The Next Wave of Insurtech

At the recent International Insurance Society annual meeting, panelists laid out some provocative thoughts on insurtech, saying that the first wave is ending and describing the outlines of the second wave that has already begun to form.

The key takeaways: 1) The industry is focusing too much on what panelists called “the shiny objects,” like artificial intelligence, and not enough on the issues that really matter to customers and to corporate bottom lines; and 2) incumbents will bear much of the responsibility for whatever success the second wave has, depending on how well they retool their mindsets and their processes to absorb the steady stream of innovations that smaller players will provide.

The best image: the mullet. That’s how Jamie Yoder, president of Snapsheet, characterized innovation in insurance to date. “There has been so much attention paid to the front end [basically, sales],” he said, “but there’s a huge opportunity to clean up the back.”...  continue reading >