DIA Conference Demonstrates Continuing Trend of Maturing InsurTech and Maturing Insurers
Last week Jamie Macgregor and I had the good fortune of attending the Digital Insurance Agenda 2019 conference in Amsterdam. It was, as always, a large, busy, and fun conference. I’ll try to express the three days briefly here.
Four Waves of InsurTech
On day two Roger Peverelli opened the main conference with what he described as four waves of InsurTech.
Challengers
Enablers
Ecosystem
Purpose Reboot
In observing these as overlapping waves, rather than discrete, I think these phases neatly articulate how InsurTech was first perceived similarly to FinTech — with the emergence of disrupting challengers in the market. InsurTech shifted though, with a strong focus on collaboration with those in the insurance industry, characterised in Roger’s model as enablers. The natural evolution of a group of collaborators is for ecosystems to emerge, as we have seen in financial services more broadly and variously in insurance — a topic of our research here and in an upcoming report.
Finally Roger observed a wave focused around a “purpose reboot.” This one I found a little challenging as purpose lies at the heart of insurance. Insurance has always worked for a greater good since the rise of mutuals, the sharing of risk, and the sharing of fortune. I can think of many insurance propositions that are intended to change lives rather than fill shareholders' coffers, our model insurer winner in 2018 as an example. However, the new models, increased automation, and new ecosystems of enablers will certainly allow more propositions to come to market to better serve insurance customers. Time will tell how this “purpose reboot” might materialise.