Hong Kong Insurance Transformation 2024 Outlook

Reflecting on 2023, it's been an interesting spell in the insurance transformation sector. After a couple of years marked by heightened transformation demands and a notable exodus of talent from Hong Kong, last year took on a more stable rhythm. Between July and November, we observed a dip in the number of new roles cropping up, with the majority being for replacements, mandatory projects, or efforts to accelerate the projects already underway—rather than initiatives kicking off from scratch. This led to a levelling-off of salaries at the Senior PM to Program Manager level; people accustomed to salaries in the $120k to $150k bracket were accepting positions at around the $100k level.

The market conditions did provide us with a great opportunity to go out and meet with lots of transformation leaders across the market, and from those conversations, I'm confident that 2024 is going to be much more active. With various hot project areas including:

• AI
• Data
• Sustainability/ESG
• Risk Management

We anticipate a rebalancing in the market as we are starting the year with a good supply of talented project leaders available and are already seeing a high demand for project skillsets. This provides a unique window for insurers to recruit some great talent, but it likely won't be long until the 2022 challenges of a very thin talent pool start to resurface.

For 2024, the skillsets to be in high demand include:

• Enhancing customer experience
• Regional project management
• Agency Transformation
• Technical BAs who can be hands-on but also the bridge between Business/IT

Wishing my transformation network all the best for 2024! Looking forward to working with you.

Ben