Top technological innovations and innovators in Insurance

Insurance Interrupted

Even as we publish this post, headlines about disruption in the traditional insurance space continue to emerge. “InsureTech” innovators are on the rise. This is driving many of the leading providers to think about how they can better appeal to the “digital natives” amongst their stakeholders.

These headlines and recent discussions with our clients in the space have prompted the alva Insights team to analyze the major technological advances and innovations perceived by consumers to be transforming the insurance industry. As you’ll see from the infographics below, our analysis highlights the most recently referenced topics regarding insurance innovation and the top 15 insurance companies most closely associated with that innovation. We have also pinpointed less discussed, but emerging topics that may represent unclaimed “white space” opportunities to be grasped.

We analyzed global content across all media channels from August 1 – August 31,* and discovered more than 69,000 mentions of innovations within the sector across all sources. We’ve visualized the key findings below.

Most Frequently Referenced Topics Regarding Innovations in Insurance

In the first set of results below, nearly 50% of the mentions are attributed to the top 3 topics: Internet of Things, the transformative potential of A.I. to underwriting and risk management, and the use of distributed ledger technology to substitute the industry’s centralized database model (blockchain). On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll see that Smart Contracts, 3D Printing and Virtual Reality (VR) are  emerging topics being referenced by consumers, which might represent “white space” opportunities for insurers to expand upon. Our analysis shows these topics being discussed in the following context:

• Smart contract-based insurance policies are forecasted to allow a unified view of payment data and documentation as well as automating trading processes for insurance-linked securities. This is a move that some think could eventually lead to insurance brokers being phased out.
• 3D printing is viewed as a challenge to product liability, intellectual property and data as legal implications along the supply chain “are still considered vague.” Insurers are being urged to “review current customer base” for possible impacts.
• VR has the potential to help policy holders and insurance adjusters through sector-specific training programs as well as improving processes to verify and evaluate claims by eliminating the need for field inspections. For example, a VR mobile app collaboration between Travelers and AppliedVR is among the most notable developments.

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Consumer Perception: Top 15 Insurance Companies Associated with Innovation

In the second set of results below, we list the 15 insurers most commonly associated with innovation, according to our analysis across August. AXA tops the index due to its innovation-led collaborations including the development on-demand insurance apps for the UK and Italian markets and partnering with Uber to provide drivers in France with employee cover.

• Nationwide primarily receives media attention due to it’s ongoing investments toward developing consumer-centric platforms, AI integration and the expectation of a pay-per-mile option within its usage-based SmartRide program.
• Farmers Insurance finalizes the adoption of unmanned aerial aircraft systems (UAS) in order to accelerate inspection times for customers who have suffered significant damage to their properties after major weather events, and to decrease safety risks to field adjusters.
• The lower performing peers generate less discussion regarding their specific initiatives or technological developments. The majority of coverage for Progressive, Zurich and Chubb stems from Executive messages regarding digital transformation within the industry.

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Find Your White Space

Please contact Paul Trancik:+1 646-741-0555/paul.trancik@alva-group.com to request a customized white space analysis that will help to fine tune your focus for communications, marketing, product management and corporate strategy.

*We chose to narrow this particular analysis to a brief, one month timeframe across the month of August 2017 for a hyper-current view of trends (we ran the analysis the first week of September 2017). However, a true white space analysis necessitates more in-depth research over a longer period and across a customized set of criteria to fully understand sentiment and track the course of emerging trends over a month, a quarter or a year.