Main technological trends in the field of insurance

Technology is evolving rapidly and many insurance organizations are challenged to keep up. The top priority of an insurance company today is profitable and sustainable growth, and to enable this, leading insurance companies are taking all possible steps to implement innovative practices and the latest technology to improve business processes and streamline applications. inherited.

“Digital natives” dominate and will continue to dominate the workplace, which has huge implications for agents and brokers looking to engage with customers and grow their businesses. As millennials mature into their heyday, purchasing power, digital and more automated ways of doing business will become a critical part of daily workflows.

From the rise of mobile users and cloud-based technology to social media interaction, a Deloitte study of 2016 technology trends for insurance agents finds that insurance agents are finally waking up to the need to be more agile, efficient and accessible to serve today’s customer.

To add to this, there is a challenging regulatory environment that continues to add more regulations to streamline the insurance sector. A recent Deloitte report highlights that such regulations are no longer one between state and federal entities, but rather a hybrid of US and state regulation of insurance entities to ensure efficiency and adherence to standard procedures state and federal.

As a result, insurance agents are not only feeling pressure to digitize their workflow, but also need to streamline business processes to make the cost of doing business more efficient and in line with these regulations.

While 63% of insurance companies report that they are ready to move towards more digital practices, only 23% of these companies are ready, reports a joint study by Forrester and Accenture.

To speed up this process and ensure a successful transition to digital workflows, there are some key trends insurers are and should be embracing.

Modernizing Legacy Systems for Operational Efficiencies – With operations spread across geographies, spanning decades, insurance companies are inhibited by legacy systems and outdated technologies that lead to high maintenance costs. The proliferation of modern technologies such as cloud and mobile computing has changed the way organizations do business. Instead of falling behind, it’s time for insurance companies to embrace the latest technologies and modernize their legacy platforms to achieve operational efficiencies while considering flexibility for consumers.

Adopt a cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure: IT teams in the insurance industry wrestled with what information regulators allow to be stored in the cloud vs. on the premise. Many insurers are using 40-year-old back-end technology designed to manage the claims process, says a recent TrustMarque report, which is hampering innovation. Furthermore, insurance agents are far from instantly replacing such mainframe technology.

As the insurance industry embraces a more streamlined workflow, we can expect a significant increase in the use of technology that can be operated via hybrid cloud and on premises, ensuring maximum flexibility for customers and customers and strong compliance with ever-changing government regulations. within the insurance environment.

Artificial intelligence: Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping insurance companies develop systems that can perform tasks that previously required human intelligence and manual processing. With the advent of AI in the insurance industry, insurance agents can now rely on sophisticated systems for accuracy, efficiency, and seamless automation of existing customer service, underwriting, and claims processes. In the coming days, Artificial Intelligence will be more disruptive and will be used to identify and assess emerging risks.

Blockchain: The insurance sector is also focusing on Blockchain technology to power the future. Through its distributed ledger, smart contracts, and non-repudiation capabilities, it can act as a shared infrastructure that can transform multiple processes across the insurance value chain. Not only will it simplify paperwork and improve auditability, it will also help the insurance industry reduce expenses significantly. It will also reduce instances of valuables related to fraud. Some of the major life insurance players have already taken steps to experiment with blockchain-based solutions across the value chain. John Hancock, for example, is evaluating a proof of concept for employee rewards.

Predictive analytics with machine learning (ML): Using predictive analytics with ML, insurance companies can unlock the power of intelligence to process variables from complex data sources into relevant data for actionable insights. This would help them predict what might happen next and what the best decision should be. As far as the insurance industry is concerned, predictive consulting is offered to clients to facilitate 24-hour customer service.

Heavy reliance on IoT and Big Data: The insurance industry is a data-driven industry that generates countless data, both structured and unstructured. Therefore, insurance companies are counting on the Internet of Things to accumulate more and more data related to the behavior of their clients.

Big data analytics help insurers make crucial decisions based on the analysis of accumulated data. For example, data collected from wearable health devices allows insurers to monitor customer activity to offer discounts for customers’ healthy activities.

Go mobile to offer services on the go: With the increasing use of smartphones in both developed and emerging economies, the insurance industry is constantly implementing mobility as part of its business strategy. Through mobile apps, customers can easily request a policy quote, locate an insurance agent, calculate premium or retirement income, and store policy data. Insurers simply cannot ignore the benefits that mobile apps offer in brand building. With the increasing consumption of the Internet through mobile devices, customers can participate through social networks and other different modes of communication.

Offering innovative and personalized services through digital touchpoints: Customers in the insurance industry are motivated by multiple policies and their premiums, and the churn rate is high as they have multiple options to choose from. To retain their customers and build deep relationships with them, insurance companies are investing in customer engagement activities using various digital touchpoints such as web, mobile, social media, email, etc. For example, insurers are helping clients build and protect their assets, such as homes, vehicles, wealth, and health, often by partnering with other service providers. These digital services are provided by designing a digital strategy.

Automating Regulatory Compliance Requirements – As insurance is a highly regulated industry, insurance companies need to build regulatory compliance into their business processes. In addition, they need to quickly keep their processes compliant with new regulations as they are enacted. Automating regulatory compliance helps insurers with immediate access to information while ensuring processes are followed consistently, minimizing the risk of non-compliance. Automation also provides the information needed for reporting and documentation on a specific task performed. Modern systems facilitate regulatory automation while enabling change in regulatory compliance over legacy systems.

These were some trends that can act as a catalyst for the insurance company to work more efficiently and reach more customers.

It always makes more sense to spend a dime rather than a dollar, meaning to focus more on delighting and winning more customers and leave your IT concerns in the hands of a managed service provider, who understands your business and customer and has enough exposure to the domain specifically. . Do you feel the same? Let us know as we are one of the main IT services companies, dedicated to the insurance sector.