April 26, 2016 Chris Sandilands
Spixii is an insurance chatbot.
That means that the Spixii software uses AI and machine learning techniques to “learn” how to communicate with customers in as natural a way as possible.
We quite like what we’ve seen so far. The team recently presented at the Startup Bootcamp Insurtech demo day in London; the most impressive thing is, perhaps, that they arrived in London in January without a firm proposition and now have a decent prototype that is getting traction with insurers.
Why do insurers like this? Bots allow insurers to engage with customers in a more or less natural way. In particular, they re-engineer the traditional online sales process around the customer – no longer is the thinking around an online form that customers need to fill in, but the bot tries to respond to the customer’s needs (whilst asking enough questions to offer the right product).
More forward thinking insurers will also have noted that Facebook Messenger is rapidly evolving from a chat service to a “channel”. KLM recently announced, for example, that it would be issuing boarding passes through Messenger. The service would be a great channel for insurance, and the first step is getting your bot software working.
It goes without saying that chatbot businesses stand and fall with the quality of their software… but based on the last three months, Spixii is heading in the right direction.
About the author
Chris Sandilands (ACII), Partner
Chris leads Oxbow Partners’ Growth and M&A practices, focusing on reinsurance and UK and Ireland personal lines. His past experience includes underwriting at Munich Re, management consulting at Oliver Wyman and launching a start-up. He is a fluent German speaker and has a first class degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University.
Contact Chris