Learn more about insurance, get a quote and receive tips on home & auto maintenance from your own personal insurance concierge
Boston, MA (Sept. 16, 2016) – Insurance can be confusing and sometimes overwhelming. Wouldn’t it be easy to just ask Alexa? Liberty Mutual Insurance has announced the first Amazon Alexa skill focused on insurance from its Liberty Mutual and Safeco brands, becoming the only insurance carrier enabling consumers to navigate the insurance process simply by using their voice. The new skill will look to answer consumers’ everyday insurance questions and needs from getting a quote to learning tips to worry less on the road or at home.
Alexa, the voice service that powers Amazon’s Echo, provides capabilities, or skills, that enable customers to interact with devices in a more intuitive way using voice. The new Safeco and Liberty Mutual Alexa skill will grant users instant, voice-controlled access to get a quote through Liberty Mutual or direct them to a Safeco-appointed independent agent, along with other automated services that provide additional clarity and control during the insurance selection process.
“We are redefining how auto and homeowners shop for and learn about insurance,” said James MacPhee, executive vice president and Chief Operating Officer, U.S. Consumer Markets, for Liberty Mutual Insurance. “Alexa presents a unique opportunity to have a vocal presence in consumers’ homes, providing additional value and ease, and allowing a new connection to be made between insurance providers and consumers.”
The Safeco “Insurance Advisor” skill for Alexa is available beginning today and allows consumers to:
- Access an “insurance glossary” where they can learn about and familiarize themselves with insurance terminology;
- Find a nearby agent so they can get a quote on insurance;
- Contact an independent insurance agent to get answers to more difficult questions they might have about insurance.
The Liberty Mutual skill for Alexa will be available this fall and will allow consumers to:
- Obtain an auto insurance estimate by interacting with the Liberty Mutual “Guestimator™” tool via voice;
- Receive actionable advice on common seasonal home and auto worries;
- This advice will give consumers direct access to Liberty Mutual’s new online resource, MasterThis™ where they can get strategies and solutions to overcome worries like preparing for a roadside emergency or moving into a new home.
Gartner, Inc. has predicted that by 2018, a full 30 percent of our interactions with technology will be through “conversations” with smart machines. Amazon Alexa gives prospective Liberty Mutual and Safeco customers a whole new way to interact with the insurance company on their terms.
Since the launch of Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), Amazon developers have now released more than 2,000 skills for Alexa, the cloud-based virtual assistant behind Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Tap, and other Alexa-enabled devices. With every new skill, Alexa gets smarter, giving developers a new way to delight their customers with voice-enabled experiences. Amazon has added new features to make it easier to create Alexa skills and has also made it more convenient for customers to find and use skills, with skill sorting, ratings, and reviews and relaxed invocation phrases.
For more information about these skills, visit safeco.com/alexa.
About Liberty Mutual Insurance
Liberty Mutual Insurance helps people preserve and protect what they earn, build, own and cherish. Keeping this promise means we are there when our policyholders throughout the world need us most.
In business since 1912, and headquartered in Boston, Mass., today Liberty Mutual is a diversified insurer with operations in 30 countries and economies around the world. We are the fifth largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S. based on 2015 direct written premium data as reported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. We also rank 73rd on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2015 revenue. Liberty employs over 50,000 people in over 800 offices throughout the world.
As a leading personal insurance provider, Liberty Mutual Insurance operates two national brands: Liberty Mutual (libertymutual.com), which sells full lines of coverage directly to consumers for automobile, homeowners, valuable possessions, personal liability, and individual life insurance; and Safeco Insurance (safeco.com), which sells automobile, homeowners and specialty products through a network of more than 10,000 independent insurance agencies throughout the United States. Combined, our companies make up the fifth-largest auto and home insurer in the U.S.
SOURCE: Liberty Mutual Insurance
Tags: Alexa, Amazon, Echo, Gartner, Liberty Mutual, Safeco