claim with your insurer. This typically involves filling out an online form with the reason for the claim, a copy of the unpaid invoice and more. But what if this process were enhanced by AI? It could extract relevant information from invoices and other documents, intelligently filling out claim forms. This means less time spent on paperwork – and more on running your business. At Allianz Trade, regardless of technological integrations, each claims case has a dedicated expert assigned to it, providing personalized support throughout the entire process.

Step 3: recovering bad debt

When invoices go unpaid, working with a business debt collection service can help recover late payments. In debt recovery cases, human relationships are crucial. And when Allianz Trade undertakes collections, we take seriously our role in helping to maintain the business relationship between our customer and their buyer. Building strong relationships takes time. Our team of collections experts invests time and resources in getting to know the debtor and conducting negotiations. Here, gen AI could aid specialist teams by helping to process debtors’ history. In international collections cases, gen AI can also assist us with the translation of documents.

Innovation at the service of customer centricity

At Allianz Trade, our focus is always on the customer experience. When we consider integrating emerging technologies like gen AI into some of our processes, our aim is to provide superior service and save our customers’ valuable time. For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this time saved can be particularly impactful, as they may not have a dedicated credit manager.

Even if our customer journey is enhanced with new technologies such as gen AI, we believe that the human touch is what sets us apart, and what our customers appreciate about working with us. Our team of specialists focuses on understanding customers’ needs, markets, challenges and expectations. We support them throughout the coverage, claims and collections processes. This means walking our customers through all the requirements so they can be indemnified in due time – and go on trading with confidence.