LAQO insurance enables 24/7 customer support with Azure OpenAI Service

LAQO stands out as Croatia's first fully digital insurance company, disrupting the market in its home country and Central East Europe. With offerings including vehicle and travel insurance, LAQO replaces traditional paper workflows with streamlined digital processes. The company's digital-first ethos even led to a gamification feature, LaqoPrevent which uses telematics to encourage better driving habits, reward responsible driving, and explain how customers can reduce their CO2 emissions. Beyond its core services, LAQO has ventured into digital innovation, introducing features like cryptocurrency payments and even a metaverse museum highlighting the evolution of insurance. “From the get-go, LAQO has been continuously working on strengthening its digital identity through numerous innovations. Innovation is at the core of the brand, and this is shown by the projects we have successfully implemented so far,” states Ana Zovko, Director at LAQO.

A new chapter of partnership

"We like to listen to the market and respond to it," shares Tonžetić, Head of Digital Sales and Customer Support at LAQO. LAQO knew that 24/7 customer support was becoming an increasingly important differentiator, prompting the company to optimize its customer service. 

LAQO turned to its long-term partner, Infobip, who had previously equipped the insurance company with an omnichannel cloud contract center solution to connect customers over their preferred messaging channel. Infobip, known for its relentless innovation in generative artificial intelligence (AI) on top of their communication platform, sat down with LAQO team to map the company’s customer support journey. LAQO saw that although all the information was covered on its website, clients didn’t have time to read it. They preferred to talk to an agent via WhatsApp. So, LAQO looked for a sustainable solution, and Infobip provided it.”

AI Assistant that knows what it doesn’t know

To tackle repetitive queries, LAQO and Infobip teams set out to design the AI Assistant’s decision-making structure using Azure OpenAI Service and Infobip’s AI Assistant building solution. Building the AI Assistant took two weeks, but the real challenge was language.  Croatian language is not as supported as English, so Infobip worked closely with LAQO to fine-tune wording to ensure accuracy. With the documentation ready, the team was ready to set up a new version of the AI Assistant in five minutes.

The next step was to continuously test and refine the assistant. The team made sure that the AI Assistant could only cover insurance claims and general information about LAQO to avoid giving misleading information. LAQO also took special care to minimize hallucinations, or confident responses that aren’t justified by training data. “There are things can be done to address hallucinations to an extent. Adjusting temperature is the usual first step—i.e. the parameter in the algorithm itself that controls the randomness or uncertainty of the outcomes. We also used advanced prompting techniques and carefully prepared content,” explains Danijel Temraz, Principal Engineer at Infobip. 

The partners also had to fine-tune the AI Assistant choice and tone, and its sense of humor. “Croatian language is complex. For instance, one Croatian word can mean both 'ice falling from the sky' and 'fight.' So, when in testing that word was mentioned in the context of a car accident, the AI Assistant responded asking who won the fight,” recalls Dubravka Srkulj, Head of Marketing at LAQO. “Most people are not in a humorous mood after an accident, so we decided that humor is not appropriate for this part of the customer journey. Our AI Assistant still has a character and we’re continuously fine-tuning its tone.”

Navigating customer interactions

Today, LAQOs digital assistant is available to assist and greet customers 24/7 over WhatsApp Business Platform and transfer them to a live agent for more complex queries. The digital assistant offers guided steps in swiftly processing accident claims. After confirming insurance coverage, the AI Assistant directs customers to the app where they can report the incident. "After reporting the damage, we can start processing the claim immediately. If all the documents are ready, the damage can be solved within 24 hours," confirms Ivan Bimbi, Head of Digital Strategy and Processes at LAQO. For third parties impacted by a LAQO-insured driver, AI Assistant provides a web link to a process that's just as automated to facilitate claim processing. “LAQO GPT sets a new benchmark in customer support automation by offering natural, human-like and user-friendly conversational experience that not only provides immediate and high-quality assistance to users but also delivers exceptional value,” adds Željka Stiblik, Senior CX Consultant at Infobip.

Optimizing customer support and agent efficiency

The AI Assistant has completely redefined customer support for LAQO, gaining the immediacy that insurance customers require. “Our AI Assistant resolves 30 percent of our customer queries,” says Tonžetić, Head of Digital Sales and Customer Support at LAQO. “For 90% of cases, the query is even resolved in an exchange of three to five messages.” AI Assistant also provides consistent answers, unlike human agents who might vary in their responses. This consistency is essential for us to maintain customer trust.”

The AI Assistant also brought about a more optimal allocation of human resources. “Agents initially saw it as a burden due to the rigorous testing, but after a few days, they recognized the benefits,” Tonžetić explains. “Now, we can automate great customer support and our agents can spend time helping new customers, dealing with complex cases, or building new features. What’s more, we spend 10 percent less effort on our contact center. Even with growing demand, we don’t need to expand our team at this point. And when we save money and resources, we can redistribute it to other initiatives important to us.” 

Charting the next chapter

LAQO is laying the groundwork for its next big move, which involves giving Pavle the capability to sell insurance policies and provide specific information to prospective customers. "We have now launched a new insurance service, LAQO Pets, specifically dogs and cats. We've started to train the AI Assistant. We have a basic insurance policy and additional preventative and health coverages. It’ll be the first product of its kind in Croatia," Srkulj shares. 

What’s more, LAQO is working on humanizing customer interactions further by adding new elements to the AI Assistant’s reply repertoire. "To improve the interaction between LAQO customers and the brand, we are developing new, rich functions,” shares Martina Ćurić, Staff AI Engineer at Infobip. “Pavle will now be able to share images and videos connected with the question itself, making the whole interaction more engaging. We are also working on the multi-personality feature. With multi-personality, when Pavle gets a serious question, he will answer with a serious tone of voice, but for more relaxed question, he can show his funny side.’

Both LAQO and Infobip recognize that given the complex regulations in insurance, innovation must be both daring and diligent. Microsoft, as the technology partner, provides the rigor in responsible generative AI, while Infobip offers both technology and expertise in crafting user experiences. 

"Our advantage is that we have a group of people with a different mindset who are willing to challenge these rules. We aim to show our customers that insurance can be intuitive and user friendly. Everything our customers need will be available on their phone. In an industry that can be intimidating due to its complexity, we want to simplify our customers’ experience. We don't just sell policies; we want to be with our customers throughout their life," affirms Bimbi.