Insurers are expecting dramatic changes to their work by 2023 as a result of adopting digital technologies and mindsets, according to our study. Speeding processes, harnessing data and forming new collaborations will be the keys.
To understand the changing nature of work in a world dominated by digital and disrupted by Covid-19, we surveyed 4,000 global executives globally and across industries, 285 of whom were from the insurance industry.
Five key themes emerged from our research and analysis:
- Thriving in insurance will require data mastery. Insurance respondents in our study named hyperconnectivity (IoT), automation and analytics as the key drivers of the future of work, underscoring the primacy of data, speed and real-time insights. The explosion of IoT data from automobiles, fitness trackers and other telematics devices, as well as the growing intelligence of the physical world, will underpin a range of highly personalized micro-insurance offerings, driven by advanced machine-learning algorithms that quickly assess price and risk and detect fraud at scale.
- Traditional insurers are in a digital arms race. The percent of revenues flowing from digital channels is set to rise from 10% this year among our insurance respondents, to 16% by 2023. The demand for rapid product innovation and better-automated pricing and underwriting processes will lead to an acceleration of digital investments. As flexible on-demand insurance offerings emerge, and new ecosystems and consortia dominate, 60% of respondents expect to be ahead of their competitors on digital by 2023.
- Intelligent machines will reduce the claims cycle from days to seconds. Insurers are on the path to zero-touch processing, with automation minimizing manual intervention and ensuring a high degree of precision. Respondents expect to dramatically increase their automation of claims processing and underwriting, for example, by 2023.
- Work (and jobs) are transforming at a rapid pace. Nearly all respondents agree that insurance work will become more strategic, specialized and task-based as automation accelerates. According to respondents, the workforce of the future will require big data specialists, process automation experts, blockchain specialists, mathematical modelers, AI researchers and machine-learning experts, to name a few. With half of our respondents expecting significant talent shortages as insurance work transforms, upskilling will be critical.
- Decisioning skills move to center stage. Respondents rated decision-making as the top skill today and in 2023. When so much information surrounds us, insurers will grapple with how the best decisions can be made quickly and – with AI – ethically, and how to balance automation and algorithms with human insights and judgment. How well insurers can parse work between people and machines and enable transparent decision-making will ensure the trust needed between insurers and their customers.
Read the full report to learn more and also visit our Insurance section of the web.