The life insurance coverage and annuity trade proved resilient in 2021, even within the face of COVID-19 and the delta variant. I’m inspired by the superb scientific breakthroughs that created and distributed new vaccines so extensively, and I’m wanting ahead to a a lot brighter 2022. I’m additionally optimistic about the way forward for our trade. I consider digital transformation will speed up within the coming 12 months and we’ll witness expertise and human ingenuity working collectively to ship underwriting innovation.
When it involves life insurance coverage underwriting, it’s the underwriters themselves who’re the guts of human ingenuity. They are optimistic about their future and they’re embracing change. An Accenture Research survey of over 500 underwriters discovered that underwriters stay optimistic regardless of the tempo of change of their area. They are additionally passionate about technological advances in underwriting and their organizations’ use of these advances. The full outcomes of the examine might be popping out quickly, however you will get an early peek right here.
Our predictions for 2022 replicate this optimism as we pursue daring new advances in underwriting—advances that underwriters welcome and that expertise allows.
1. Underwriting might be on the middle of the client expertise dialog
Customer expertise will decide who wins the digital struggle for brand new enterprise and workforce expertise. People from all demographics are more and more snug doing enterprise digitally. That pattern is anticipated to proceed as AI, knowledge analytics and cognitive insurance coverage platforms simplify and enhance the client expertise for everybody. Today’s insurance coverage prospects count on a friction-free, in-the-moment expertise; they need self-service, however are open to advisory companies when wanted. The identical applies to the workforce expertise pool. Workers count on a friction-free expertise, whether or not they’re customer-facing or within the again workplace. The applied sciences they use should empower them to offer a really improved and reimagined insurance coverage expertise, not simply incremental “enterprise as traditional” enhancements.
2. AI-led underwriting leaders will draw back from the pack
Insurers that proceed to put money into synthetic intelligence (AI) will change into much more aggressive. Sixty-two % of insurers are investing in AI and almost half consider will probably be crucial to enterprise improvement over the subsequent three years, in keeping with the GlobalData Emerging Technology Trends Survey 2020. Some insurers are already utilizing AI to harness the huge portions of knowledge now obtainable to them from completely different sources, such because the well being and wellness sector. Using AI-processed knowledge, insurers can receive extra correct danger assessments and deeper insights into their shoppers. Those insights can then drive new differentiated product and repair improvements to market, concentrating on digitally savvy, on-line insurance coverage shoppers. But to get there, insurers should put money into digital core applied sciences that may allow them to connect with new third-generation underwriting platforms that benefit from AI and automation. All collectively, investing in AI will generate enterprise development by a greater expertise for underwriters, brokers and shoppers
3. Underwriting will contribute to insurers’ ESG packages
Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) is now mainstream, and corporations that put money into ESG get pleasure from each monetary and societal advantages. Accenture, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, discovered that organizations with deeply embedded sustainability administration practices outperform friends by 21 % on each profitability and optimistic environmental and societal outcomes. A separate examine by the U.S. SIF Foundation discovered that, as of 2020, ESG property account for 1/3 of whole U.S. property beneath skilled administration.
Life insurers have a task to play right here, notably with the convergence of well being and wealth underway in our trade. Underwriting expertise holds the ability and promise to supply protection to historically underserved and underinsured socio-economic segments. Through the moral use of AI and clear, bias-free predictive modeling, underwriting can play a key function in serving to the trade function sustainably and equitably.
Finally, there’s cloud expertise, which helps companies from all industries function extra sustainably by lowering carbon emissions in addition to prices. The cloud additionally offers underwriters with the computing energy required to benefit from the advances in knowledge analytics wanted to course of the explosion in knowledge sources.
I, too, am crammed with optimism as I see progress in our trade by expertise and human ingenuity. Let’s speak about attaining your future initiatives and focus on our soon-to-be-published underwriting analysis.
Get the most recent insurance coverage trade insights, information, and analysis delivered straight to your inbox.
