Considering the pivotal role played by insurers, all data must be given accurately and all processes compliant. So, insurers must be able to count on the effectiveness and stability of their operations--and robotic process automation can help.

Robotic process automation in insurance refers to the use of software bots to replace rule-based tasks and procedures, including onerous or repetitive manual processes like data input, report production and document updating.

Employees can then concentrate on activities that call for emotional intelligence, logic and creativity.

For a distributed workforce and remote operations, RPA, together with artificial intelligence and natural language programming (NLP), are ideal: Data can be copied and pasted between programs; Information can be removed from emails and other documents, then transferred to a central system; front-end and back-end operations can be synced up; whole workflows can be automated by integrating with legacy systems and rules engines already in place; customer service can be enhanced by automated messaging.

Automation has already been widely accepted by the banking and financial industries. It is high time for insurers to adopt RPA.