A robust OCR process can convert client documents into structured data in a digestible format that can be analyzed for client cross-selling, up-selling, or new business opportunities. OCR programs can assist sales and underwriting teams by automatically extracting and transforming key details from RFPs and lengthy policy documents. OCR enables insurance sales professionals to streamline and drive efficiencies by automatically scrubbing RFP emails, multiple PDF documents, plan booklets, and even scanned images of policy documents for key details that can be transformed into a format appropriate for processing. This data can then be loaded into the insurance company's sales and underwriting systems, like a quoting and rating engine, creating an initial shell quote in seconds. Additionally, many insurance companies still maintain vast quantities of historical data in unstructured and paper formats.

This is an opportunity for insurance carriers to differentiate with an always-on, contextual educational experience in addition to improved digital self-service options. While a single agent or broker can't offer personalized advice to thousands of individual insureds with varying needs and levels of knowledge, technology can. Digital assistants and chatbots can answer questions, guide plan members through enrollment, and recommend new products and services based on a plan member's health and demographic information. Like human assistants, the best digital assistants are proactive, not reactive. Ella, the name of Sun Life's AI-enabled "digital coach" first launched in 2018, encourages plan members to take action on important deadlines, cost-savings, and product offerings.

With more business being conducted online than ever, carriers, brokers and agents are discovering new strategies and tactics to better reach their customers. Traditional distribution methods are becoming less viable as insurance buyers have greater visibility into alternatives, expect personalized digital experiences, and can compare policies online with a few clicks. It's an opportunity for insurers to connect with their audiences and produce positive digital experiences in uncertain times. It is estimated that people worldwide generate 1.7 MB of data every second. This provides near-infinite ways for sales and marketing teams to segment audiences based on online behavior, demographic traits, shared interests, and purchasing habits.

Global IQX is the leading provider of AI-driven employee benefits software. Known for its sales and underwriting workbench, Global IQX provides configurable components for quoting, rating, proposals, enrollment and renewals for all benefit products of all sizes. The future-proof platform is the foundation for digital transformation in the insurance industry. Its suite of dynamic AI tools, configurable modules and microservices help insurers worldwide digitize, streamline and automate new business and renewal processes for employee and voluntary benefits. With several more AI and machine learning initiatives set to launch this year, Global IQX will continue to advance our automation and predictive analytics capabilities to align insurers with rapidly evolving customer expectations.

During peak business periods for group carriers, such as open enrollment in the United States, artificial intelligence can be leveraged to increase group insurance sales by streamlining quoting, optimizing resources, automating manual tasks and eliminating duplication of effort before and during enrollment. Peak enrollment period is here once again as group and voluntary benefits providers put their remote work arrangements to the test in what will be an unusually demanding season. This year has been the year of digital transformation in the insurance industry, and 2020's challenges will inspire new approaches and digitization within carrier ecosystems. Fortunately, insurers can use AI and predictive analytics to increase group insurance sales. AI can help carriers streamline quoting and enrollment, optimize resources, and automate manual tasks.

Over the last year, we saw a greater shift towards automation and AI applications to streamline insurance, including increased usage of augmented reality to support activities ranging from warning of risks, explaining insurance plans, estimating damages and increasing brand awareness. We also saw insurers starting to explore greater use of blockchain, the tech behind cryptocurrencies, to better support operations. With this came a greater emphasis on cybersecurity, with the expectation for more proactive and preventative measures. As we enter the next decade, we'll continue to see unprecedented growth in innovation in the Insurtech space, which has set up the industry for more market advancements in an increasingly complex environment. The Canadian insurance industry has been largely inert and less agile in the past, and it's this environment where Insurtech has made its mark.

Insurers who invested heavily in innovative technologies like artificial intelligence before the pandemic are now reaping the greatest benefits – but there remains plenty of room to grow. Over the months since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, the group insurance industry has moved from putting out fires towards a new "business as usual," with remote work, redesigned business processes, and limited face to face meetings or business travel. While most insurers are doing their best to ensure business continuity and maintain pre-pandemic customer-service standards, many were exposed to a sudden shockwave of evolved customer expectations and challenges in transitioning employees to a virtual work environment. Group insurance providers were particularly exposed to the unknown, including a possible reduction in revenues due to business closures, layoffs, and group plan cancellations. On the other hand, there were fewer claims as many insured employees stopped seeing their dentists, doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists, and so on. While the pandemic has propelled the economic conditions for serious disruption in the group benefits industry, many established insurers have discovered the benefits of innovative technologies in this "new normal."

Insurance carriers that invest in open ecosystems and best-in-class components will experience improved customer satisfaction, lower costs, and leapfrog the competition. In 2020, the insurance industry has experienced several years of digital transformation in a few months. The days of monolithic legacy systems, built and maintained in-house for decades, are coming to an end as the market rewards dynamic carriers that leverage APIs, microservices, and web services to build ecosystems that offer the right experience, to the right people, on the right platform. A digital ecosystem describes a loose network of interconnected applications and technologies that act cohesively to meet business objectives. Inspired by ecosystems found in nature, digital ecosystems are characterized by principles of openness, flexibility, and self-organization.

As the insurance industry continues to embrace insurtech, use of artificial intelligence will no longer be a novelty, but the norm. Insurers will have higher expectations for customized experiences and a higher degree of personalization. Looking toward the next decade, insurers and brokers will have to consider how to use blockchain and artificial intelligence as a tool to transform the most important piece of all--user experience. Artificial intelligence makes it feasible for insurers to personalize coverages and rates. To do this they need AI and access to trustworthy, accurate data sources.

The IQX platform is constantly improving, and our commitment to continuous improvement and alignment with our clients' strategic objectives has enabled us to become the global leader in AI-driven solutions for the group insurance industry today. Many of our latest enhancements and initiatives have already drawn praise from clients, and further establish our positioning on the leading edge of insurance innovation. To meet an increasing need for more streamlined underwriting and quoting, Global IQX is launching the most advanced recommendation and predictive analytics engine in the group insurance industry. Built using a range of complex AI and machine learning techniques, the new Recommendation Engine allows insurers to make quoting recommendations for both new and existing client renewals based on demographic similarities and other data points such as size and industry. Launching a Recommendation Engine as complex as this is an accomplishment in the insurance industry, where data is highly sensitive and not publicly available.