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Insurance innovation labs, a failed experiment
Despite significant investments made insurance innovation labs have largely failed to deliver impact beyond positive initial PR stories. Why is that the case and how can it be fixed? Recent years has seen insurance industry leaders globally waking up to reality that the dream of industry being insulated from the digital revolution sweeping across many other industries was just that, a dream. With a heavy baggage of legacy IT systems and rigid corporate cultures, incumbents found themselves in a tough situation. What’s the best way to prepare for upcoming disruption without meantime hurting your existing business. Innovation labs appeared, at least initially, like a perfect answer. In-house innovation that brings the right ingredients to allow for a safe digital experimentation without causing disruption to the existing businesses. The expectation was that innovation labs would become a quasi-startups that would allow insurers to build digital and innovation capabilities to safeguard against the coming digital disruption.
Insurance innovation labs, a failed experiment
Despite significant investments made insurance innovation labs have largely failed to deliver impact beyond positive initial PR stories. Why is that the case and how can it be fixed? Recent years has seen insurance industry leaders globally waking up to reality that the dream of industry being insulated from the digital revolution sweeping across many other industries was just that, a dream. With a heavy baggage of legacy IT systems and rigid corporate cultures, incumbents found themselves in a tough situation. What’s the best way to prepare for upcoming disruption without meantime hurting your existing business. Innovation labs appeared, at least initially, like a perfect answer. In-house innovation that brings the right ingredients to allow for a safe digital experimentation without causing disruption to the existing businesses. The expectation was that innovation labs would become a quasi-startups that would allow insurers to build digital and innovation capabilities to safeguard against the coming digital disruption.
Driving insurance transformation with strategy-aligned M&A
Disruption is shaking the fundamentals of the insurance industry. This is true structural change, not just a cycle. New technologies, new competitors, new markets, new
regulations, and changing consumer behaviours are all creating tremendous opportunities, and posing significant risk to the legacy insurance business model. To succeed in this dynamic environment, organisations are reevaluating their portfolio of business and rationalising their global footprint to strategically determine “where
to play” and “how to win” in the future. One of the immediate consequences of this trend is the expected rise in deal activity in the global insurance industry.
Can insurers deliver more value to customers?
From tracking drivers’ braking behaviour, to installing wearable devices on factory workers, to funding medical advice mobile apps, many insurance companies are trying to become more present in their customers’ lives. They know that earning greater loyalty will require interacting more with their customers and delivering more value as well. Insurers are finally paying attention to this customer-centric approach as an alternative to the traditional internal focus on products, agents, and in-year financial considerations.
Hong Kong insurers brace for a new regulatory regime from this year
The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance in Hong Kong will be replaced by the Independent Insurance Authority from June 26 . What changes can the insurance industry expect?
LIA Singapore's president Patrick Teow talks of the worrisome protection gap in the city
Teow eyes bridging the US$330b protection gap and increasing collaborations amongst stakeholders.
Breaking the analytics code in insurance
With rapid and revolutionary transformations in business-customer interaction across the globe, private customer data is now considered the insurer’s digital goldmine. Asian insurers, traditional they may be, are finally catching up to the analytics game. Enhanced online customer engagement is slowly eliminating countless piles of feedback forms as businesses make it their primary aim to digitally collect and manage private and precious customer data.
Policy holders of risk and life insurance unsatisfied
In the year 2016, satisfaction amongst risk and life insurance policy holders was 67.4%, down from 68.8% in 2015, and still lower than that of all other major insurance types. Less than one in four (23.9%) risk and life policyholders were “very satisfied” with their insurance companies. These are the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey of over 50,000 consumers, which includes detailed coverage of over 9,000 risk and life insurance policy holders.
Seven tech trends in insurance
If property & casualty (P&C) insurers want to dominate the industry in the coming years, then part of their game plan should involve becoming a trailblazer in digital technology. Bain & Company believes a billion-dollar opportunity exists in digital innovations, but only firms that lead the pack will likely reap the full benefits while laggards will be left to pick up the crumbs.
High protection gap in emerging Asia
The world was devastated by 327 disasters in 2016, 191 of which were natural catastrophes and 136 man-made ones. According to a recent report by Swiss Re, economic losses from these disasters totalled US$175b, almost double the level in 2015. Asia’s economic losses of US$83b in 2016 was the highest in the world.
Where are the drones in insurance?
Are wearables the closest thing to drones in the insurance sector?
Insurtech investment set to skyrocket in Asia Pacific till 2019
Rising margin pressure will compel insurance companies to join the insurtech race.
Going Digital
Talks of digitalisation has dominated the financial services industry, and the insurance sector is no exception. A survey by Willis Towers Watson reveals that an increasing number of insurers now regard investment in digitalisation a priority, especially after the sector has lagged behind its financial services peers in adopting digital technologies due to regulations, reluctance, and cost.
Emergence of the InsurTech ecosystem in Asia
2016 has been officially been declared the year of InsurTech. The marriage of insurance and technology infused with entrepreneurial energy, InsurTech is attracting significant investments from the likes of sophisticated VCs who founded the new economy players like AirBnB and Uber.
From hype to reality: Examining the industry's ‘transformation'
Rather than consider the many exciting, and often challenging, technology-enabled developments that lie ahead, I thought for this article I would take a slight different tack. So let’s instead take a look at the reality of our industry from the perspective of where most insurers are today, and against that backdrop, what insurers can do to change.
The future of insurance in a digital world
Disruptive innovation is amongst the most referenced but least predictable trends to impact the insurance industry in a generation and it remains a pervasive challenge for many in this regulated industry. When surveying the insurance landscape across Asia, three key trends continue to play a significant role, leading innovations in theinsurer’s value chain.
Insurance trends in Asia
Customer Centricity and Technology remain the two key themes as the Insurance sector continues to seek growth amidst margin pressures, regulatory demands, and savvy customers in Asia.
How AI is changing the insurance industry
Insurers are beginning to explore the use of AI.
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Industry executives at Insurance Asia Forum 2024 push the digital mindset in developing an efficient ecosystem.
