The "Tech Monster" that will change Insurance forever

In my opinion, it was recently published one of the best reports on the insurance sector, with a very open and transparent approach to what we call InsurTech and its impact on the lives of those who use these services.

Over the past decade, venture capitalists have poured increasingly large amounts of cash into insurance-focused fintechs. Now, traditional property and casualty insurance companies need to figure out how this affects them and what to do about it.

100% of people that participated in the report, cited somehow a reason pertaining to their experience with their previous carrier. We can highlight that more that 55% of them switched because of faster claims processing and better digital experience. 70% cited pricing as a reason for switching.

The Pain Points

It’s easy to understand that the simultaneous rise in claims and funding spells opportunity for insurance companies (or at least it should). Insurers need to transform the claims process from end to end. By teaming up with insurtechs for certain aspects of claims while modernizing their internal processes, they can elevate the experience, so claimants feel supported at this difficult time.

The next step is making sure that claimants reaching out to the provider are directed to the right point of contact – whether that be a human agent, virtual agent or prewritten explanation. Claims of greater severity and emotional impact require the empathetic touch of an actual person, whereas lesser claims may be handled in an automated or virtual manner. Behind-the-scenes engines can assist in claim triage while providing additional context to the agents. Other technologies can detect fraud or help agents handle legitimate claims in a way that’s fair to the insurer and the insured.

?There are insurtech companies that help adjusters, or insurance claims agents, determine whether a claimant is covered. Adjusters typically need to prepare a wide range of unstructured and incompatible data manually. But technology can easily unify and clean the data so it can be analyzed rapidly by AI. If a payment is warranted, this technology can determine a reasonable offer for both claimant and insurer and reduce lawyer involvement.

But after all, how InsurTech is changing the marketing so deeply?

I recently read a publication from The Fintech Times, regarding how Insurtech will change the market and telling that it will tackle this on several fronts.

Mainly, by looking at big data and pricing products more competitively. This is done through AI, incorporating blockchain and leveraging the internet of things (IOT).

Insurance is built on risk and making predictions of how big a risk a company, person or event is. The more information an insurer has about the consumer, the more accurate the prediction. AI can analyze data and situations faster, increasing accuracy and enhancing customer customization.

In this new era, the mechanism of availing of Insurance has been completely transformed from the traditional strategy of ‘one size fits all’ Insurance Policies to the introduction of customized and personalized Insurance Policies, based on a precise risk assessment of the consumer, with the help of Internet of Things (“IoT”) connected devices, Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), Big Data analytics and Machine Learning (“ML”).

Stepping into the future

The foundation for improving claims is also having a complete view of the customer with a CDP. By drawing on the right sources of data, insurers can better understand a customer’s risk profile and expectations.

To transform this entire process, in my opinion we can encourage insurers to invest in digital solutions while leveraging data around five strategic imperatives: