The insurance industry is at a crossroads, balancing cost-cutting measures, evolving customer expectations, regulatory complexities, and operational efficiency.
To stay ahead, industry decision-makers must adapt to insurance workflow automation and shift the equation in insurance workflow processes. It is the key to improving turnaround times, streamlining business processes, and enhancing customer experiences.
McKinsey estimates that automation can boost productivity and reduce operational expenses by up to 40% over the next decade.
In this guide, we’ll explore the top 6 insurance workflow processes to automate in 2025 for maximum efficiency and ROI.
What is Insurance Workflow Automation?
The insurance industry runs on critical processes like claims, underwriting, policy issuance, and customer service. When these processes are handled manually, it often results in inefficiencies, delays, and increased risk of errors. Workflow automation in insurance transforms these operations by leveraging advanced technology to streamline tasks, minimize mistakes, and enhance the speed and quality of service delivery.
6 Key Insurance Workflows to Automate in 2025
Let’s take a closer look at the six key insurance workflow processes that can be automated in 2025 to save you time and improve policyholder retention.
1. Policy issuance and renewals
Manual underwriting and document handling slow down policy issuance and renewals. However, by embracing automation, insurers can streamline underwriting, document generation, and renewals, resulting in faster, more accurate processes.
Automating policy issuance and renewals allows insurers to collect and better analyze policyholder data, revealing opportunities for targeted cross-selling and retention. This shift turns policy servicing from a simple administrative task into a growth driver, boosting profitability and long-term customer loyalty.
Platforms like FlowForma’s AI-powered Copilot help create intuitive, user-friendly forms and workflows, making the policy renewal experience faster and more seamless for both the insurer and the customer. For instance, Copilot helps users create and customize process workflows without any coding expertise. It guides them through effortlessly setting up stages and steps. It also suggests automation opportunities within workflows, reducing manual input and improving efficiency.
Below, you'll see Copilot build an insurance policy renewal process in minutes!
2. Customer onboarding
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. In the insurance industry, communication and seamless customer onboarding are crucial for building trust and retaining customers. However, traditional onboarding methods like lengthy Know Your Customer (KYC) checks and manual identity verifications slow down the process.
Integrating automation in insurance workflows, including digital ID verification, document uploads, and automated compliance checks, creates user-friendly workflows. Notably, reports convey that digitizing the underwriting and onboarding process reduces cycle times by 50 to 70 percent and cuts administrative expenses by 20 to 30 percent.
3. Claims processing
Claims processing is another key insurance workflow process, but it is often hampered by excessive paperwork, manual verification, and delays.
Insurance workflow automation automates document validation, and integrates fraud detection and risk management. Besides, it accelerates payout approvals, reducing claims processing costs by up to 30%.
For insurers, this means lower operational costs, reduced risk, and improved retention rates, while customers benefit from quicker resolutions, transparency, and a seamless experience.
4. Document management
Most of the time, managing policy documents, claims records, and compliance reports within the insurance industry seems like finding a needle in a haystack. However, shifting from manual to automated document generation can address inefficiencies and improve processing time.
With automated document generation, insurers can eliminate manual errors, and create prompt policy documents, claims, and compliance reports by effortlessly integrating within the existing workflows. Moreover, there are robust security measures like encryption, access control, and threat detection to protect sensitive customer information, financial records, and compliance data.
5. Compliance and risk assessment
The insurance industry operates under stringent regulations, requiring continuous adaptation to evolving standards. With the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) setting new benchmarks for IT risk management and operational resilience, insurers must strengthen their compliance frameworks.
Insurance automation platforms can help insurers meet DORA’s requirements by automating risk assessments, compliance tracking, and reporting. This reduces human error, ensures consistent monitoring, and improves compliance with regulatory standards.
Moreover, with enhanced compliance workflow automation and automated monitoring, insurers can generate precise reports and are empowered to adjust compliance strategies proactively.
6. Customer relationship management
Customer service is the bread and butter of the insurance sector; it is fundamental in ensuring policyholder satisfaction and customer retention. It includes inquiries, claims processing, policy adjustments, and renewals.
By implementing insurance workflow automation, insurers enable instant responses through chatbots and automated systems, leading to precise information handling.
For insurers, it enables them to allocate resources more effectively. This, in turn, benefits customers with quicker service, accurate information, and personalized interactions, leading to higher customer satisfaction rates.
Benefits of Automating Insurance Workflows
Benefits of insurance workflow automation
Let’s look at the key benefits of insurance workflow automation:
Cost reduction and resource optimization
Insurance workflow automation at scale can enable payers to reduce operational costs by up to 30% within five years, allowing for better allocation of resources.
Let’s look at a real-world example. Aon, a global professional services firm, leveraged FlowForma’s insurance workflow automation to streamline critical processes like HR onboarding, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, and insurance vetting. By eliminating manual inefficiencies, Aon significantly improved approval times, enhanced regulatory compliance, and reduced operational costs. This transformation enabled better resource allocation and positioned Aon for sustained efficiency and growth. Read the full case study here.
Increased operational efficiency
Automation in insurance streamlines repetitive manual tasks, enabling insurers to process claims, policy renewals, and customer requests more efficiently. This significantly reduces turnaround times, enhances operational workflows, and boosts overall productivity. Additionally, advanced analytics and automation tools help insurers analyze unstructured data—such as emails, claims reports, and customer interactions—allowing for more informed decision-making and better data management.
Improved customer experience and faster service
Automated customer service applications are increasingly managing the majority of policyholder interactions, drastically reducing turnaround times for many claims—from days or weeks to just minutes. This rapid processing not only speeds up the claims experience but also boosts customer satisfaction.
💡 Pro Tip: FlowForma’s guide to workflow automation in financial services provides a comprehensive guide to understanding workflow automation in the insurance industry. It outlines how to effectively utilize automation features to streamline processes and improve the customer experience over time. By following the insights in this resource, insurers can implement best practices that lead to faster, more efficient service and long-term customer loyalty. |
Enhanced accuracy and compliance
Manual errors in underwriting, claims processing, and regulatory reporting can lead to costly mistakes. Automated workflows ensure data accuracy, standardize compliance checks, and create audit trails to meet the demands of evolving regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Scalability and flexibility for business growth
Insurance automation provides insurers with the scalability and flexibility needed for business growth. By leveraging automation, insurers can overcome the traditional trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality. This enables them to efficiently scale operations to meet the changing demands of the market. Additionally, automation helps manage fluctuating customer volumes, ensuring consistent service quality even during peak periods.
A glimpse at Aon's testimonial
Now, let’s explore some key challenges insurers face when implementing insurance workflow automation.
Challenges in Implementing Insurance Workflow Automation
Implementing insurance workflow automation offers numerous benefits, but insurers often face challenges during the transition. Key challenges include:
- Integration with legacy systems: Many insurers operate on outdated policy administration systems that are not easily adaptable to new technologies. This lack of standardization and integration complicates the insurance agency automation process, leading to inefficiencies and increased operational costs. 
- High initial investment and implementation costs: Transitioning to automated workflows requires substantial upfront investments in technology and infrastructure. Developing a strong business case is crucial to justify these costs and to secure executive buy-in. 
- Managing system failures and technical challenges: The shift to automation in insurance introduces potential technical challenges, such as system performance issues and integration bottlenecks.
For instance, insurers may face delays due to the high volume of data processing required by new systems, leading to user frustration and hindering the adoption of new technologies.  
Addressing these challenges requires careful planning and a strategic approach, as discussed in the next section.
Best Practices for Implementing Insurance Workflow Automation
Your checklist for implementing insurance workflow automation
Below are the best practices to guide insurers in automating insurance workflows:
1. Conduct a thorough workflow assessment
Analyze existing insurance processes to identify inefficiencies, redundancies, and bottlenecks. Prioritize automation in insurance for high-impact areas like claims processing, policy renewals, manual data entry, and compliance reporting to maximize efficiency and accuracy.
2. Select the right automation technology
Choose a flexible and scalable automation platform that integrates seamlessly with legacy systems and aligns with your business needs. Look for features such as:
- User-friendly interface for easy adaptability
- AI-driven insights and real-time reporting
- No-code customization
- Secure data processing
- Drag-and-drop workflow builders
- Potential to seamlessly integrate with existing systems
3. Ensure data accuracy and compliance
Standardize data formats, enforce validation checks, and implement robust governance policies to maintain data integrity. Ensure compliance with industry regulations like GDPR and HIPAA guidelines to protect sensitive customer information.
4. Start with a pilot project and scale gradually
Test automation in a controlled environment before a full-scale rollout. A pilot project helps identify potential challenges, fine-tune workflows, and gain stakeholder buy-in before automating complex processes across the organization.
5. Train employees and optimize continuously
Provide hands-on training and support to employees to ease the transition to automated workflows.
Read more on implementing insurance workflow automation here.
6. Optimize continuously
Continuously monitor performance using key metrics and refine processes to enhance efficiency, improve user adoption, and drive long-term success.
How Flowforma Helps in Implementing Insurance Workflow Automation
FlowForma is a AI-powered no-code automation tool that helps insurers digitize workflows quickly, without IT dependency or added complexity. Unlike traditional platforms, FlowForma, with its no-code solutions, entrusts insurers to build, manage, and optimize workflows, ensuring faster adoption and agility.
Discover how insurance companies are revolutionizing their processes with FlowForma in this video!
With its all-in-one automation (AI, forms, workflows, insights, and document generation), insurers can streamline claims processing, policy management, compliance tracking, and customer service within a single platform. It integrates seamlessly with existing systems, reducing manual work, improving compliance, and accelerating service delivery.
FlowForma makes automation simple, scalable, and secure, enabling insurers to eliminate inefficiencies and enhance customer experiences. Schedule a demo or start a free trial today!