Ant Insurance’s partners see $1.93b in claims

On a year-on-year basis, this was up 30%.

Ant Insurance’s partner insurers in China saw $1.93b in claim payouts through its platform in the first half of the year (H1 2024), reaping a 30% year-on-year (YoY) growth.

Since its inception in 2013, Ant Insurance has evolved from offering e-commerce-centric products like shopping rebate shipping insurance to a comprehensive suite that includes health insurance and beyond. 

Leveraging Alipay’s extensive user base, exceeding one billion, the platform caters primarily to young adults in their thirties across China.

“In China, commercial health insurance was traditionally high-cost critical illness plans with annual premiums of around RMB 10,000 (USD 1,375). Sales heavily relied on face-to-face interactions, typically targeting users after major life events like marriage, home buying, or parenthood,” it said in a press release.

Key innovations include the Haoyibao health insurance series, which guarantees renewal for six years and covers diverse demographics from children to the elderly. 

Ant Insurance has also introduced pioneering services such as AI-driven insurance planning and the EasyClaims expedited settlement solution, enhancing customer accessibility and service efficiency.

The AI Docs Scanner and AI Structured Extraction functions play a pivotal role by automatically scanning and recognizing various documents, such as invoices and prescriptions, from medical institutions across China. "Our AI capabilities primarily reduce labour-intensive tasks for human auditors rather than replacing them, allowing auditors to focus on more complex cases and increasing operational efficiency," Fang Yong, head of claims technology at Ant Insurance.

In terms of equipping its employees, Ant Insurance offers talent incentive plans. "Each year, we implement incentive plans to encourage our employees to
develop automation solutions that surpass industry average performance. We use these plans to foster self-motivation and drive innovation," Yong told Insurance Asia at a media conference call last Friday.

The platform continues to expand its portfolio with over 1,000 products in collaboration with 90 insurers, aiming to make insurance more inclusive and accessible nationwide.

Looking forward Ant Insurance indicated a general direction for the company.

"Currently, the claims settlement process is a post-incident experience for customers, requiring them to pay hospital fees upfront and then submit documents for compensation," Yong said. "We aim to use AI to enable on-the-spot payouts, allowing patients to settle fees directly without upfront payment. This would streamline the process, reducing out-of-pocket expenses during hospitalisation. Our goal is to make this accessible for everyone, not just for products targeting high-net-worth customers, and to make our AI capabilities work for all types of medical insurance,"