The Top 10 InsurTech Trends for 2017 That Set the Digital Insurance Agenda

Image: Withings wearables.

The beginning of the year is usually the time to predict key trends for the year to come, and so it goes with the InsurTech sector as well. Most lists focus on the latest sexy technologies and applications, but after a year, we find these have hardly gained any traction, so cannot really be considered trends. To call something a key trend, new and innovative isn’t enough. It requires adoption at scale. We, therefore, decided to take a different approach, resulting in quite a different kind of list.

Being consultants for several blue chip insurers, speaking at conferences and attending boardroom meetings, we meet insurance executives on a daily basis. Consequently, we have a fairly good idea about what’s at the top of their agenda, as well as the pace in which change will take place, and in turn what InsurTech solutions are most likely to fit into those plans. These insights resulted in our Top 10 InsurTech Trends for 2017, illustrated by some awesome InsurTechs that joined us at the previous DIA event.

Trend 1 (continued). Massive cost savers in claims, operations and customer acquisition

This is already a major trend, of course, but one that will gain even more importance in 2017.

Quite a few insurers face combined ratios that are close to 100, or even exceed that number. Digitalizing current processes are absolutely necessary, for operational excellence and to cut costs. The digital transformation of insurance carriers started in 2015, really took off in 2016, and will be mainstream by 2017 and beyond. Virtually every insurer, big or small, that takes itself seriously will continue to look for ways to operate more efficiently in every major part of the costs column: in claims expenses, costs of operations and customer acquisition costs. Technology purchases and investments by insurance carriers will further explode in these areas, as will the number and growth of InsurTechs that cater to that need.

With OutShared's CynoClaim solution, more than 60 percent of all claims can be managed automatically, resulting in lower costs as well as increased customer satisfaction. Results of the first implementations: up to 50% decrease in costs, 40% increase in customer satisfaction. The solution takes six to nine months to implement, whether it is from scratch or a migration of established operations to the platform, which is quite spectacular in the insuran ...