You should already be on your digital journey
‘If Elon Musk offered ‘Tesla-as-a-service’ to the market providing a car on demand that you didn’t have to drive, park, or maintain, at a fraction of the price of owning an automobile – how many people would take him up on that offer?’
This was the question that greeted the audience at InsurTech Rising in London from Maarten Ectors, chief digital officer, GI, Legal and General. Unsurprisingly, most of the audience raised their hands.
“That means car insurance, as a product, will disappear in five years,” he responded.
Change is happening, in other industries and in other markets, which will have a profound effect on society and the consumer and commercial words. Not realising the impact these societal changes will have on insurance leaves the industry at risk of “leaving the door open to a digital native that will take over,” adds Ectors.
For insurance as an industry to survive and thrive today the “other 98%” need to be brought into the digital journey as well.
The digital future and extracting value from the innovation journey was the theme of the morning at InsurTech Rising in London. Figuring out how best to deal with and manage that digital journey was the topic of most of the comment during the various panels and presentations.
Ralf Dreischmeier, senior partner & managing director, Global Leader Technology Advantage Practice, Boston Consulting Group opened the talks with the hope that “that everyone in the audience had started their digital journey already.”
Julian Teicke, founder and CEO of InsurTech startup wefox described a future world where we embed microchips into our new born babies – by choice – in order to monitor for their own health and safety.
While there are many inroads and strategies traditional firms use to embark on that digital journey, Dreischmeier warns that the trend for creating internal incubators and innovation labs “are great, but those alone will not make you a digital player.” For insurance as an industry to survive and thrive today the “other 98%” need to be brought into the digital journey as well.
It is in this ‘legacy layer’ that Helene Stanway, digital leader, XL Catlin argues is ripe with quality data that can be better used by the insurance sector and InsurTech entrants alike. “You need the old world and the new world to work together,” she argues.
Stanway’s argument is not without examples. Her company XL Catlin plans to use a blockchain-based marine insurance platform built by EY, data security firm Guardtime, Microsoft and ship operator Maersk. Broker A.P. Moller-Maersk, which was part of a 20-week trial of the platform, also plans to start using it for some areas of its business, along with insurers MS Amlin and XL Catlin starting in January 2018.
While the morning at InsurTech Rising starting with asking the audience if they would use a ‘Tesla-as-a-service’ car platform (sign me up) the morning ended with Julian Teicke, founder and CEO of InsurTech startup wefox describing a future world where we embed microchips into our new born babies – by choice – in order to monitor for their own health and safety. Because of the very real possibility of this future, Teicke argues that “at the meta-level” all data will be owned by the consumer.
“Today, all of the data we offer we do so by choice,” he says “The data we share in the future will be unconscious data.”
Since all of this conscious and unconscious data will be owned by individuals, “no privately owned company will own that data. An independent body, based on decentralised tech, will govern that data,” predicts Teicke. The debate on the formation of this future, global, independent governing body for all of our data was left on the floor for a debate on another day.
Most of the speakers this morning at InsurTech Rising offering their final thoughts on how insurance companies and new entrants can deal with coming changes in customer demands, advanced technology and unconscious data.
“What we need is a culture that is open to persona growth. Don’t judge youth for being naive. Don’t judge old for being risk adverse,” says Teicke.
Ectors, who points to technology powerhouses such as Amazon for inspiration, says that insurance needs to get to a point where “we launch a new product every day.” In order to do that the industry needs to foster a work environment where experimentation and failure are not only tolerated, but welcomed.
The global impact for advancement and innovation in insurance are huge. Hassan El-Shabrawishi, group chief innovation officer, AXA leaves the audience with a reminder, that while in places like London most people have bought insurance products, “there are billions of people out there who have never brought an insurance product.”
