Prudential speeds up sales process with new real-time chatbot

AS part of efforts to improve productivity and customer service, life insurer Prudential has launched an industry-first chatbot that can provide its insurance agents with customers' real-time data.

These include a customer's policy cash value, policy premium due date and status of submitted claims, among others.

The chatbot, askPRU, is cognitive-powered, built on IBM Watson technology and integrated into the insurer's backend systems.

It operates round the clock, allowing the agents the choice of communicating with the chatbot via a mobile application at any time of the day.

Theresa Nai, chief operating officer at Prudential Singapore, said that since the pilot launch of askPRU in July, more than half of the insurer's 4,000 agents have started to use the chatbot.

"In today's fast-paced, time-starved environment, our customers do not have the patience to wait for information. With askPRU, our financial consultants can now get faster access to customer-specific information and respond to their customers' queries even more promptly," said Ms Nai.

The new chatbot complements PRUONE Express, an enhanced digital point-of-sales portal that was launched earlier in August. The portal is meant to help the agents engage their customers more efficiently, the insurer said, adding that it is able to generate a detailed quotation in just three seconds, among others.