Technology, innovation and insight in insurance

Last week we held the innovation and insight event in Boston where we discussed creative disruption and emerging technologies and their effects on the insurance industry. Since coming back to the UK a few press releases and blog posts have caught my eye that feed well into this discussion. The first is from Robert Scoble, among other things a technology commentator and blogger. His post, 2012 brings a pause in the disruption sounds contradictory to our view but a quick read of his post provides a great view of the level of change we’ve seen in the last 8 years. Think back 8 years, to the phone you had, the way you interacted with the Internet – with the TV even. In the last 8 short years we’ve seen the birth of the social web, the rise of the smart phone, of apps (and their stores and markets), of gesture based interactions (the Wii and then Kinect were launched in this timescale) and now the IPO of facebook which launched in 2004. The pause in disruption points to a lack of jaw-dropping disruptive technology at the start of 2012 and a consolidation in the industry, a refining of these hugely disruptive themes into concrete business models and a maturing therein. I have to agree. CES 2012 saw bigger TV’s, TV’s with gesture control and further merging of mobile, tablet and laptop devices. Even Apple, the great innovator, presented the iPhone 4S as something they could ship in huge numbers rather than go for massive change. One technology I would watch is 3D printers, which are still gaining ground slowly but mostly in geek and maker communities – given another decade and cheaper prices I think this will seriously disrupt insurance and retail models. For now, we may be waving phones to make payments and having screens we can bend and see through – but consumer electronic developments in the last 12 months lack the technological disruption of past years. This pause is good news for the insurance industry in that makes this the perfect time to step back, take a look at the opportunities and possibilities these great waves of change have on our business models, our products and the way we interact with customers. Insurers across the globe have already made great strides in interacting with customers through social networks and understanding how to leverage them. Insurers are also experimenting with apps, mobile and connected devices. Telematics looks set to enter the mainstream in many markets, where the question is less how should we do it but now which method. It was interesting also to see these articles regarding AXA, repositioning it’s brand as innovative within the UK, making use of social technology and games to educate businesses on the value of insurance. Perhaps not the first insurer, but the articles are indicative of recent and continued investment in this theme from the insurance industry. The recent past - whether you call that 8 years, a decade, two decades – this short time has been an incredible period of change, insurers are already disrupting their industry and Celent contends there is no better time to review how the industry can leverage adoption of emerging technologies to creatively disrupt not only their internal perceptions and process, but the entire market.