The sessions, held between June 5 and 6, 2023, include
Dig-In 2023 panelists discuss insurance digital transformation
Published June 14, 2023 11:50 AM
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Updated June 14, 2023 11:50 AM
1 Min Read
Case Study: New York Life (NYL) and Virtusa
In a case study session held on June 5, 2023, by New York Life's (NYL) Betty Smith, CIO of Foundational Insurance Business, and Virtusa's Ganesh Iyer, EVP and SBU head of Insurance, the panelists discussed how their partnership and digital transformation have impacted and accelerated NYL's operations.
Smith says, "We had a big challenge as we started our digital transformation, we had started looking really at how are we going to modernize our front-end systems to meet those expectations on the experience for our customers, on the interactions between us and our customers… When we started to look again at how are we going to efficiently simplify our ecosystem, have these connections from our front-end systems to back-end systems, there was a pretty big void in terms of creating and scaling for an effective and efficient integration layer. …"
One significant achievement was the design and implementation of a microservices-powered platform that supports various aspects of NYL's insurance and business divisions. This unified platform has enabled NYL to streamline processes, improve operational efficiency and respond more effectively to market demands.
Another crucial aspect of the insurer's digital transformation journey involved the implementation of a reusable master data governance platform. By addressing data quality issues, this platform has enhanced data accuracy and consistency across NYL's operation – enabling better decision-making and a more comprehensive understanding of the insurance landscape.
Smith says, "We had a big challenge as we started our digital transformation, we had started looking really at how are we going to modernize our front-end systems to meet those expectations on the experience for our customers, on the interactions between us and our customers… When we started to look again at how are we going to efficiently simplify our ecosystem, have these connections from our front-end systems to back-end systems, there was a pretty big void in terms of creating and scaling for an effective and efficient integration layer. …"
One significant achievement was the design and implementation of a microservices-powered platform that supports various aspects of NYL's insurance and business divisions. This unified platform has enabled NYL to streamline processes, improve operational efficiency and respond more effectively to market demands.
Another crucial aspect of the insurer's digital transformation journey involved the implementation of a reusable master data governance platform. By addressing data quality issues, this platform has enhanced data accuracy and consistency across NYL's operation – enabling better decision-making and a more comprehensive understanding of the insurance landscape.
Next-Generation Underwriting for Property Climate Risk
The session, "Next-Generation Underwriting for Property Climate Risk," held on June 6, 2023 included Cory Isaacson, CEO of reThought Insurance Corporation, and Valerie Turpin, head of US Property at Arch Insurance . It focused on the impacts of climate change on property catastrophe risk, and how traditional underwriting methods may not be sufficient to address the changing dynamics brought on by changing climate events. The session emphasized the importance of data and digital tools like AI in underwriting, though traditional catastrophe models are important as well.
Turpin says, "...without AI, it's impossible for an underwriter to assess how much each piece of the data will be critical to the assessment of the risk, how to rate them and how to translate all of that into an actionable decision… but there are [many] more components… and those components are not captured in the models, and this is where underwriting needs to keep an open mindset and knowledge…"
Turpin explains that the complexities of risk assessment cannot always be captured by AI underwriting capabilities, with state regulations and the legal environment, or the impacts and consequences of an initial nat cat event, such as how a mudslide can occur after a wildfire due to the soil conditions.
Isaacson also discusses the flexibility of underwriting and the importance of data in assessing climate risk. "Data is incredibly important…it takes incredibly granular data. But there's all kinds of things we take into account; it can be past weather, it can be what the models are telling us, it can be satellite imagery… There are hundreds of attributes, and the problem about this is that an underwriter can't possibly evaluate hundreds of attributes on every single building... we want to prepare the data in such a way that an underwriter can make a valid decision and have it be an informed decision."
Turpin says, "...without AI, it's impossible for an underwriter to assess how much each piece of the data will be critical to the assessment of the risk, how to rate them and how to translate all of that into an actionable decision… but there are [many] more components… and those components are not captured in the models, and this is where underwriting needs to keep an open mindset and knowledge…"
Turpin explains that the complexities of risk assessment cannot always be captured by AI underwriting capabilities, with state regulations and the legal environment, or the impacts and consequences of an initial nat cat event, such as how a mudslide can occur after a wildfire due to the soil conditions.
Isaacson also discusses the flexibility of underwriting and the importance of data in assessing climate risk. "Data is incredibly important…it takes incredibly granular data. But there's all kinds of things we take into account; it can be past weather, it can be what the models are telling us, it can be satellite imagery… There are hundreds of attributes, and the problem about this is that an underwriter can't possibly evaluate hundreds of attributes on every single building... we want to prepare the data in such a way that an underwriter can make a valid decision and have it be an informed decision."
Optimizing Talent to Accelerate the Path to Profitability
Panelists in "Optimizing Talent to Accelerate the Path to Profitability," held on June 5, 2023, discussed how insurers can address the trends impacting the insurance industry in the current post-Covid era. Some of the topics highlighted in the session included talent retention and the retirement of baby-boomers from the workforce, decreasing employee engagement and the challenges of hybrid or remote workplaces.
In a discussion of attracting new talent with transferable skills, Peilin Corbanese, vice president of Analytics Life Insurance at EXL, suggests that employers re-assess their staff in order to determine whether they currently have the talent to drive innovation.
Corbanese says, "...if your organization's ready to improve, to change, to transform, then it's time to think through how you want to optimize your talent… You need to think about switching off the portion of your workforce that isn't the best for the future and bring in people that want to learn new things, such as generative AI, and move your company's data into something that generative AI can help you with and think of the solutions."
The panel discussion provided insights into these trends and offered solutions for organizations to address these challenges. By rethinking talent acquisition, engagement and retention strategies, companies can position themselves for profitability and gain a competitive edge.
In a discussion of attracting new talent with transferable skills, Peilin Corbanese, vice president of Analytics Life Insurance at EXL, suggests that employers re-assess their staff in order to determine whether they currently have the talent to drive innovation.
Corbanese says, "...if your organization's ready to improve, to change, to transform, then it's time to think through how you want to optimize your talent… You need to think about switching off the portion of your workforce that isn't the best for the future and bring in people that want to learn new things, such as generative AI, and move your company's data into something that generative AI can help you with and think of the solutions."
The panel discussion provided insights into these trends and offered solutions for organizations to address these challenges. By rethinking talent acquisition, engagement and retention strategies, companies can position themselves for profitability and gain a competitive edge.
