Page 31 - Insurance Times December 2021

the Insurance Innovation vehicle and transport it to a more settlement, AI is being used for image processing of
profitable destination in a similar way as a tailwind works in damaged vehicles in auto insurance. The damage
aviation. assessment, cost assessment, and claim settlement process
now just takes minutes enhancing the customer experience.
A study of European Insurers' digital maturity by DXC Similarly, annuity payment for older members by several
technology conducted with IDC in July 2018 showed that only insurers earlier required submission of Life Certificate in a
36% of the surveyed insurers had implemented a digital branch. The use of AI to process photographs sent online to
strategy and only 22% were part of an ecosystem so that decide if the policyholder is alive has now obviated the need
they could provide additional services to their consumers. for such a branch visit thereby enhancing customer
In India, that statistic is even lower. This clearly shows that experience.
the adoption of digital technologies has been slow and needs
to accelerate. InsurTech is creating a number of innovative products
leveraging the new-age technologies and analytics. The
Wearables, AI enabled wearables, Robotic Adjusters, RPA simplification of insurance products, creation of bite sized
(Robotic Process Automation), Drones, Block chain, IoT sachet insurance covers for the consumers who cannot
(Internet of Things), Advanced Analytical Algorithms and afford large premiums, and consumer segmentation to
more are all digital technologies that are poised to power ensure that good customers do not subsidize the insurance
up innovation in insurance product development. Whereas for bad or high risk customers lends to innovation at the
earlier insurers were available only for limited times to the intersection of technology and the need of the hour. With
customer, today chatbots and NLP (Natural Language the proliferation of smartphones, protecting them is a cover
Processing) have brought insurers to the smartphones of that is not offered by many companies. Insurance start-ups
customers. Queries can be answered round the clock and have innovative covers for smartphones that not only covers
claim logging with pictures of the damage has become easy the damage but also in many cases offers pickup and drop
with the aid of technology enabled insurer platforms. service for the phone repair at a nominal premium. This
innovation is especially useful for millennials or Gen Y
Geospatial and location tracking through telematics has generation for whom a smartphone is an imperative must-
enabled insurers to roll out innovative products in car have.
insurance. Block chain supports greater transparency and Insurance start-ups are also partnering with other service
allows for faster claim settlement and policy surrender for providers to provide cover for areas that lead providers
instance in travel insurance where automated often do not have coverage for. From bags, delayed flights,
disintermediated claims processing is now possible. IoT
cyber fraud, malaria, dengue, cycle theft, gym injury, pet
enabled wearables have made tracking of customer habits insurance to even the innovative home content only
easy helping reduce the cost of health insurance premiums. insurance, the new age insurers are covering all consumer
needs big and small. The premiums charged are often very
Through the use of data from other "non-traditional" third small. For example a leading taxicab company has partnered
party sources as well as the legacy system data combining with an InsurTech on intra-city transfers for covering a
the unstructured data with the structured data, insurers are missed flight due to traffic delays when consumers use the
better poised for the construct of advanced analytical app-based taxi-cab service. In many cases the start-up
algorithms that help in a myriad of consumer lifecycle insurer sells the insurance through its many partnership
elements. Faster underwriting, policy pricing, to seamless networks but eventually the insurance is underwritten by
claims settlement, insurers are now able to tackle consumer large players.
requirements more effectively. Using social scoring,
insurance companies are now gathering consumer data The bite-sized insurance premiums are nothing to be scoffed
from forums like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at. Many InsurTech companies have impressive Gross
combining it with online transaction history to create Written Premium (GWP) with a large number of customers
winning propositions for customers who are giving their on-board within just a few years of operation. The reason
consent to share data. many of the innovative covers provided by these start-ups
is succeeding is because these new age companies have
An example of adjacent innovation in India is the use of leveraged technology to push products. Transparency, trust,
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and image analytics to create a simplified insurance, easy claim processing are some of the
better customer experience. In India, automated claims professed hallmarks of the new age companies which have

The Insurance Times, December 2021 31