Since Moore’s Law was introduced by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, we’ve accepted that the rate of technological advancement continues to accelerate, just as the number of transistors on a microchip has roughly doubled every two years.
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In the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry that acceleration of technological advancement gives us increased hope that we can better understand and manage risk and thereby provide a better customer experience.
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Sources of Innovation Acceleration
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At Convr, we work to support the accelerating pace of technological change by understanding issues behind it. Our take is that there are four primary drivers of today’s innovation acceleration:
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1. Need — The increasing universe of perils as well as unprecedented severity and frequency growth are helping drive the accelerating rate of technological advancement in insurance. Climate change, natural disasters, social unrest, and mass immigration are just a few of the exposures demanding new assessment and risk mitigation tools. With new perils ever looming, P&C insurers are focusing their technology investments on these emerging realities as well as other more enduring issues such as efficiency and accuracy.
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2. Appetite — Broad and rapid adoption of the internet, digital tools, mobile devices, cloud storage, apps and more are also supporting innovation acceleration. This convergence of new technologies and the appetite for adoption is spurred by new innovation in many fields with both consumers’ and business users’ escalating expectations for ease and quality experiences. Technology utilization among the youngest in our educational institutions is also fueling this demand for new and innovative technologies. The net result is that broad adoption is forcing organizations of all sorts to embrace technological advancements just to stay relevant.
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3. Advanced Capabilities — Faster computers and greater data storage capacity are helping to drive technology forward. Among the resulting benefits of this are faster computations, even as we develop more complex algorithms and data sets. And with that, we are deriving new insights to support better decision-making and experiences. Furthering this gratuitous cycle, are advances in artificial intelligence, simplified approaches to coding and better data analytics tools – fueling accelerated innovation and information mastery.
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4. Knowledge Sharing — Increased collaboration and data aggregation is also fostering technological acceleration. At Convr, we facilitate this by designing pathways for disparate platforms or networks to be accessed simultaneously for rapid consideration and then disseminated as insights at the moment of decisioning. This “collaboration” between technologies and users facilitates the aggregation of data, better and faster decision-making, and also advances the pace of continuous learning.
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Exploiting Acceleration
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At Convr, we believe within the realm of technology acceleration, hyper-connectivity – deploying big data and artificial intelligence applications to advance business efficiency and decisioning – provides an enormous opportunity for profitable growth.
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In the insurance space, we prioritize the following disciplines for exploiting acceleration:
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Data Analytics and AI: Invest in advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns, correlations, and insights related to current and emerging risks. Machine learning algorithms can help insurers collect and process vast data sets, detect early warning signs, predict trends, and develop proactive risk mitigation strategies.
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Geospatial Analysis: Leverage geospatial analysis tools to assess risks related to climate change, natural disasters, social unrest, terrorism targets, or population movements. Mapping technologies can help insurers understand and visualize the potential impact of these emerging issues for specific regions and properties, enabling better risk assessment and pricing.
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Predictive Modeling and Scenario Analysis: Develop sophisticated predictive models and scenario analysis techniques to assess the potential impact of emerging trends on insurance portfolios. This can help insurers evaluate their exposures, stress test their underwriting appetite and producer strategies, and develop mitigation or remediation plans accordingly.
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Methodical Collaboration: Foster collaborations and partnerships with technology providers, and other innovation accelerators to jointly identify and build solutions that can address improved risk management and mitigation. Thinking creatively about partnerships as opposed to competitors can facilitate knowledge sharing and the development of innovative solutions for the betterment of both the insurance industry and customers.
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Customer Engagement and Education: Harness customer input and then utilize technology to enhance customer engagement and decision-making. With supportive training, we can then deliver new tools that deliver documented financial and operational performance improvement.
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The accelerating pace of change will continue to demand nimble technology adoption for competitive advantage and perhaps survival in many industries, but especially within insurance. Where once there was a claims system there is now an end-to-end policy management system. Where there was a team trained in business intelligence tools like Tableau, there is now a team of data scientists using multiple business intelligence tools and AI.
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With explosive computing power at the core of innovation and active machine learning and AI-driven modeling, early investment will deliver sustained competitive advantage so if you are looking to align technology investments with these innovations, the sooner, the better.
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At Convr, we are committed to helping commercial P&C organizations increase efficiency and profitability with improved understanding, management, and mitigation of known and emerging risks. To do this, we help them adopt the best for-purpose, supportive technology that has the flexibility to evolve with the industry and integrate seamlessly with emerging tools and requirements. In the P&C insurance industry the accelerating pace of change gives us hope that we will continue to better understand and manage risk for a safer world and improved customer experience.
