5 cool vendors for digital insurance platforms

Leaders at artificial intelligence and machine learning adoption

According to a new report from research firm Gartner Inc., ‘Cool Vendors’ in the insurtech space are making far more use of untapped internal data and external datasets than in the past. This is helping to reduce insurers’ reliance on poor-quality internal data and in some cases eliminating the need for internal data entirely. Further, “these insurance Cool Vendors are taking a much more targeted approach to the application of new and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence to the insurance value chain to provide insurance CIOs with clear return-on-investment metrics,” Gartner says.

Atidot

Based in Ramat Gan, Israel, and San Jose, CA (www.atidot.com)

“Atidot has developed a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that uses predictive analytics to provide more meaningful insights into life insurance companies’ data that supports actuarial, sales and risk management activities,” says Gartner analyst Laurie Shotton. “Insurance company data today is typically messy, unstructured and unreachable, and most insurers use only a small percentage of the data they capture. The Atidot offering seeks to change this by using ML and advanced analytics to identify and automatically tag an insurance company’s data. The insurer’s own data sources can then be connected with external sources (for data like interest rates, house prices, wealth information for neighborhoods and average salaries for job types). This makes it possible to spot trends and predict future activity that can inform decision making.”

Galaxy.AI

Based in Cambridge, MA (www.galaxy.ai)

“Galaxy.AI’s unique offering leverages artificial intelligence to help auto insurers with underwriting and claims related to vehicle damage,” explains Gartner analyst Kimberly Harris-Ferrante. “This application promises to transform the personal auto insurance process, improving both the customer experience and insurers’ operational efficiency in claims handling. Galaxy.AI provides a platform designed to transform the adjuster process. In the new process, customers conduct the first notice of loss in the traditional way, by contacting the insurer’s call center or using its website. The Galaxy.AI application then sends customers a responsive email link that enables them to submit images of the damaged vehicle and its vehicle identification number. All this is done without requiring customers to download a mobile app.”

PHR Plus

Based in Phoenix, AZ (www.phrplus.com)

“PHR Plus offers a SaaS-based personal health records platform that enables healthcare consumers to aggregate all their health and medical data in a single secure Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant location,” explains Gartner analyst Richard Thomas Natale. “Users can sync their medical records, lab results and pharmacy records — from hospital and clinic portals and other health provider sources — as well as data from fitness trackers and other devices with their PHR Plus accounts. They can then share this data with anyone they choose, including doctors, family members and health and life insurance companies. In return, they receive curated health and wellness content provided by PHR Plus partners like the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health — content that is personalized and matched to their individual profiles using ML algorithms. This highly personalized content can be delivered via news feed, email campaign or push notification.”

Traffk

Based in Los Angeles, CA (www.traffk.com)

“Traffk expands the universe of data points available to insurance carriers by providing them with access to more than 4,000 data points from private and public sources,” explains Gartner analyst Sham Gill. “Traffk primarily serves life lines of business, including annuity, critical illness, disability and workers’ compensation. The quantity and range of data that Traffk exposes are much higher than that typically maintained by insurance companies, including social determinants of health, telematics, and medication and lab results. Traffk provides a predictive analytics library to give each insurer the ability to use that data beyond traditional underwriting and customer acquisition analytics. The library includes prebuilt algorithms, mortality tables, claim prediction modules, indexes and other tools enable insurance actuaries to combine Traffk data with the insurer’s internal data to improve decision making.”

Zesty.ai

Based in Oakland, CA (www.zesty.ai)

“Zesty.ai focuses on providing data-driven solutions underpinned by AI that give insurance companies offering property insurance better access to property risk information,” explains Gartner analyst Sham Gill. “The company has developed its data service offering based on its view that only half the data required to accurately assess personal and commercial property insurance risk is captured at the application stage, most of it self-reported by the applicant. Zesty.ai creates layers of data covering property, place and people to create a more holistic picture of the risk that is to be insured. Zesty.ai uses multiple data sources for each layer to improve accuracy — for example, using satellite, drone and low flying-aircraft imagery to create a more complete geospatial image of a property. The company then augments this data with information from tax assessors’ reports, multiple listing services, building permits, utility bills, topographical maps, weather reports and views of vegetation and public infrastructure.”