Celent Executive Roundtable

From the pandemic to an inflationary world to climate change to decreases in life expectancy, the world of insurance is changing rapidly. This year brought raging wildfires, a rare west coast hurricane, and a resurgence of new strains of COVID. In addition, the regulatory environment continues to be more complicated, particularly with the surge of generative AI technology and discomfort on how it should be regulated. This Executive Roundtable will follow the Celent Previsory model of predicting the big things for 2024, in the form of panel discussions focused on specific areas of investment.

This event is open only to members of Celent's North America Insurance Executive Panel, an exclusive group of executives from insurance carriers. If you are an insurer in North America and are interested in participating, please email kcarnahan@celent.com to verify eligibility.

This agenda is tentative and subject to change:

8:30 – 9:00 Coffee and continental breakfast

9:00: Welcome and introductions - Karlyn Carnahan, Head, North America Insurance, Celent

9:15 – 10:00 – The Future Looks Bright – a Look at the Insurance Industry in 2024

Massive changes are occurring at insurers. From new products, new channels, rapidly chanaging technologies, and a changing workforce, insurers need to move quickly. And everything impacts IT. We'll dig into the "future of IT work” and how leadership needs to be thinking, preparing and adjusting to some of these changes.

Speakers:
Karlyn Carnahan, Head, North America Insurance, Celent

Paul Ricard, Partner, Oliver Wyman

10:00 – 11:00 – Journey to the Cloud - Why? How? and When?

Only a few years back, many insurers thought of the cloud as a place to deploy some point solutions, and to store large amounts of data. Today it’s a challenge finding insurers who do not have a plan to move “everything” to the cloud. What accounts for this change? How does an insurer prioritize the order in which core systems, data/analytics, and IT development are done in the cloud? What kind of financial and operation analyses support these decisions? Our panelists will discuss these and related questions.

Moderator:

Donald Light, Director, Celent

Panelists:

Murali Natarajan, SVP and CIO, West Bend Insurance

11:00 – 12:00 – Data, Data Everywhere – Now Let’s Use It

The hottest topic of 2023 was Generative AI. GenAI even introduced a new term into the AI lexicon – hallucinations. No industry has more data about their customers than the insurance industry. From their cars to their homes to their medical history, insurers leverage this data for underwriting and claims. But is it enough? In this session, the panelists will discuss unique, untapped areas for the use of data, including novel uses within their own company.

Moderator:

Andrew Schwartz, Analyst, Celent

Panelists:

Rich Pluschau, Chief Information Officer, Falcon Risk Services

Bob Pick, EVP and Chief Information Officer, Tokio Marine NA, Group Deputy CITO at Tokio Marine Group

12:00 – 12:45 – Lunch

12:45 – 1:45 – How Can We All Have a Unique Customer Experience - Together

The insurance industry has focused on the customer experience for many years. The big question is whether it really improved and, more importantly, did it generate more revenue or save on expenses. The horror stories of failed investments are legion, but successes are rarely as public. In this session, we’ll hear real world stories about how companies have invested, including the pitfalls along the way.

Moderator:

Nate Golia, Senior Analyst, Celent

Panelists:

Jeremiah Bentley, Chief Marketing Officer, Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Callie Thomas, Chief Administrative Officer and Co-Founder, Joyn

1:45 – 2:45 – Regulation in a Changing World

Regulation for AI is coming at insurers from many sources. The National Institute for Technology Standards (NIST), The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and the federal and individual state governments are all weighing in. Insurers don’t have a clear direction for AI governance and accountability, but that is going to change. Insurance regulators have to keep up with technology to properly regulate the industry. Beyond good business practices, regulation edges into ethical dilemmas as well – as it should. This session will be a free-form discussion of AI regulation and the impact it has on insurers today and how it will impact the future especially in areas that are so new that collectively we are not even sure of the implications yet. From ChatGPT to fluidless underwriting, the environment is changing, and insurers need to adapt.

Moderator:

Keith Raymond , Principal Analyst, Celent

Panelists:

Peter Gianusso, CTO, CSAA

Rick Borden, Cybersecurity and Privacy Partner, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

3:00 – 4:00 – Beyond Portals: Unlocking Digital Agent Effectiveness

Insurance distribution is at a crossroads: While online and digital buying are dominant in other industries and increasingly popular in insurance, the complexity of products means that agents still play a key role – especially with higher-priced policies for higher-value customers. However, the digital infrastructure that links carriers to agencies to policyholders is defined by legacy processes and band-aid solutions that aren’t available at scale. We’ll discuss where to invest to deliver a new vision of the agent workflow that ensures competitively priced products are matched with the risks that require them.

Moderator:

Karen Monks, Principal Analyst, Celent

Panelists:

Abel Travis, SVP Affiliate Operations, Brotherhood Mutual

Darryl Siry, COO and CTO, Cover Whale

4:00: Closing Thoughts

Karlyn Carnahan, Head, North America Insurance, Celent