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APRIL 23, 2019

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INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Enhance Engagement For “Post-Digital” Success
The next big competitive advantage in insurance will be created by the ability to capitalize on “momentary markets,” or personalized policy and service offers tailored to customers’ unique life moments and delivered in real-time, according to a new Technology Vision For Insurance report from Accenture. Read more.

Insurers’ Digital Investments Driving Value
Insurers are prioritizing investment in digital initiatives, but determining ROI on digital projects can prove challenging. In a new report, Quantifying Digital Value in Insurance, research and advisory firm Novarica uses more than a dozen real-world case studies to show insurers realizing value in growth, direct savings, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Read more.

First AI-powered Underwriting Collaboration
Element AI, a global AI products and software company, and Gore Mutual Insurance Company, Canada's oldest property & casualty insurer, are working together to integrate the Element AI Underwriting Partner software product with Gore Mutual's underwriting practice. Gore Mutual is adding the latest machine learning insights and algorithms from Element AI to benefit its customers, insurance brokers, and employees. Read more.

Sonnet Launches New ‘Connect’ Platform
Sonnet Insurance has launched Sonnet Connect, a new way to protect, improve, and simplify life for Canadians. Known for simplifying the insurance experience, Sonnet has partnered with 14 different brands that share a commitment to customer experience that will impact Canadians at home, on the road, and in their wallet. Read more.

Zensurance Expands Into A Ninth Province
Zensurance, Canada's leading provider of business insurance focused on helping Canadian entrepreneurs and business owners get insurance coverage quickly and easily, is pleased to announce it is now licensed to operate virtually from coast to coast. Read more.

PolicyAdvisor Launches Innovative Marketplace
PolicyAdvisor has launched a simple, quick, online marketplace for Canadians searching for life insurance and related products. Buying life insurance, critical illness insurance, and mortgage protection products should be easy using the latest technology – PolicyAdvisor.com is proving just that. Read more.

Frank Cowan Launches Enhanced Cyber Product
Frank Cowan Company is pleased to announce the release of an enhanced cyber product that meets the specific needs of public entity, not-for-profit organizations and other specialty classes of business across Canada. The product is offered as part of the Company’s comprehensive insurance program. Read more.

Ventiv Technology Launches Analytics Solution
Ventiv Technology Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of Ventiv Analytics Cloud. The new analytics solution represents a significant enhancement to its market-leading analytics capabilities, allowing clients more streamlined access to enriched data exploration, predictive analytics and business intelligence capabilities supported by state-of-the-art artificial intelligence. Read more.

Aite Group To Launch Fraud & AML Practice
Aite Group has announced the launch of a new research practice, Fraud & AML, which will provide coverage across a range of fraud and anti-money-laundering topics through business, technology, and regulatory lenses. The practice directs its research toward global financial institutions (retail and commercial banks, insurers, wealth management firms), Fintech companies, merchants, technology providers, and professional services firms. Read more.

APRIL Launches Quotation Request Tracking Tool
APRIL Canada has launched a new service for its broker partners. Via a dematerialized tool linked to internal file processing software, APRIL now offers all its broker clients a simple interface, enabling them to monitor the progress of their quotation request in real-time. Read more.

Deloitte Survey Makes A Case for The CRO
Nearly three-quarters of high-performing risk programs that have risk management represented in executive management meetings are more likely to exceed performance goals and achieve higher growth, reveals a new risk management survey by Deloitte. The survey findings indicate that investment in risk management and representation in the C-suite – such as a Chief Risk Officer – translate into better financial performance and achievement of strategic priorities overall. Read more.

CSIO Celebrates Industry Achievements
CSIO's 2019 Members Meeting brought together stakeholders within the P&C insurance industry, including insurers, brokers and vendors, to celebrate the industry's advancement in technology over the past year and the collaboration that made those accomplishments possible. Read more.

Privacy Regulation Returns As Top Risk
Concerns about rapidly accelerating privacy regulations and their associated regulatory burdens became the top emerging risk that organizations face globally, according to Gartner, Inc.’s latest Emerging Risks Monitor Report. The quarterly survey of senior executives across industries and geographies showed that “accelerating privacy regulation” had overtaken “talent shortages” as the top emerging risk in Q1 2019. Read more.

Basement Flooding Protection Comes Cheap
With the right information, and often for less than 250 bucks, homeowners can protect themselves from the increasing risks of basement flooding, according to a report from the University of Waterloo. Read more.

Quebec Updates Disaster Relief Program
Quebec has launched a new disaster relief program, designed to involve less paperwork and faster compensation, which features hard caps on the amount of compensation available to homeowners in high-risk flood zones. Read more.


The Intersection: Insurance-Canada.ca Blog

What's going through the Intersection
of insurance and technology?

Farming the Digital Acres
When it comes to new insurance products and services, risk and knowledge are the critical elements.  A wise leader put it this way: “There are three segments that will make or break new initiatives: Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, and Unknown Unknowns. Approach accordingly.” We will take a look at how The Co-operators – a Canadian P&C and life insurance company – appear to manage the “Knowns” well.
Read more.


InsurTech Spotlight

The InsurTech Spotlight features insurance practitioners and InsurTech(nology) providers which are – or are becoming – InsurTechs. In the spotlight this week are:

Finaeo
Finaeo is building the digital fabric to connect and power the life insurance industry, globally. We believe in the value of advice and are dedicated to providing advisors, their clients and carriers the technology needed to thrive in a digital era. Finaeo will become the “Amazon of insurance.” Learn more.

InsureToday
The traditional process of purchasing tenants insurance is both time-consuming and inefficient; InsureToday simplifies the purchasing process for renters in British Columbia. The new, youthful brand brings a fresh look and feel that will become the benchmark for digital insurance agencies across the country. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.


Insurance Works

Featured job opportunities:

Licensed Insurance Advisor
SLI Specialty Life Insurance
Concord, ON

Bilingual Underwriter
ENCON Group Inc.
Ottawa, ON


ICEF2019: “Insurance in the Platform Economy” — 7th annual Insurance-Canada.ca Executive Forum — Wednesday, August 28, 2019, at the St. James Cathedral Centre, Toronto


From Doug

“AI is the answer” – maybe.

Last week at the CSIO AGM, I enjoyed a presentation called “Setting the Stage for Systems of Intelligence,” by Charles Dugas, PhD, head of insurance at Element AI, a leader in artificial intelligence. This session reinforced my sense that Canada is well positioned at the forefront of AI technology.

A few things were new to me:

• The term “systems of intelligence”;

• Artificial intelligence is changing in scope and nature – and as it gets more sophisticated, things considered AI a decade ago no longer are;

• ‘Real’ AI is mostly about deep learning.

I took away two main recommendations:

1. Think about AI corporate-wide, i.e., avoid silos, as data from across the organization may ultimately bring the real benefits.

2. Nibble; go slowly. The benefits will develop with experience and more data.

Many are working with AI in bits and pieces – many of the InsurTech Spotlight participants cite AI as a new technology underpinning their business.

To cap off an interesting few days, Gore Mutual announced an AI-powered underwriting collaboration with Element AI.

These are interesting times, but also challenging times.

Doug Grant, CIP
Partner
Insurance-Canada.ca

Doug Grant

The Chronicle weekly newsletter features news, events, and general information relating to technology and innovation in the Canadian insurance industry and marketplace. Subscribe here or view past issues.

If you would like to recommend an item for inclusion – with a focus on technology in insurance relevant to the Canadian Property & Casualty insurance industry, please contact [email protected].

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