Austrian insurance group UNIQA Insurance Group's Southeastern Europe (SEE) division built an end-to-end AI medical referral claims processing solution on Microsoft Azure AI, using Microsoft Foundry, Azure Document Intelligence, and Azure OpenAI. Health claims processing time dropped on average from 15-30 minutes to just 2-3 minutes per case, an 85-90% reduction; call center volumes decreased and claims handlers were freed for higher-value work. The deployment became the first AI-powered business process solution of this kind in Southeastern Europe, going beyond the region's voice- and chatbot efforts.
"Even the most experienced claims handlers were struggling with the volume of work. Some of the more complex cases would require up to an hour of manual work to review and understand dozens of documents." — Vladimir Simunovic, Chief Technology and Operating Officer, UNIQA Southeastern Europe (SEE).
Before the deployment, UNIQA SEE's claims handlers faced fragmented and complex documents, manual reconciliation of every invoice and medical referral letter, and heavy reliance on call center interactions that slowed processing and increased costs. Incremental automations were not enough; the team needed an end-to-end rethink of the medical referral workflow, including a new self-service web and mobile application that lets customers submit referral letters digitally without employee interaction.
UNIQA SEE Digital engineers partnered with Microsoft Cloud Solution Architects through hands-on hackathons and working sessions to build and productionize the solution. Key challenges included integrating the new AI pipeline with a legacy core system never designed for modern data exchange, and handling document heterogeneity. Azure Document Intelligence standardized the structure of incoming referral letters and invoices from multiple healthcare providers, while Azure OpenAI services handled interpretation and validation; structured, semantically matched data flowed back into UNIQA's core claims system via APIs.
The new self-service app lets customers submit referral letters digitally. Behind the scenes, AI validates documents, matches prices against provider lists, and prepares claims — turning a weeks-long process into days or even hours, with documented end-to-end pipeline runs completing without manual intervention. Operational gains include lower call volumes and a noticeable shift of claims handlers toward complex casework and advisory work.
"Our next step is to scale our Azure-based solution across additional countries and business units, establishing a region-wide standard platform for AI adoption." — Vladimir Simunovic, Chief Technology and Operating Officer, UNIQA SEE. Source: Microsoft Customer Stories, published 5/11/2026.
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