Claims handled without human intervention: the Singapore case

Claims remain the most manual process in the insurance value chain and the point of greatest friction with customers: too many manual checks before a payout can be made, with long turnaround times and rising operating costs. Against that backdrop, KPMG records a shift from isolated pilot projects to structured transformation across the entire value chain, from underwriting to distribution.

The response is end-to-end automation: systems that assess, decide, and execute with no human involvement in most cases. In Singapore a touchless processing model was applied, in which algorithms analyse the data and documentation of each claim and human intervention is reserved for cases requiring further checks. The system covers the full cycle, from intake to settlement.

98% of claims in Singapore are auto-assessed and around 60% are processed and paid within 24 hours with no human intervention at all: the figures come from the KPMG report "AI in Insurance Sector" (Singapore, May 2026). The comparison is with manual processes and sequential checks that in many markets still take days.

The lesson is that claims automation works when it is designed as a complete process rather than a single isolated feature: the value comes from linking intake, validation, decision, and execution into one automated chain. At the same time, the more autonomy a system gains, the greater the need for traceability and proportional oversight, since customer trust depends on the ability to explain any disputed outcome.