InsureTech Connect 2019 overview: Today’s pivotal insurance topics

InsureTech Connect, the annual gathering of thousands of leaders from insurance carriers, insurtechs, and venture capital firms, provides a great opportunity to explore the industry’s most pivotal topics, such as how new technologies and capabilities are transforming all aspects of the industry.

I have attended InsureTech Connect since the inaugural conference in 2016. In the first few years of ITC, attendees tried to determine if the industry was making significant progress on the technology front. And in the past couple of years we have seen a great amount of investment from carriers to build foundational technology capabilities. Now that the industry is better positioned to use new technologies than ever before, there are three major topics I’ll be investigating this year.

1. Cybersecurity: Insurers are targets for cybersecurity incidents because they store large amounts of sensitive data. Carriers need to be fanatical in developing and executing a strategy that protects their data from attacks. Doing so will be a key element in developing and maintaining trusted relationships with consumers. Insurtechs have increasingly focused on this pressing issue, and I look forward to seeing what new tools have been developed and how carriers as a whole will address it.

2. Artificial intelligence: AI is certainly not a new area of discussion, but now that carriers are beginning to look at themselves as data companies, many are exploring how AI can have an impact on key areas within the value stream, such as productivity, compliance, and decision making. It will be interesting to see which areas are prioritized by both insurtech organizations and insurers. Now that the days of stand-alone digital strategies are over (hopefully, digital technologies are now part of all strategy), AI will be the next horizon to bring about better business outcomes and consumer experiences.

3. Analytics: Making sense of big data and pulling actionable insights from it will advance the industry—or at least some of the players. Insurtechs have helped accelerate our understanding of the business value analytics can offer insurance, as well as the positive impact analytics can offer for agents and on the customer experience. Evaluating the advancements made over the past year—as well as how insurers can harness those advancements—will make for stimulating conversation.

While there are certainly many other important topics in the insurance industry, these three are top of mind because they seem to be where the most resources are focused. I’m eager to interact with insurance company executives, insurtech entrepreneurs, and venture capital partners to hear their visions of the future of insurance.

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