How digital upskilling helps a well-established sector —like Insurance — prepare for the next day
The industry whose purpose is to analyze, manage and predict risk, today itself stands in front of big risks, challenges and shifts.
The insurance industry is an essential component of the global economy both for the economic value that it offers to society and for its important role in the risk management of businesses, households and individuals. Nevertheless, the insurance sector’s fundamentals and its traditional business model are now in front of a wave of change and transformation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which still has tremendous effects on the economy, and also to the ever-changing technological developments that put businesses into a restlessness mode and push them towards bolder and quicker decisions. Therefore, in an era highly characterized by volatility, ambiguity and uncertainty the ‘’business as usual’’ model belongs to the past and although the purpose of insurance products is to analyze, manage and predict risk, today the industry itself stands in front of big risks, challenges and shifts.
Remote work is the new normal
As COVID-19 forces us into social isolation measures, a new way of working has arisen: remote work. Remote working leads insurance agents to limit face-to-face interactions with their clients, depriving them of their most valuable tool of interpersonal communication and, in case of a bad alternative solution, creating frictions to the overall customer experience. As a result, it is necessary for insurance agents to adopt digital tools to enable an efficient remote workplace.
New customer behaviors and habits
The ongoing digital transformation and innovation strategy of many companies, regardless of the industry they operate, has changed the modern customer’s behaviors and habits. Today, customers demand and expect high-quality personalized products, services and experiences and, as a result, insurers do not only compete with other players of the same industry but with a broad range of digital experiences and services that customers encounter in their buying process.
The need for data analytics
Data analysis is not new in the insurance industry. Insurance agents, like any other financial service provider, use data for risk evaluation and management. But Data Science has rapidly evolved over the past years and its utility and application in combination with AI and machine learning have expanded from risk calculation to risk modelling, underwriting and claims handling. Furthermore, Big Data is used for better understanding customers’ behaviors and preferences in order to create predictive models and gain a competitive advantage. Therefore, companies that haven’t adopted data analytics tools may fall behind in the competition.
The rise of InsurTech
Emerging technologies and the recent FinTech revolution are leading the path for disrupting the traditional insurance industry, while at the same time InsurTech startups are shaping the sector future proposing new value propositions consisting of innovative technologies and digital tools which can lead to better customer experience, data analytics utilization for customer understanding and competitive advantage and performance optimization. The greatest challenge for insurers is to align their long-term expertise with technology adoption, gain agility and resilience and explore novel ways of customer acquisition, optimization and growth.
What about the trends?
New technologies can play important role in the insurance sector, offering benefits such as cost reduction, improved operational efficiency and, overall, better customer experience. Thus, for example, through artificial intelligence, insurers can create personalized experiences based on the behavior and habits of each client, while utilizing machine learning can be another tool that not only offers data processing accuracy but can also be used for risk assessment. Predictive analysis technology can be used to improve the accuracy of data offered to customers, as well as for even more, such as fraud detection, identification of customers at risk of cancellation, forecasting trends, etc. Insurers can even use data from IoT devices, such as smart homes or car sensors, to gain specific information about their customers. Blockchain could be also used as an insurance technology, being able to offer improved performance, consumer confidence, or fraud detection and prevention.
A Business Academy for every insurance agent
Understanding these challenges and being willing to address them fast and efficiently, Found.ation and Eurolife FFH co-developed the Eurolife Business Academy, the 1st digital skills academy for professional insurers. The Academy is a pioneering effort to help insurers get accustomed with new technologies and to introduce them to ways for upgrading the services they offer and the relationship with their customers. What’s more important is that it is free and open to every broker interested, not limited to Eurolife’s network.
The content of Eurolife Business Academy focuses on the areas of innovation, digital transformation, new technologies such as data analytics and Artificial Intelligence, remote work, digital marketing and new channels that create opportunities for connection and communication with customers.
Found.ation, being at the forefront of tech disruptions and business transformation strategies, creates unique business upskilling programs that can be tailored to each sector’s needs. Let’s create a bespoke program together.
