In Review: The Hype Cycle of Insurance Disruption

Back in January I wrote a guest blog for Insurance Times on The Hype Cycle of Insurance Disruption. In it, I made some predictions about how insurtech would develop during the course of 2016.

Recently Jeff Smith from One Underwriting emailed to ask how I thought I'd done. So, I've looked back at 10 of the areas I touched on in my original post.

1. AI Underwriters. This progressed faster than I expected, partly driven by increasing consumer familiarity with virtual personal assistants and by big product launches from Amazon (Echo) and Facebook (Messenger for Business API). I predicted Brolly might raise a seed round, and they did take on a small amount of funding through the Entrepreneur First programme. Interestingly, Lemonade shifted its market positioning away from P2P and towards AI during 2016. Meanwhile at Bought By Many, we built an Alexa skill enabling you to get a quote for exotic pet insurance via your Echo device. 
2. Blockchain. There has been a lot more discussion about use-cases of blockchain for insurance in 2016, as well as some notable strategic investments by insurance companies in blockchain businesses (for example, Mitsui Sumitomo's stake in the coin exchange Bitflyer). However, tangible applications of the technology in insurance are still at a very early stage. In the startup world, I predicted Everledger would raise a venture capital round, but in fact they raised from Mastercard's non-equity Start Path programme. 
3. Connected Home Insurance. Neos raised a $1.2m seed round with backing from EOS Ventures, Gary Lineker and others, and would have been a better startup to have called out than Domotz, who don't focus exclusively on insurance. Co-Founder Matt Poll has talked about putting the customer, rather than the tech or the insurer, at the core of his proposition, and in my view this is key to gaining traction. 
4. Drone Insurance. Commercially-operated drones are now being used to provide high definition aerial footage of crops and buildings for risk assessment and claims adjusting purposes. Betterview is a good example of a startup in this space, while Drox has sadly disappeared from view. Meanwhile, nimble brokers have started providing liability insurance for personal drone use.
5. Chief Digital Officers. Insurer CDO appointments in 2016 have included Michael Lewis at AIG, Steven Zuanella at RSA, and Robin Loh at Allianz in Asia. 
6. Insurer Venture Funds & Incubators. Allianz launched Allianz X, a 430m Euro insurtech venture fund and company builder. Swiss Re launched its Insurtech Accelerator. Munich Re created its Digital Partners division under Andrew Rear which has been very active in both startup partnerships and corporate VC. 
7. Driverless Car Insurance. It's been a sobering year for the autonomous vehicle industry - the first fatal self-driving car crash happened in May when a Tesla in autopilot hit a truck trailer. Although it is now possible to buy insurance covering driverless features, it still feels like a long and winding road to the driverless future. 
8. P2P. Lemonade's much-anticipated launch in September prompted some heated debate about what P2P insurance actually is - a question best addressed by Christopher Sandilands' blog on the Oxbow Partners website. As I mentioned above, I think the evolution of Lemonade's messaging towards AI is an indicator of disillusionment with "true" P2P insurance; although I should also acknowledge that P2P trailblazers Friendsurance (whom Chris describes as a "micro mutual") have seen strong traffic in 2016, as well as closing a $15m round and launching in Australia.
9. Google Compare was closed in March, so I definitely called that one right!
10. Social Media Insurance Distribution came under the spotlight for the wrong reasons when Facebook suspended Admiral's access to its API following concerns about its use of personal data in the FirstCarQuote beta. But at Bought By Many we have continued to see social media flourish as a channel for customer engagement and acquisition in insurance. We surpassed 250,000 members last week, with the majority of our growth during 2016 coming from Facebook. 

Anyway - over to you to tell me how I did...marks out of ten?!