Top 5 Q&As with insurance executives
December 27, 2023 5:32 AM
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
State Farm's in-house innovator has visions of insurtech's future
Jim Ryan, innovation executive at State Farm , is tasked with bringing fresh ideas to life at a 101-year-old company. Digital Insurance spoke with Ryan about State Farm's efforts to innovate in insurtech, how the partnership approach he had in telecom is useful, and the insurer's future plans.
"For the insurance industry, an existing business going through transformation is a very different thing. It's getting to understand the deep legacy of relationships, products, services and capabilities that are an existing business, and how important and vital those are. And how do you evolve those to be a new business, versus just breaking everything? You need to grow from where you are to where you're going, not just merely start something new."
"For the insurance industry, an existing business going through transformation is a very different thing. It's getting to understand the deep legacy of relationships, products, services and capabilities that are an existing business, and how important and vital those are. And how do you evolve those to be a new business, versus just breaking everything? You need to grow from where you are to where you're going, not just merely start something new."
Liberty Mutual distribution leader talks agent digital transformation
"Before the pandemic, independent agencies operated mostly in person.Carrier representatives did in-person agency visits. Customer expectations were shifting toward digital, so customer visits to agencies were becoming less frequent, but agencies still expected some in-person visits."
MassMutual matches AI with data science
Digital Insurance spoke with Sears Merritt, head of enterprise technology and experience at MassMutual. The carrier has been through the migration of legacy technologies to more up-to-date systems and unifying its customer experience.
Merritt works on simplifying and modernizing the customer experience, as well as building the carrier's digital capabilities for handling data. MassMutual harnesses AI, APIs and data science to manage data in a way that provides value for the firm.
Merritt works on simplifying and modernizing the customer experience, as well as building the carrier's digital capabilities for handling data. MassMutual harnesses AI, APIs and data science to manage data in a way that provides value for the firm.
How New York Life raised its customer service game
Digital Insurance spoke with Alex Cook, head of strategic capabilities at New York Life, on the life insurance company's initiatives to modernize the carrier's operations. One of these products is GuideMe, a platform for working with insurance customers to collect facts and to set goals for their life insurance coverage.
This unit of the company is also responsible for MyNYL, which simplifies and streamlines ongoing customer interaction such as changing coverage, paying premiums and making claims. Onboarding new life policyholders required New York Life to address a complicated health industry infrastructure when collecting health risk data, as Cook recalls.
This unit of the company is also responsible for MyNYL, which simplifies and streamlines ongoing customer interaction such as changing coverage, paying premiums and making claims. Onboarding new life policyholders required New York Life to address a complicated health industry infrastructure when collecting health risk data, as Cook recalls.
Munich Re looks to innovate in gamification
Digital Insurance spoke with Tony Laudato, vice president of marketing and combination products at Munich Re.
Laudato uses gamification, a marketing technique using games , to increase life insurance policyholder engagement. This greater engagement helps insurers influence policyholders' choices. Munich Re applies gamification of health and wellness to its life insurance coverage.