保険エグゼクティブ・ラウンドテーブルのハイライト

We recently held our first insurance executive roundtable event of the year, at our offices in New York. In attendance were 35 executives from the P&C and Life insurance industry representing business and technology functions across a landscape of large and small carriers as well as MGAs.

It was a highly interactive and informative day consisting of 6 panel discussions:

1. The Future Looks Bright – a Look at the Insurance Industry in 2024
2. Beyond Portals: Unlocking Digital Agent Effectiveness
3. How Can We All Have a Unique Customer Experience -Together
4. Journey to the Cloud –Why, How, And When
5. Data, Data Everywhere –Now Let’s Use It
6. Regulation in a Changing World

A common thread throughout the day was Generative AI which managed to sneak its way into almost every discussion. Who said data regulation in insurance was boring? It was one the hottest discussion topics of the day and a true wake up call for us all!

1.The Future Looks Bright – a Look at the Insurance Industry in 2024

Moderator: Karlyn Carnahan - Head, North America Insurance

Panelists: Alison Flint - Principal, Oliver Wyman

Paul Ricard- Partner-Oliver Wyman

Paul Ricard and Alison Flint from Oliver Wyman kicked off the discussions, commenting on the industry's increasing focus on efficiency and optimization, as well as the growing recognition of the value of employees and talent. The role of IT was also discussed, with a shift from being an order taker to playing a more strategic role in transforming the business through technology. Key to this was the importance of IT representation at the board level. The concept of citizen developers was seen as positive in the realm of data analytics, with self-service platforms helping to democratize data access. However, opinions were divided on the use of low code/no code technology, with some questioning its applicability beyond smaller more tactical projects. However, it was recognized that Generative AI may help fuel further adoption of low code/no code applications.

2.Beyond Portals: Unlocking Digital Agent Effectiveness

Moderator: Karen Monks - Principal Analyst, Celent

Panelists: Abel Travis - SVP Affiliate Operations, Brotherhood Mutual

Darryl Siry - COO and CTO, Cover Whale

In this session Abel Travis from Brotherhood Mutual and Darryl Siry from Cover Whale shared their experiences and insights on Agency system transformation. Darryl highlighted their focus on 100% automation with little to no underwriter involvement. Their rules-based platform has enabled them to increase speed of quote on a traditionally complex business line - Auto Liability for Trucks. Their willingness to accept a lower hit ratio is compensated by their ability to efficiently process more submissions and significantly improve the agent experience. Abel, emphasized the importance of self-service capabilities which he felt are still not the norm in this industry, but he cautioned against rolling out technology without adequate agent training, involvement and buy in. Cybersecurity risks through APIs were addressed, with the suggestion of applying API standards to all technology partners. If given unlimited funds, the participants expressed a desire to invest in better prefill abilities using 3^rd Party data, and more use of AI to detect potential issues before bind.

3.How Can We All Have a Unique Customer Experience - Together

Moderator: Nate Golia - Senior Analyst, Celent

Panelists: Jeremiah Bentley - Chief Marketing Officer, Texas Mutual Insurance

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

Our panelists represented two very different types of businesses with slightly different focus areas for Customer Experience. Callie Thomas from Joyn, a startup digital MGA focusing on middle market commercial insurance, emphasized the importance of making the brokers' lives easier and improving their experience. To this end, Joyn has focused on automation to issue policies shortly after bind, and to promptly communicate receipt of submissions and out-of-appetite decisions back to the broker. Jeremiah Bentley from Texas Mutual, a Workers Compensation Insurer, highlighted their definition of the customer as the policy holder and their heavy focus on Workers Compensation related tools and services to enhance the customers user experience. Both speakers expressed excitement on the implications of GenAI for customer experience, particularly in the form of co-pilot tools that provide real-time sentiment and behavioral analysis using call-center data and claim adjustor communications.

4.Journey to the Cloud – Why, How, And When

Moderator: Donald Light - Director, Celent

Panelists: Murali Natarajan - SVP and CIO, West Bend Insurance

Bryan Fowler - CIO RLI Insurance

During the panel discussion, Murali Natarajan from West Bend Mutual and Bryan Fowler from RLI Insurance shared their experiences with cloud migration. Murali discussed their journey, starting with migrating their insurance core system to the cloud, followed by the data center and homegrown applications. He described his overall vision as starting with infrastructure as a Service, moving to serverless Platform as a Service (cloud native applications) and long-term ambition to be truly cloud agnostic. Bryan highlighted their migration of the core system to the cloud and the development of an API experience layer, allowing for quick development of composable cloud-based solutions using both internal and third-party insurtech solutions. The panelists shared lessons learned which included the criticality of financial operations (FINOPS) for managing cloud service costs and the use of Mainframe as a Service as a cost-effective solution for managing, modernizing and migrating on-premises mainframe applications to the cloud.

5.Data, Data Everywhere – Now Let’s Use It

Moderator: Andrew Schwartz – Senior Analyst, Celent

Panelists: Rich Pluschau - Chief Information Officer, Falcon Risk Services

Bob Pick - EVP and Chief Information Officer, Tokio Marine NA

In a lively discussion, Bob Pick from Tokio Marine and Rich Pluschau from Falcon Risk Services discussed data challenges and opportunities within their organizations. As expected, there was a lot of discussion about GenAI and the regulatory environment for AI. While they were excited about the prospects of GenAI, they cautioned that it is not yet ready for ”primetime”. They saw a lot of value in using it for advisory summarization, copilot, chatbot and training type use cases, but not for critical decision making, not yet anyway. There was concern about the potential for hallucinations and misuse of GenAI for nefarious purposes. Despite this, the panelists recognized that GenAI is rapidly evolving and will soon impact every role within organizations. They advised being open to change, educating oneself, and being prepared to incorporate and take advantage of this powerful technology. On discussing the latest NAIC bulletin and NYDFS draft regulation for AI, the panelist found these regulations challenging but reasonable, and felt they were needed given the rapid pace of progress and adoption of AI. This led to a discussion on the age old problem of data quality in insurance. The panelists agreed that solving this issue requires more than just IT involvement. It will require business stewards and all data consumers to take ownership to ensure data quality.

6.Regulation in a Changing World

Moderator: Keith Raymond - Principal Analyst, Celent

Panelists: Rick Borden - Cybersecurity and Privacy Partner; Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

Keith Raymond from Celent led a discussion with Rick Borden from Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz on AI regulation in the insurance industry. The conversation highlighted how regulation around data privacy, cybersecurity, and AI is converging. Regulatory bodies such as the DFS and NAIC are emphasizing the need for strong enterprise risk management and controls. There was an interesting discussion on accountability, and reference was made to the latest NAIC model bulletin on the use of artificial intelligence systems by insurers. NAIC is clear that ultimate accountability lands on the board of directors and they will be responsible for setting risk policies and compliance for AI governance. The speakers discussed the challenges of developing an internal AI framework and stressed the need for transparency and accountability. They suggested taking proactive measures to assess and address risks now, especially with any data or decisions that involve personally identifiable information (PII). Rick stressed that no matter how your agents or vendors use your data, you are still responsible for it, and need to ensure that all good faith efforts have been made to protect the data and ensure compliance.

Looking back at the day, it’s clear that technology leaders have a lot on their plate. Change is no longer linear, and knowledge of the latest technologies is not sufficient for success. The changing role of IT drives a need to think about IT work differently than in the past.While technology strategy and transformation is on top of the agenda of many executives, as IT spending continues to rise, the challenge is balancing the need to move at speed and support existing customers while taking the time to rethink the business from scratch. The urgency for insurers to adopt to rapid change while optimizing costs has never been greater.