You got a little too caught up in Instagram and lost track of time. You dash over to your home office to quickly log into to work hoping no one will notice your tardiness. Alas, as soon as you connect, you get an immediate message from your boss: "You're 17 seconds late to work! Your performance score will be impacted." This situation seems far-fetched but a little too real at the same time.

Who's involved: German re/insurer Talanx and US-headquartered automation software provider, WorkFusion. What's happening: Talanx and WorkFusion have agreed a strategic partnership. In an initial step, the software from WorkFusion is being used for automated checking and processing in the claims division at Talanx's subsidiary HDI. The software will initially be used for invoices dealing with glass breakage and motor insurance. Significance of development: Talanx has described the new software as "automation 4.0" because the artificial intelligence platform can take end-to-end decisions, known as Intelligent Process Automation.

When being empathetic is your full-time job, burning out is only human. Few people are more aware of this than customer service representatives, who are tasked with approaching each conversation with energy and compassion -- whether it's their first call of the day or their 60th. It's their job to make even the most difficult customer feel understood and respected while still providing them accurate information. But over the last few years, an unlikely aide has come forward: artificial intelligence tools designed to help people tap into and maintain "human" characteristics like empathy and compassion. One of these tools is a platform called Cogito, named for the famous Descartes philosophy Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am").

When being empathetic is your full-time job, burning out is only human. Few people are more aware of this than customer service representatives, who are tasked with approaching each conversation with energy and compassion -- whether it's their first call of the day or their 60th. It's their job to make even the most difficult customer feel understood and respected while still providing them accurate information. But over the last few years, an unlikely aide has come forward: artificial intelligence tools designed to help people tap into and maintain "human" characteristics like empathy and compassion. One of these tools is a platform called Cogito, named for the famous Descartes philosophy Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am").

Artificial intelligence could soon replace the need for office managers - in call centers, at least. According to a recent report from the New York Times, new software by AI firm Cogito can micro-manage workers by monitoring when they talk too fast, lack enthusiasm, or even when their voices aren't conveying enough empathy. Workers are then notified of their performance in real-time via symbolized prompts like a coffee cup or cartoon heart depending on which metrics the program deems are lacking. And the tech is gaining traction: the Times reports that MetLife now uses Cogito - which claims its has 20,000 users, including the health insurance company, Humana - for 1,500 of its call center workers and claims the AI has helped boost customer satisfaction by 13 percent. Call center employees for the insurance giant MetLife are managed by an artificially intelligent boss that can offer tips based on their vocal cues.

When Conor Sprouls, a customer service representative in the call center of insurance giant MetLife talks to a customer over the phone, he keeps one eye on the bottom-right corner of his screen. There, in a little blue box, A.I. tells him how he's doing. The program flashes an icon of a speedometer, indicating that he should slow down. A heart icon pops up. For decades, people have fearfully imagined armies of hyper-efficient robots invading offices and factories, gobbling up jobs once done by humans.

When Conor Sprouls, a customer service representative in the call center of insurance giant MetLife talks to a customer over the phone, he keeps one eye on the bottom-right corner of his screen. There, in a little blue box, A.I. tells him how he's doing. The program flashes an icon of a speedometer, indicating that he should slow down. A heart icon pops up. For decades, people have fearfully imagined armies of hyper-efficient robots invading offices and factories, gobbling up jobs once done by humans.

Cogito is one of several companies developing analytics tools that give agents feedback about how conversations with customers are going. Its software measures in real time the tone of an agent's voice, their speech rate, and how much each person is talking, according to Dr. Place. "We measure the conversational dance," he says. That dance is sometimes out of sync, such as when an agent speaks too quickly or too much, cuts a customer off, has extended periods of silence or sounds tired. When the software detects these mistakes, a notification pops up on a window on an agent's screen to coax them to change their strategy.

The Weekly Wrapup is an analysis of the week's insurance tech news from the editors of Digital Insurance. The staff of Digital Insurance has just returned from our third Dig In: The Digital Future of Insurance conference, held over three days in Austin, Texas. The biggest Dig In so far included nearly 1,300 attendees and 200 speakers. Key themes discussed over the course of the conference included the impact of drones on claims, how new risks drive transformation strategies and what the next age of insurance digitalization will look like. On the technology side, artificial intelligence was a particularly hot topic.

Do we still need humans to power customer experiences? In its Digital CX Trends 2018 report (fee charged) released today, Forrester researchers found that "while AI, intelligent agents, and chatbots were central to the business conversation in 2017, most companies discovered they lack the design acumen and technical chops to seize the opportunities." This, researchers found, has led to widespread struggles with the basics and few leaders "innovating the way forward." It's fair to say not everyone is excited about artificial intelligence's invasion into customer experience, even those who profit from it. Yet many organizations are still turning to AI to power customer experiences.