Markerstudy Group, a group of brands specialising in motor insurance products and complementary services, has modernised its contact centre technology to enable it to handle growing call volumes and better support its team.
Founded in 2001 with a vision to become the No.1 provider of general insurance services in the UK, Markerstudy Group’s brands offer a wide range of products, including motor, van, bike, home, SME and pet insurance, as well as broker services, windscreen repair/replacement and vehicle hire.
Placing a strong emphasis on exceptional customer service as a key driver for growth, and working closely with Microsoft engineers, the company built a call summarisation app for its claims department on Azure OpenAI – Microsoft’s cloud-based service that integrates powerful generative AI tools.
“Claims calls can be very complex,” explains Andy Beal, Markerstudy’s Chief Architect, “so summarising them accurately is essential for providing excellent customer service. But this takes time and quality can vary.
“We used generative AI to automate this process, providing summaries for the agent. This not only saved time but also improved the quality of summaries.”
Around 300 claims handlers have now used the summarisation app and save about four minutes per call. While that might not sound a lot, when you understand that the company takes 840,000 calls a year, this works out at 56,000 hours or nearly 7,500 working days – a significant saving.
The complaints team is able to resolve issues more effectively and agents can deal with more complex queries, freed from the burden of time-consuming admin, says Andy.
He emphasises that a human is always in the loop, checking the call summaries for accuracy.
But this is just the start of Markerstudy’s AI transformation journey, thanks to the company’s commitment and vision.
Early days
This initial project had followed the acceptance of a joint AI investment proposal from Markerstudy and Microsoft to the board and Pollen Street Capital, the firm’s private equity partner.
After the plans were approved, Markerstudy established a dedicated innovation team focused on generative AI. This resulted in a strategy to develop more apps built on Azure OpenAI.
The company intends to use all these tools to improve quality assurance – monitoring calls and providing instant feedback to agents, for example. It has trialled Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve processes for its procurement, human resources, marketing and leadership teams.
The positive results have convinced the company to extend the number of Microsoft 365 Copilot seats to more employees in 2025.
Markerstudy is also making greater use of Microsoft’s generative AI-powered code-creation tool, GitHub Copilot, to accelerate innovation throughout the business. Developers can now write code faster and more efficiently, reducing time spent on routine tasks, says Andy.
“We have proven the benefits and now have investment from the Board to continue with other generative AI projects,” he says.
Responsible AI
Markerstudy has established a comprehensive governance process to ensure the customer remains the focus of all activity.
Group Chief Executive, Kevin Spencer says: “We’re delighted to have been able to continue our AI journey in partnership with Microsoft. Working together, we’ve built an impressive solution that will take us into an exciting future.
“Microsoft’s AI tools complement our wider automation and AI ambitions to improve the customer experience.
“We are very excited about the early results in call summarisation and are looking to roll out more solutions in other key parts of our business as our partnership with Microsoft develops.”
Theo Michalopoulos, General Manager, Financial Services Industry, Microsoft UK, said: “We’re really excited to be working with Markerstudy on its AI transformation journey.
“This industry is one with huge change potential, and seeing the significant time savings in the claims department is immense.
“We’re looking forward to seeing what exciting innovations and operational efficiencies emerge from the use of Microsoft AI technologies in future through the evolution of our partnership.”