Travel insurance? You can now sort it out via ChatGPT
This is what the Spanish smart insurance company Heymondo is proposing; it has launched a service in collaboration with OpenAI
Key points
“I’m going on a two-week holiday with my family: what sort of travel insurance do I need, and which policy is best suited to the kind of holiday I’m about to go on?” This is a question people often ask when travelling to a long-haul destination, particularly if the country they’re visiting is one where it’s advisable to have some form of cover in the event of accidents or various other issues. For years and years, the answer came via agency staff and tour operators, then increasingly through online searches using search engines. Today, travel insurance can be obtained in a matter of seconds using artificial intelligence – or, to put it another way, ‘within’ artificial intelligence.
Apps that guide the user: what they are and how they work
Heymondo is a brand (launched in 2017) of Smart Insurance, a Spanish company specialising in digital solutions for the insurance sector, and in recent weeks it has launched a service that allows users to get a quote directly within ChatGPT, one of the most popular and widely used generative AI platforms. The application intuitively guides users in choosing the most suitable cover and allows them to interact with the virtual assistant using natural language, just as they would with a traditional adviser. To obtain a quote directly within the conversation started on the platform, there are just a few simple steps, as the company’s Chief Digital Officer, Cristina Cruz, confirmed to Sole24ore.com. To use the application, all you need to do is type “@Heymondo” into the chat and provide the key details about your trip, such as the destination and duration; at which point, the app will automatically ask for the country of origin, the dates (outward and return) and the exact number of travellers (specifying any dependent children to benefit from the family discount) and will display, in a matter of seconds, various insurance options, as well as, of course, the price of the policy.
Apps that guide the user: what they are and how they workThere are other services that use AI to help users find an insurance policy in just a few clicks to cover any mishaps that might occur during their trip, and one of these is HelloSafe, a French digital broker that allows users to compare offers from different insurers. Given that Heymondo is among the travel insurance solutions the platform can offer its users, HelloSafe launched its own native travel insurance app on ChatGPT last June (it supports 180 nationalities, 45 currencies and over 50 languages, and can be installed directly from the chatbot’s ‘Apps’ tab) with the aim of transforming the way users search for, compare and purchase a policy. As with Heymondo, the artificial intelligence processes the information entered by the user and returns a personalised proposal, guiding them through to the policy subscription stage on the platform’s website or directly within the app itself.
How AI works and the benefits for the user
The promise that Heymondo and HelloSafe (make to travellers is that of a solution capable of guaranteeing a seamless search experience and, above all, as Cruz puts it, “clear, reliable and transparent information and recommendations that are credible and free from surprises”. The AI agent, the manager goes on to explain, interacts with the user and is able to understand their needs, feeding the gathered information into the quotation engine, which selects a range of insurance products for each traveller in line with their requirements. The practical advantage of being able to do everything within ChatGPT is therefore easy to see: whereas until recently the generative AI chatbot was used to obtain advice and recommendations on a policy to be purchased at a later date on selected websites, having all possible options available directly within the chat interface eliminates certain intermediate steps and simplifies the selection and purchase process. ‘We have metrics that allow us to monitor how many users are using this channel, but it is still too early to draw conclusions about the actual benefits in terms of greater efficiency when choosing a policy in this way’ – admits Heymondo’s Chief Digital Officer, who also confirms that we are clearly witnessing “a shift in user behaviour, linked in part to the level of trust these new AI platforms are generating. However, we are still at a very early stage and it will take time to fully understand the impact.”
