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What might insurance look like?
22
sep
2020
The future of Insurance
New technologies and linked threats, the use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, creation of new products,… will have a significant impact on insurance companies. Are you interested in the trends that are currently developing in the insurance industry and how this will evolve in the coming years? Our colleague Matthieu wrote a great article about the future of insurance.
This article presents different scenarios describing the evolution of the insurance industry in the coming ten years. Our analysis focuses on the different trends that may have a significant long-term impact on the industry.
Pension and Healthcare
The European population will continue to grow older in the future. The number of active workers will therefore decrease in comparison with the number of inactive persons. Governments will no longer be able to assume the rising costs of social security, both in terms of pension and health care. This means that people and companies will come to rely on insurers to maintain their standard of living once they have retired.
A safer world thanks to new technologies
More and more technologies are being developed in the automotive industry, creating safer vehicles. As a result, the number of accidents will continue to decline. Likewise, the number of claims will follow the same downward trend.
This scenario also applies to other insurance products, such as home insurance. We can assume that our homes will be safer in the future thanks to these new technologies, making them less prone to all sorts of disasters.
The dark side of new technologies
As new technologies emerge, so do new types of risks. These types of risks are the most difficult for insurers to assess, as there are no conventions in place yet to measure their impact.
For example, cyber risk is an increasingly important issue for companies and individuals. Indeed, hackers are becoming increasingly inventive, allowing them to cause more damage.
Another example is the autonomous car. Individuals will no longer be liable in the event of an accident, but this risk will have to be assumed by the companies that provide such types of products and services.
Big data and AI impacts
Big data will have a massive impact on risk assessment and pricing. Indeed, if all data related to claims as well as to the insured are analysed, this could enable insurers to develop new risk assessment models. And therefore, insurers might offer more granularity in the products proposed to customers regarding their risk profile.
In addition, the development of the Internet of things and connected devices will greatly increase the amount of data available.
Furthermore, this type of analysis will be facilitated with the development of new technologies, especially the evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the sector.
New regulation on data and privacy
As has become apparent since the introduction of GDPR, new regulations are being put in place to provide a legal framework for privacy. It can be expected that the legislative powers will continue in this direction by producing new laws to regulate the use of private data. Companies will consequently have to deal with these new regulations and ensure that they are compliant.
Personalised product offer
Taking into account all these evolutions, we can expect an increase in the number of insurance products on offer. The challenge for insurers will be to tailor their offer to the customer. And for good reasons, people are increasingly solicited on all sides and they do not want to waste time making an in-depth comparative study for each product or service which they want to acquire. Companies must therefore strive to be as relevant as possible for each client.
Optimisation of distribution channels
Insurers must maintain all their distribution channels and optimize them at the same time. Indeed, each distribution channel reaches a target customer at a certain stage of the insurance product. The aim would therefore be to offer for each customer the relevant distribution channel when he needs it.
For example, a person might prefer to underwrite an insurance product through a broker but report a claim using an application.
Application Programming Interface’s impact
With Application Programming Interface, the insurance world will be able to open up, as it allows various players to share their mainframe in a secure manner.
On the one hand, insurers will be able to use the platform of other players, such as brokers, to offer their products. Furthermore, Insurers will be able to expand their presence by selling their insurance on websites that sell the insured products. This can be the case of a car sales website or a real estate sales website for example.
On the other hand, insurers will also be able to use their own platform to offer products of other companies. This is already the case in the banking sector where you can pay your parking meter with your banking application. In the same way, it might be possible to book a trip covered by your insurer, for example.
New opportunities
Rather than just covering claims, insurers may try to prevent these claims by offering new services and products. For instance, they could choose to seek out new services to enable an early diagnosis of a serious illness, or to develop a range of products and services to prevent a domestic accident.
Product offer diversification is profitable to insurers, as more and more new technologies will make it possible to prevent risks. The coverage of specific risks being precisely the core business for which they are well-known by their clients, insurers have a real legitimacy to sell this type of products. It is also an opportunity for them to offer a global package that includes insurance and prevention services.
Source
De Cuyper, H. (2019). A view on insurance in 2030. Consulted on https://www.financialforum.be/doc/doc/review/2019/bfw-digitaal-editie5-2019-1-artikel-decuyper.pdf
