I had the pleasure of attending TINtech London Market this year and specificially the new innovation stage. Historically one might have wondered why have an innovation stage at a techonology event focused on the London Market - however, it is apparent that the market is innovating and the pace of technology change is increasing.
Before getting to the innovation stage and TINtech itself, perhaps it is worth spending a little time on what has been happening in the market. A few items have been dominating the London Market in recent months - Brexit is one of them (we'll leave that aside) and the other is the new target operating model or TOM program, details of which can be found here: https://tomsupports.london/ with an update from Shirine Khoury-Haq here: Time to take a breath. With TOM there has been a lot of effort to improve the market, to digitise old processes and to be more responsive to brokers and custoemrs. In addition to TOM, Lloyd's has opened a lab, now into it's second cohort of new firms looking to engage with and enable innovation in the market.
So plenty going on in the market - but many of you will be asking, "how was TINtech London Market?"
While there was an undercurrent of we're not moving fast enough (and for some participants in the market, we're not moving at all), there was an overwhelming sense that many participants in the market were doing something to drive technology adoption and innovation forward within the market. Those in the market see themselves as being behind other parts of the industry, and rightly so as some of our research has shown, but innovation, hackathons, new partnerships and new propositions are emerging.
So - to the innovation stage! As with some other events there were a range of speakers, each given 10 minutes on a topic. There was block chain, there was artificial intelligence (AI), there was Internet of Things (or Internet of Risks from one speaker), there was some cloud, there were APIs, there were digital enablers, there were brave demos that worked! All the right ingredients as you would expect. What you might not expect though were that these were relevant to the London Market, if not case studies from the market itself.
While TOM is looking at core processes it is clear participants in the London Market, be they broker, MGA, primary or reinsurer, they are all looking for means to differentiate. Some key topics emerged:
- The "how to" of fast technology delivery and trying things out was a hot topic.
- Data was a hot topic - whether it was structured data, business intelligence or AI and unstructured data.
- The eco-system - clearly the market is getting better integrated and more digitally integrated whether that is through block chain or other means new integrations are critical to future business
- Startups are now part of that eco-system in commercial insurance
- Not just tech startups selling to the insurance industry - but new tech-enabled starts as participants in the market
Some London Market events threaten to be a little like groundhog day, where last years topics are addressed again and again, with seemingly little change from year to year.
It was great to see the changes of 2018/2019 in the London Market highlighted and showcased.... and that things are finally starting to move forward.
Details about the event are available here: http://www.tintech-london-market.co.uk/