For as long as I can recall, insurance products and services have been developed and supported by internal insurance company resources. With the exception of large commercial insurance buyers, clients don’t have the interest or the time to go beyond fiddling with premiums and coverages.
This might be changing. In widespread events, insureds might find themselves negotiating with multiple insurers to arrange the most important replacements while giving up less significant paybacks.
The approach is in its early days, and there could be new approaches, driven by technology. I’d be interested in your thoughts.
It’s not so simple, but it seems to make sense …
Kate Stillwell is co-founder and CEO of Jumpstart, which provides an innovative model which can get “more recovery money to people when you actually need it.” Located in California, Stillwell is analyzing impacts and working with individuals, insurers, and recovery experts. A recent article by Stillwell summarizes the application in its headline: “In 2019, insurance innovations will enable faster recoveries.”
Stillwell notes that in 2o18, “traditional models were put to the test as a cluster of natural disasters ranging from hurricanes to wild fires”. Stillwell posits that millennials will expect customized, on-demand products. Stillwell writes, “By offering people slices of coverage where they see the most need, more consumers will get coverage for particular risks.”
These changes, according to Stillwell, will unbundle the “make me whole” traditional insurance approach, and following millennials’ desire: “Just enough, just in time, only where it’s needed.”
According to Stillwell, there are spin-off values as well:
“When individuals have enough to jump-start their own recovery process, they’re more likely to stay in their community to participate in the rebuild, and in turn, community recovery speeds up, too.”
Stillwell relies on robust social media connectivity to facilitate speed of response.
And it’s getting some traction …
Following on to Stillwell’s approach, AltextSoft, a US based software and engineering company, took to its blog – Insurance Technology: 11 Disruptive Ideas to Transform Traditional Insurance Company with Machine Learning, APIs, Blockchain, and Telematics – to examine insurance claims activities and status.
The Altext blog post outlines basic information and a referral to a white paper describing the use of technology in insurance at their Digital Transformation post.
Altext provides a collection of 3 main problems that need to be addressed:
- Internal processes of insurance companies are often too complicated. “There are so many duplicating business operations that nearly 1 million insurance jobs in the US alone can be automated.”
- Insurants are not satisfied with their service providers. “About 60 percent of insurance clients worldwide aren’t satisfied with their service providers and nearly 50 percent of insurance clients consider turning to newer models.”
- Young prodigies prefer to join technology, consulting, or other financial companies rather than insurance. “According to Accenture, only 2 percent of US university alumni plan to enter the industry.”
Altext defines 11 ‘opportunities’ which could lead the insurance organization to become an ‘Innovative Insurtech firm’, defining tools to implement Stillwell’s vision.
- Internal Workflow Automation with Machine Learning
- Since the beginning of modern insurance, we have excellent workflows. However, the application of Machine Learning will be a challenge for those who have not worked with ‘smart’ applications.
- Machine learning in Insurance: Automation of Claim Processing
- The current claims professionals are, for the most part, excited about letting automation deal with the majority of claims processing; allowing the experts to handle challenging decisions.
- Redefining Traditional Ways of Claims and Policy Management in the Age of Digital Insurance
- IoT and Social Media Will Rock Insurance Pricing with Personalized Products
- Telematics Insurance – New Way to Make Car Risk Management Better
- Disruptive Business Models – P2P Insurance
- Chatbots for Insurance Company – Conversational Interfaces Power Virtual Agents and Brokers
- Insurance APIs as an Easy Pass to Innovation
- This may be a challenge for integration and standards for internal systems
- Insurance Marketplace Brings Product Distribution to Online Space
- Insurance Fraud Detection Software Brings Industry to the New Level
- Insurance Marketplace Brings Product Distribution to Online Space
These are early days…
… but they are intriguing. I’d be interested in your thoughts.