By replacing structured IVR with Voice AI, Aspire decoupled business growth from staffing costs—effectively doubling its service capacity.
In the competitive landscape of affordable insurance, the ability to scale customer service without sacrificing the personal touch is the ultimate differentiating factor. For Aspire General Insurance, a tech-forward provider servicing a diverse base of policyholders and brokers, the challenge was about meeting customers exactly where they were: on the phone, looking for immediate answers, and speaking both English and Spanish.
Aspire’s results at a glance…
- 53% automation rate for Spanish-language conversations
- 43% automation rate for English-language conversations
- 37,000+ interactions automated per month
- Doubled contact center capacity without increasing headcount
By leveraging boost.ai’s conversational AI platform, in 2024, Aspire launched a Voice AI Agent that efficiently redirected call volume and expanded service capacity equivalent to a full contact center team, proving that “tech-forward” is much more a bottom-line strategy than a buzzword.
Bridging the chat-to-voice gap
Aspire’s journey into AI was largely a response to rapid, post-pandemic growth. As COVID-19 subsided, the company saw a dramatic surge in customers and incoming calls. This growth put immediate pressure on the contact center, leading to rising wait times, particularly in the Customer Service department.
The situation was further complicated when their legacy live chat system vendor went out of business. Forced to find a new solution, Aspire turned to boost.ai in 2021 to help stabilize their chat channel. While the resulting AI Agent helped manage the initial surge, the team soon realized that the real equalization needed to happen on the phone lines. As Aspire’s customer base expanded, the company prioritized scalable solutions to ensure insured continued to receive timely and efficient service.
“We were looking for ways that we could scale smartly,” explains Cedric Nicholson, Vice President of Customer Experience at Aspire. “Instead of simply adding more people to keep pace with demand, Aspire prioritized leveraging technology to support a stronger, more sustainable customer experience.”
The “before” state was a common one in the insurance industry: a standard touchtone IVR that lacked the sophistication to handle complex queries. With call volumes growing and human agents bogged down by repetitive questions, such as payment statuses and policy lookups, Aspire needed a solution that could scale as quickly as their business.
A native-speaker approach to Voice AI
Building on the foundation of their successful chat agent, Aspire officially launched their voice bot in 2023 to tackle the high volume on their phone lines directly. When designing the solution, they didn’t want a robotic experience; they wanted it to feel relatable to their specific demographic. This was crucial for their Spanish-speaking customers, where many AI solutions rely on “textbook” translations that fail to capture the nuances of everyday conversations.
Rather than relying on generic translation tools, Rick Magdaleno, Aspire’s Business System Analyst, and his team took a hands-on approach to training the AI via the boost.ai platform.
“We took a thoughtful approach to language, asking native speakers how something would naturally be said in conversation. While automated translations were available, we wanted to ensure the tone felt authentic and relatable for our clients.” – Rick Magdaleno, Business System Analyst, Aspire General Insurance
By reusing many of the 500+ intents already perfected in their chat agent, the team ensured brand consistency and a rapid rollout. They implemented a secure, read-only database integration via API calls, allowing the voice AI Agent to provide real-time policy updates and payment status directly to the caller. This allowed the agent to handle the high-volume, low-complexity questions that previously tied up the live service lines.
The power of inclusivity through automation
The results were immediate. While the voice AI Agent delivers a strong 45% YTD automation rate in English, that metric has soared to 53% in Spanish interactions.
This success represents a fundamental shift in Aspire’s business operations. Currently, the voice agent handles approximately 37,000 interactions per month. When compared to the live service team’s monthly volume of roughly 40,000 calls, the AI is effectively doubling the company’s capacity without the need for team additions.
“To support that additional 40% of interactions through traditional support channels would require significantly expanding our live team support. Instead, voice automation allows us to expand service capacity through technology, enabling faster operational financial scaling.” – Cedric Nicholson, VP of Customer Experience, Aspire General Insurance
Clearing the way for high-value work
One of the most profound outcomes of the project has been the change in day-to-day life for Aspire’s live agents. By removing the repetitive inquiries and other operational noise, customer service reps are now empowered to handle complex cases that require tailored empathy and specialized judgment.
In an industry where customer service and claims can be challenging, Aspire’s voice AI Agent acts as a buffer, ensuring that when a live agent enters the interaction, they are dealing with a customer who requires their expertise. The feedback loop reflects this: “No news is good news,” Cedric notes. Because the voice agent is friendly, accurate and provides a fail-safe to transfer to a live agent if things get tricky, customer frustration is minimized. Live agents are happier because their work is more meaningful, and customers are happier because they get answers in seconds, not minutes.
Jumping into the AI pool
Encouraged by their success, Aspire is now exploring deeper integrations, specifically around First Notice of Loss (FNOL). The goal is to allow customers to initiate claim submission forms directly through the voice AI agent, streamlining the most critical touchpoint in the insurance journey.
For other companies wary of AI touching their phone lines, Cedric’s advice is simple: "I would say, just jump in the pool. With boost.ai, we’ve found the flexibility to learn quickly and pivot. It’s worked marvelously for us because we know the support and documentation are there to catch us."
By combining technical agility with a human-first approach to customer service, Aspire has proven that automation is about building a smarter, more inclusive, and more scalable business.
