IoT integration to transform pet insurance
Tags: webdev, productivity, iot, automation
Published: 2023-08-14 14:48:36

_This post is a quick overview of an Abto Software’s [blog article](https://www.abtosoftware.com/blog/iot-integration-to-revolutionize-pet-insurance)._

IoT integration, which provides critical indicators on the pet’s health, presents some future-proof opportunities for strategic-thinking insurance companies to deliver comprehensive products and rethink existing approaches. IoT data, which optimizes risk assessment, helps create targeted plans, reduces claims, increases profitability, and keeps customers happy, noticeably revolutionizes traditional services.

## Pet insurance: Industry overview

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we could witness increasing pet adoption, in particular – dog and cat adoption. What’s more, we could see increasing veterinary costs and costs for other complementing treatments – physical therapy, acupuncture, wellness, dental treatments, and more.

These factors had been drastically popularizing pet insurance.

Given these recent tendencies, computer science is becoming quite important in shaping the segment – whether design, personalization, modernization, or sales, insurance providers are moving towards digitization. Business leaders are analyzing customer behavior by identifying important trends and patterns to provide better-tailored services.

There are some trends radically influencing pet insurance:

- Customer dynamics
- Pet technology
- Insurtech innovation – direct-to-customer distribution, business automation, and digitization

## Pet insurance: Embracing digitalization

Insurance companies, to keep up with their competitors, start implementing:

- Artificial intelligence, ML, DL, data analytics
- Computer vision

Insurance companies that mainly prioritize performance, are automating: 

- Data and document management
- Rule and workflow configuration 
- Product rating and pricing
- Quote generation, policy binding, pet insurance claim processes, and more

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7igzbapw88eiopt56s9x.jpg)

## IoT data potential applications

Wearable technology is gaining more momentum and providing great opportunities for the insurance domain. One way business leaders can engage and interact with customers and promote pet safety are customizable sensors-driven alerts, which, reducing potential claims, can increase overall revenue.

Wearable technology (smart collars, activity and location trackers) might optimize:

### Health monitoring

1. The owner is monitoring his dog’s health status
2. The owner, being alerted about lower activity levels, is taking the dog to the vet office
3. The vet administers necessary corrective actions
4. The vet monitors the treatment progress

### Incident response

1. The dog gets hurt while being left alone at home
2. The owner, being alerted about some unusual patterns, rushes home to check his dog
3. The dog is taken to the vet office 
4. The vet is providing timely assistance and averts potential complications

### Loss prevention 

The owner can use live tracking to locate his dog when lost.

### Contextual recommendations

The insurer can use gathered information to provide helpful insights:

- Nearby clinics
- Water and calories intake
- Unusual behavior
- Health hazards

## IoT data business benefits

### Risk assessment

The details from the IoT device can provide helpful insights on behavior, activity levels, and other health signs. Insurance companies can analyze this information to assess the pet’s risk profile.

### Preventive care

The information from the IoT devices can help create reminders about appointments at the veterinary clinic. Insurance companies can utilize this information to identify suspicious patterns (lower activity, higher anxiety) and encourage preventive measures.

### Tailored plans

The provider can use collected data to offer personalized coverage that meets customer needs.

### Claims management

The provider might use gathered data to expedite claim management that enabled faster approval.

### Fraud detection

Quality data can help identify potential pet insurance fraud cases that carry reputational and financial damage. If the submitted information doesn’t match collected details, the company might conduct further research.

### Customer engagement and loyalty

Better data also helps handle routine pet insurance claims processes and other documentation-related tasks. By leveraging insight-driven decision-making and budget-allocation, as well as performance and productivity, the company can boost customer satisfaction and retention.

## Summing up

IoT devices can be used for health monitoring, incident response, loss prevention, valuable recommendations, and many other purposes, helping mature pet insurers to reduce potential claims and increase overall revenue. IoT data can optimize risk assessment, preventive care, offer personalization, claim review and processing, fraud detection, and other business aspects, thereby improving customer experience.

Take your business operations on a higher level by leveraging computational technology, in particular – Internet of Things integration, cloud services, web and mobile development, API development, and more.