Digital Platforms

As we emerge from the pandemic and look to the future, the case for cloud must be elevated beyond the limitations of IT savings, to how insurers can use it to address their biggest business challenges.

New methods, using artificial intelligence, ease the fraud detection burden and help insurance companies stay one step ahead.

In other news: Overhaul and Movingdots collaborate; Zurich Resilience Solutions adds DEI service; Vertafore names chief technology officer.

There’s little faith in the global economic recovery accelerating, with officials and business leaders citing climate change and rising social tensions, alongside the pandemic, among their top risks, the World Economic Forum found.

Digital Insurance spoke with Rand Harbert, chief agency, sales and marketing officer for State Farm about celebrating 100 years and its support of small businesses.

In 2021, only about 40% of claimants interacted with a claim estimator via digital channels and 47% made a claim using a website.

Ecosystems, sustainability and workforce transformation were the main topics of the EY 2022 Global Insurance Outlook, which comes out in January 2022. It’s important to understand how digital transformation is uniquely related to each of those topics.

In case you missed it, insurtech -- technology developed to improve and transform the insurance industry -- is having a bit of a moment. Forrester recently reported record-breaking funding for insurtechs, closing Q3 at $15 billion - more funding than in 2019 and 2020 combined - with more deals anticipated by the end-of-year.

Only 32% of 2,750 U.S. consumers surveyed by the company in fall 2021 had been offered telematics-based insurance, the company said. Of those that were offered, 49% took the offer, and 64% have stuck with it.

There are vital aspects of business that have virtually stagnated despite the high-tech breakthroughs all around them. In insurance, it’s easy to spot: the process for managing risk transfer still relies on technology better suited for the 20th Century. It’s time for an upgrade.

In 2021, the insurance industry reckoned with the broad impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Appropriately, 2022 will need to be the year that agencies and carriers pivot from reacting and surviving to implement new strategies for success.

Not only is digital technology changing but so is the regulatory landscape. Some U.S. states have passed laws that will lead the insurance industry to take a fresh look at technology such as Bluetooth and navigation because they capture significant amounts of personal information from drivers and occupants.

In other news: Chubb teams up with Betterfly in Latin America; Franklin Mutual partners with vipHomeLink; Aon announces last-mile insurance with CarrierHQ.

Digital Insurance spoke with Thomas Kang, the North American head of cyber technology and media for Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality about cyber insurance trends and challenges ahead for the industry.

Rackspace survey reveals how insurers are looking to operationalize cybersecurity in the digital era.

New research highlights the evolving role of the insurance industry from reimbursements to incentivizing to reduce risk and prevent losses altogether.

The transformation of consumer-focused technologies is forcing providers to adopt new tools to keep up. However, many of these tools are not built with user-friendly experiences that meet customer expectations, and therefore, they suffer from low engagement and adoption.

Today’s clients are looking for financial guidance and product recommendations that account for their entire financial lives. Unfortunately, because of legacy technology in place, most insurance advisors can’t credibly weigh in on the whole picture.

Arity, a mobility data and analytics company founded by Allstate in 2016, has made its nearly 100 million driving risk scores exclusively available on Transparent.ly, a platform for auto insurance marketers to leverage leads and target shoppers.

There are many important legal issues to consider when operating in the heavily regulated and ever-changing insurance ecosystem. Discussed are some of the key issues to consider when contracting, to demonstrate what is truly important and where insurtechs should focus, whether it concerns program administrator agreements or other types of partnership, master services, or marketing agreements.

Success demands an innovation-driven formula with four main components: speed, accuracy, scale and customer experience. To do this and change the economic equation, here are five efficiency strategies recommended by Verisk.

Nationwide’s Sarah Jacobs, vice president of personal lines product development, spoke with Digital Insurance about a recent survey on smart home devices and the future of IoT at Nationwide.

In other news: Zurich releases cyber risk survey results; Hertz and Uber to add 50,000 Teslas to network; Amica selects Shift Technology.

Keynova Group, a financial services intelligence firm specializing in benchmark insights, released its 2021 Small Commercial Insurance Scorecard report, which evaluates the small commercial insurance digital capabilities of the 10 largest U.S. carriers.

About four in 10 executives cited technology as their company’s greatest challenge, twice as many as in 2019, according to a new survey from LIMRA and Boston Consulting Group.

That’s the takeaway from an Aon Plc survey of 2,344 risk managers, chief risk officers and chief financial officers conducted in the second quarter. Cyber attacks were the No. 1 most-cited hazard, and more than half of the Top 10 risks executives say they face today are tied to the pandemic, according to survey results released Tuesday.

Insurance blockchain working group The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative has partnered with Trustlayer to build out an insurance verification proof of concept.

Deciding which transformation initiatives to tackle first should involve a careful examination of the dysfunction, importance and level of change resistance expected among stakeholders of any process that may be impacted.

The number of cyber insurance claims AGCS has seen has increased in the past few years, following along with general cyber risk trends. In 2020, the company received more than 1,000 in total, compared to 80 in 2016. This trend has continued into 2021.

Digital Insurance spoke with Maroun Mourad, president of global underwriting and leader of the life unit at Verisk about life insurance technology and what’s ahead for the industry.

In other news: Algorithm calculates number of good health years; Hiro rebrands to Locket; Alliant launches diversity initiative.

Microsoft 365 customers are eligible for discounts on At-Bay cyber insurance if certain security controls are implemented like multifactor authentication and Microsoft Defender.

In other news: Allstate closes $400M sale of New York life, annuity business; USAA partners with Blink by Chubb; Zurich North America implements Chisel AI.

Globally, 72% of respondents said they would share some personal data with their insurer but when broken down by gender, only 68% of women and 75% of men said they would share.

Haven Technologies will make the platform behind MassMutal’s Haven Life available as a software-as-a-service insurtech.

Honda’s vision of how people will work, travel and spend leisure time in the future will help expand its business beyond cars, lawn mowers and motorcycles. The efforts are a key component of Honda’s “2030 Vision” to broaden the definition of mobility and to improve peoples’ daily lives.

As regulators and insurers work to understand the level of regulatory oversight that is needed for AI innovation, there is a path forward by looking to the recent past. The massive 2015 breach of Anthem’s customer data was a catalyst moment for insurance regulators and led to the Insurance Data Security Model Law now being adopted across the U.S. In this piece, former insurance regulator Jillian Froment lays out five core goals common to AI and cybersecurity that could accelerate the adoption of AI regulation.

In other news: Amerisure implements One Inc ClaimsPay tech; California drivers report distracted driving is getting worse; HSB adds social media income to home cyber protection.

“Spot,” created by Boston Dynamics, known for its viral robot videos, and customized for Farmers, a P&C insurer, is the first collaboration of its kind.

In other news: Hippo launches Builders Program; handdii wins the 2021 ACORD Insurtech Innovation Challenge New York; Blockchain-backed title insurance launches in five states.

Many insurers are focused on ransomware risk protection even though other new vulnerabilities are emerging from remote work. Recent statistics point to a troubling increase in ransomware and phishing, web application attacks and other emerging cybercrime tactics.

A new report, IT’s Changing Mandate in an Age of Disruption conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, supported by Appian, suggests that to continue with various digital transformations and increase adaptability for the future, some IT improvements must be made.

Chief executives from across the business world are set to join President Joe Biden for a discussion Wednesday on how industry and the federal government can partner to improve cybersecurity in the face of debilitating ransomware and cyberattacks.

Future automobiles will likely need to include passive technology to monitor for driving under the influence and automatic emergency braking.

With cyberattacks on the rise and demand for coverage surging, the $3 billion industry of protecting companies against hackers is at an inflection point.

A trove of company data was stolen, and CNA officials were locked out of their network, according to sources.

Also: Lemonade adds life insurance with Bestow

Celent finds the two most important corporate goals impacting 2021 tech plans are growth and process optimization.

Cybersecurity is top priority for the life insurer, says tech leader.

Laura Deaner joins the company from S&P Global.

Emerging consumer attitudes toward privacy threaten to overturn long-standing industry assumptions about customer data and personalization.

With the growing vulnerabilities and uncertainty of our highly globalized and connected world, actions in one place can spread rapidly to have global effects.