Get Ready for AI: 6 Change Management Steps to Integrate into P&C Insurance
AI offers P&C insurers enhanced underwriting and claims processing. However, as discussed in our previous blog, successful AI implementations often require a strategic change management process to manage the unique challenges involved.
Implementing AI in the P&C insurance industry is like being a tour guide. You wouldn’t start leading a group without first planning the route, checking the weather forecast, and knowing the hours of operation for points of interest. Similarly, thoughtful change management activities will help your organization successfully prepare for the journey of AI implementation.
Six Key Change Management Steps for P&C Claims and Underwriting Organizations to Ensure Smooth AI Adoption
Consider these 6 steps as your playbook for success. Your plan details may vary, but having an intentional and structured approach in place removes the worry and supports successful adoption.
Step 1: Pre-Planning Activities
Pre-planning should start 30-90 days before the change initiative.
- Complete Change Management Overview
Understand the fundamentals of change management and familiarize yourself with tools like the ADKAR model, based on the principle that organizational change can only happen when individuals change.
- Review Best Practices for Leading Change
Consider the importance of your managers and leaders in creating your plan. Prosci Research shows that most employees prefer to receive personal messages about changes directly from their managers. Read this Prosci CLARC article for more information.
- Get to Know the Change Management Resources Available
Leverage your internal change management tools or lean on Gradient AI to provide you with important tools to simplify the change process.
- Create a Change Management Community of Practice
Implement a Community of Practice to share experiences, issues, and success stories. This is a great way to learn from peers and other change management stakeholders. Consider this to be like your favorite travel blog or online travel community.
Step 2: Change Preparation
Change preparation is the first step after preplanning and will run concurrently with other steps as your plan ramps up.
- Identify Stakeholder Group
Identify stakeholders and determine their required level of engagement.
- Evaluate Stakeholder Change Readiness
Complete a stakeholder mapping exercise to understand the level of impact of the change on each stakeholder team and to determine their readiness. This is also a perfect time to complete a baseline change readiness survey.
- Facilitate Discovery Sessions
Gather insights from key stakeholders to gain a wider perspective, as an early way to communicate the upcoming change, and to determine the level of communication and involvement expected and needed.
- Coordinate with the Technical Project Manager for Alignment
This step helps align technical and change management implementation activities and timelines.
- Create an Initial high-level Change Plan
This will help keep things on track and assist in other steps. In addition to the Change Plan, this is a perfect time to complete a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) assessment to align all change team members, internal and external, on roles and responsibilities.
Step 3: Change Impacts
The purpose of this step is to identify and assess key business process changes to incorporate into your Change Plan as mitigation strategies. Typically, you will start this step shortly after Change Preparation and they will run concurrently as the project progresses.
- Complete a Change Impact Assessment
Work with the core team that will be impacted as well as upstream and downstream teams to identify key process changes. This is like calling out detours and highlights on your tour route.
- Develop and Incorporate Mitigation Strategies into the Change Plan
Understanding the new business process changes and risks will allow you to develop mitigation strategies to support success and minimize risk.
- Consider Impacts to People, Process, and Technology
This includes changes to how, when, and where work gets done; customer impacts; skill gaps and related training needs, and more.
Step 4: Communication
Ultimately you want to build awareness, understanding, and successful adoption. A comprehensive communication plan will deliver the right amount of communication to the right stakeholders at the right time. This step starts early in the change planning cycle and continues throughout the project.
- Develop an Initial Communication Plan
This plan will involve multiple channels of delivery and will be customized to each stakeholder based on the prior work you have done. Be consistent and timely with your communications.
- Tailor Communications to the Right Stakeholders
While the messaging and content may be similar, the level of detail, the timing, and the format of the communication will likely look different for different stakeholder groups. Tailor communications to optimize their impact.
- Utilize Leaders, Managers, and Change Agents
Meet people where they are. Leverage current team meetings and other current communication forums to spread the word and keep everyone updated. Remember that most employees would rather hear change news and updates from their direct manager.
Step 5: Training
Training may look different for each organization and specific implementations, but there are some best practices to follow. As the project progresses and the above steps have been completed, decisions on training will come naturally. Consider training your
Change Agents first.
- Conduct a Training Needs Assessment
Determine who needs training, what do they need to learn, and the best delivery methods. Tailor training to specific roles. Define what successful training looks like. Are there other learning events and job changes to consider?
- Develop and Deliver Training
Consider just-in-time training to promote retention and quick practical use of what they have learned. The plan should be detailed and should build staff confidence while addressing any knowledge gaps.
Step 6: Organizational Readiness
Organizational readiness begins with your first survey and stakeholder interviews and continues throughout the change cycle.
- Readiness Assessments
Conduct the initial assessment as a baseline and follow-up readiness assessments to gauge preparedness. Use informal feedback, conversations, and surveys to identify gaps. Those gaps could be awareness, skills, sponsorship, organizational culture, and more.
- Pulse Surveys
Regularly distribute pulse surveys to track progress and address any emerging issues. Balance the frequency to avoid survey fatigue.
Post AI Implementation: Sustaining the Change
Post-implementation, it's important to keep your process changes moving forward smoothly to ensure long-term success. This involves continuous measurement, after-action reviews, and a solid sustainment plan.
Key post-implementation activities include:
- Measuring Success. Use predefined metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the change and identify areas for improvement. Think of it as asking tour participants to fill out feedback surveys at the end of the tour to improve future experiences.
- After-Action Reviews. Reflect on what worked and what didn’t to learn and improve future initiatives, like reviewing the tour with your team afterward.
- Sustainment Plan. Ensure business-as-usual resources are in place to support ongoing training needs and address any post-deployment issues, much like ensuring your tour guides are always prepared for the next group.
Conclusion
Implementing AI in P&C insurance is a complex but rewarding endeavor. By following a structured change management process, claims and underwriting organizations can overcome resistance, build stakeholder engagement, and achieve successful AI adoption. Partner with Gradient AI for help with your change management goals as you transition to AI and automation solutions. We want to help you see your AI projects through to success!