Naked, the end-to-end artificial intelligence-driven insurance platform, is building on its car insurance launch by bringing its offering to the home insurance market.
Customers can now get comprehensive, instant cover for their home and the things they own through Naked’s completely automated digital process.
Naked offers customers a comprehensive set of short-term personal insurance products that are built on new generation technology and a fairer business model.
In April 2018, Naked launched a car insurance offering that uses automation to offer significant premium savings and higher levels of customer control over the insurance experience.
Naked’s comprehensive product range now includes home cover (building insurance up to R10-million) and contents insurance (up to R2,5-million). The new offerings leverage Naked’s completely automated, front-office to back-office, processes to enable consumers to purchase cover through the mobile app within seconds.
Consumers can get a quote from Naked’s chatbot, Rose, in 90 seconds and sign up for home and contents insurance in under three minutes – completely online and with no need for a phone call. They can also claim from, manage, change and cancel their policies from the Naked app without the need to speak to a call centre agent.
“Since we launched South Africa’s first AI-native car insurance product, many of our customers have asked when they would be able to insure their homes and possessions with us too,” says Ernest North, co-founder of Naked.
“Because it was always our plan to leverage our AI, automation and machine learning technology to offer a comprehensive product suite, we are excited to answer this request with our home and contents product range.”
North adds: “Naked’s car insurance offering has enjoyed strong uptake among tech-savvy people who are looking for a more convenient, digital experience and more affordable premiums than they can get from traditional insurers.
“Early user testing indicates that this same market will be among the most enthusiastic adopters of Naked’s home and contents cover. We look forward to bringing the transparency, fairness and value of our product to home insurance.”
No human intervention
The home insurance products are built on Naked’s digital systems and processes. Because it does not run legacy systems or manage a large call centre infrastructure, Naked can pass significant premium savings onto to its customers.
When customers get quotes for their homes, contents and portable possessions, they are able to see how the quote changes in real-time as they add or remove items or adjust the excess payment.
Naked sells to and services customers entirely through digital channels, which means customers do not need to negotiate with a call centre to get the ‘correct price’ when they get their initial quote or when it is time for their annual premium adjustment. This automated process and an easy cancellation process means customers can be confident that they are always charged a fair premium.
Naked fast-tracks the majority of claim payouts, for example, people who pass the automated fraud analytics receive near-instant approval for their replacement or repair of their property to commence. This technology makes it faster and easier for people to claim for damaged or stolen possessions, addressing one of the common pain points in home insurance.
Naked takes a fixed portion of premiums to run the business, with the balance going into a pool to cover claims. Money left over in the claims pool goes to charities nominated by customers rather than towards company profits. This means Naked has every incentive to keep customers happy by paying reasonable claims since it does not profit from lower claims pay-outs.