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The horrific combined ratios in homeowners, auto and some other lines have drawn even more attention than usual to underwriting. So this month's ITL Focus is especially timely.
To suggest some ways to improve profitability, I turned first to Jess Keeney, chief product and technology officer at Duck Creek Technologies. In our interview – which I encourage you to read in full – she talks about the importance of personalizing underwriting and says AI makes that possible in new ways. In particular, AI can pull together more data than the underwriter previously had access to, which allows for a deeper understanding of the client and of the risks. AI also can automate routine tasks, giving underwriters more time to dig deeper into an application.
I also pulled together the six articles I've linked to below – just a few of the really meaty articles we've published recently on underwriting – and think they all help illuminate a better path.
Bill Deemer and Bobby Touran of Rainbow lay out the possibilities for continuous underwriting, in a two-part series. At the moment, we do a deep dive the first time we see an application and update the file at renewal time, but they explain how technology allows for continuous updates. Why wait until renewal to realize that a restaurant client, say, has added alcohol sales?
Michael Reilly of Accenture challenges underwriters to truly go paperless. Yes, he says, we've eliminated all the file cabinets full of paper, but we've just switched to what he calls "digital paper" – PDFs. Excel spreadsheets, etc., which still make it too hard for underwriters to find all the information they need.
Jacob Grob of Tensorflight says insurers are reaching outside their walls and increasingly drawing on third-party data that can make underwriting far more precise. Adam Cherubini of Send explores how to attract the next wave of talent to underwriting – a key concern. Neeraj Kaushik of Infosys McCamish Systems lays out the particular challenges in the cyber world, which is constantly changing but where insurers seem to be doing a lot of things right. Neil Chapman and Serhat Guven of Willis Towers Watson describe the opportunities – and perils – of automated pricing.
I hope you find the interview and those articles as smart and helpful as I do.
Cheers,
Paul
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