How to break language barriers in digital-first insurance

A Spanish business traveler is injured in Tokyo: the police report is in Japanese, the hospital files are in English, and the traveler files the claim in Spanish. The insurer’s digital workflows could process everything in hours—but language barriers turn it into a month-long ordeal.

This plays out daily across the insurance industry. And it’s not because companies don’t care; in fact, they’re investing heavily in digital transformation, with insurers now dedicating 7.5% of revenue to modernization—more than any other industry.

And the problem isn’t ambition. Nearly three-quarters of insurance CEOs are pursuing aggressive digital strategies, responding to customers who expect seamless online experiences.

The gap, rather, is in execution. While insurers digitize everything from underwriting algorithms to client portals, managing complex language demands—from strict compliance rules to rising customer expectations—remains stuck in outdated, and often manual processes.

Why language is central to the future of insurance

Digital transformation promises speed, efficiency, and better customer experiences—but only if insurers can handle documentation and customer interactions consistently across languages and regions. Multilingual complexity is growing, and the challenges are mounting from multiple directions.

First, local language communication is often a legal requirement. The EU, for example, requires insurers to provide policy documents in each member state’s official language. In Canada, bilingual documentation is mandatory, particularly in Québec under the Charter of the French Language.

Second, customer expectations are rising. 75% of online consumers prefer information in their own language and, in the US alone, 26 million people have limited English proficiency across 350+ languages, while 68 million speak a language other than English at home.

Third, expansion brings additional barriers. As insurers move into new markets, linguistic complexity has rendered 10–25% of insurance records unreliable, according to Infosys. Claims slow down, compliance risks mount, and customers—like the Spanish traveler injured in Tokyo—are forced to wait weeks for a resolution.

And there’s more . . .

Failure to provide disclosures and support in local languages can trigger fines and corrective actions. Many jurisdictions impose penalties when firms fail to communicate clearly—through misleading disclosures or poorly translated documents. Others, like the US, UK, and Canada, have explicit “plain language” requirements.

Traditional translation workflows might have worked when insurance moved at a slower pace, but today's volume and velocity demand something fundamentally different. So it’s no wonder insurers can’t achieve true digital transformation until they fix how they communicate across languages.

How Language AI solves the multilingual bottleneck

Language AI changes the equation entirely. It's trained specifically on multilingual business communication—delivering context-aware, consistent, and compliant translations—and integrates directly into your existing software. 

For insurers, this means finally having translation and multilingual customer support capabilities that match the sophistication of their other digital systems. This, in turn, allows them to deliver faster processes, lower costs, and enable stronger compliance and clearer multilingual communication.

Let’s look at three areas where Language AI makes the biggest impact.

Speed 

Language AI keeps critical insurance processes moving by:

• Processing claims with multilingual evidence in hours, not weeks
• Handling regulatory submissions across EU member states simultaneously
• Streamlining tickets, chatbot messages, and emails to speed up customer support
• Automating translation tasks so teams don’t have to do them manually or outsource them

Accuracy 

In insurance, precision is everything. Errors delay payouts, trigger disputes, and create compliance risk. Language AI helps by:

• Ensuring policy terms translate accurately across jurisdictions
• Preserving meaning and formatting in legal and contractual documents
• Meeting local language requirements for disclosures and regulatory submissions
• Maintaining consistent insurance terminology across all markets

Security 

Language AI meets the same security standards as the rest of your tech stack by:

• Translating sensitive data—such as health or financial records—securely
• Ensuring encrypted, compliant workflows across customer support, claims, and back office
• Supporting GDPR and other regional data protection frameworks
• Reducing risk of data exposure from unmanaged translation processes or unsecured tools

Insurers are investing billions in transformation, but those efforts won’t deliver their full value until multilingual communication catches up. Language AI is what makes that possible.

Move forward with DeepL

DeepL gives insurers the accurate, trusted Language AI needed to close the communication gap in digital transformation. Trusted by over 200,000 organizations worldwide, it’s built to help you move faster, stay compliant, and communicate with confidence—from the world’s most accurate translator to DeepL Agent, which can solve challenges beyond translation needs.

And because DeepL is built with enterprise-grade security—end-to-end encryption, GDPR compliance, and audit-ready controls—insurers can proceed with confidence.

Ready to eliminate multilingual bottlenecks from your digital transformation? Discover DeepL's enterprise solutions for faster claims processing, better customer service, and seamless compliance.