Naked Insurance Launches AI-Powered Pet Insurance in SA

In Short: Naked Insurance AI Pet Cover For Cats And Dogs

Naked Insurance has introduced an AI-powered pet insurance product for cats and dogs in South Africa.

Accident-only cover starts at R40 a month for cats and R55 for dogs. The company says automated claims processing allows some payouts within minutes.

What Happened: How Naked Insurance Uses AI For Claims

Naked Insurance says it uses AI and automation to assess claims, match veterinary treatments to reported incidents and speed up payments. AI is software that can spot patterns in data, in this case linking a vet invoice to what the customer reported.

Sumarie Greybe, co-founder of Naked Insurance, said about 60% of claims are paid within 48 hours. She said the quickest claim processed so far took 12 minutes from submission to payment.

Naked’s early claims data shows a median turnaround time of 1.3 days from submission to payment. The company also said around 29% of claims are paid within an hour of approval.

Customers submit claims through the Naked app by uploading their veterinary invoice and answering a few questions. Straightforward claims can be processed automatically, while other claims may be referred for human review.

The product has three cover options, accident-only cover, accident-and-illness cover, and a more comprehensive cover that includes physiotherapy and routine care such as preventative treatments, vaccinations and check-ups.

Customers can choose annual cover limits from R15 000 to R120 000 and select an excess. Greybe said accident cover is available at any age, but illness cover requires pets to join before turning nine.

Policyholders can use any registered veterinarian in South Africa and manage their policies through the app. There are no treatment-specific sub-limits, and eligible treatments are covered subject to the selected annual and per-claim limits.

Why It Matters: Faster Payouts And Clearer Cover Limits

Greybe said the goal is to make claiming easy and pay customers back as quickly as possible. She also said giving customers a choice of cover and clear limits is as important as making the claims process quicker.

In South Africa’s pet insurance market, Naked’s competitors include Dotsure, Oneplan, MediPet and OUTsurance.