ITIC Global 2021: InsurTech innovation and leadership

Rana started with a very direct statement: “Most of the industry translated away from analogue into a digital environment pretty quickly.” Increased digital adoption, changes in mobility patterns and purchasing, and awareness of health are key changes in customer behaviour.

Increasing digitisation has been recognised as one of the most promising directions for InsurTech, but Rana stated that Covid has accelerated the use of intelligent automation and cyber proposals, such as end-to-end automation and self-service portals, underwriting teams supplemented by technology, and hyper personalised products: “Whereas insurtech was seen as a shining new toy, now they’re seen as partners accelerating the digitisation of their services.”

To support this, Rana predicted a greater focus on hiring seasoned insurance domain experts: “That additional knowledge and inside track is making a real difference to the propositions these guys are putting on there. It’s more about addressing challenges and insurers scouting for specific insurtechs to solve specific problems. This is a big change.”

However, Rana stated: “Digitisation the old way isn’t really becoming digital, it’s putting a veneer on the old form”, and anticipated 50-60 per cent of organisations are going to be using low code-no code platforms, including FintechOS’ Sunglow.

FintechOS’ Wishart and Harrison ran through the low-code customer journey of Sunglow to complete a loan application, holiday booking, and insurance. Not only has data and automation smoothed the process, but it also is able to feed the customer further options based on their choices and data.

However, Koala Insurance’s Pradhan outlined Koala’s no-questions-asked automated compensation and claims system, particularly with regards to standard occurrences such as missed connections or cancelled flights. Pradhan cautioned: “The simplicity of our products is judged by how easily we can describe it to our customers […] It’s very easy to say we want to digitise the insurance process. But from the end customer’s experience, sometimes it’s still below their expectations. The most important moment is at the time of claims – that defines how good insurance is. Let’s focus on things we’re good at and solve problems individually.”