EVENTS: INSURTECH INSIGHTS EUROPE
Digital insurance... in person Greenwich, London – where hemispheres meet – was an appropriate place to bring legacy firms and insurtechs together for a show that Aniqah Majid found both refreshing and surprising It was the biggest in-person industry gathering in the last three years. From insurance bigwigs Generali and Zurich to trailblazing disruptors Arma Karma and wefox, they all made the pilgrimage to London to discuss the most exciting innovations happening in insurance. What I assumed would be a dry introduction to the industry, Insurtech Insights (ITI) Europe defied all my expectations. With its bustling promotion halls and densely packed stages, the excitement among attendees for this most intangible of financial services was very tangible indeed. These were not the stiff and serious experts I had anticipated, but impassioned people with a common goal: to make insurance better – committed, even, to stepping up to the role allocated to them by insurtech Wakam’s CEO Olivier Jaillon in his recent book, The Intangible Age. He sees insurance providers as ‘social and economic stabilisers, equipping societies with the tools needed to withstand the shocks triggered by a growing number of heightened risks’. Among the 4,000 people at ITI were insurtechs, insurers
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and VC investors, all apparently sharing a similar vision. Talks kicked off with Allianz board member Sirma Boshnakova and her keynote address ‘A seamless and borderless world: building technology with a heart’. As one of the first talks of the event, senses were on high alert, with spectators discreetly exchanging their own thoughts on digitisation and the future. The CEO of Allianz Partners reflected on the growing use of digitised solutions, but insisted that insurance must maintain its ‘human touch’. The concern Boshnakova was addressing comes from the alienation customers could face if digitisation was to be taken to extremes. “It’s about addressing all of the customers’ needs – instead of just fixing a problem – and providing peace of mind throughout their daily lives,” she said. What the customer really, really wants and how the industry can use digital to identify and deliver it, was a key theme for many speakers, including CEO of wefox, Julian Teicke. Teicke told the audience how his company, now valued at around $3billion, saw giving agents a digital platform to work on is better for insurers in the long run. Wefox itself grossed €90million in revenues in the first quarter of 2022, on the back of just such a model.
Who’s buying what, where With the onset of COVID-19 and growing online activity, the relationship between customers and agents is in perpetual flux, factors like geography and insurance types acting as determinants. In Europe, 72 per
cent of consumers interviewed by researchers at Insurance Nexus, part of Reuters Events, said they preferred to engage with insurers directly through their websites, 38 per cent through aggregators and only 23 per cent through the agent/broker channel. In North America, the picture was slightly different. The broker channel was significantly more popular, with 43 per cent citing it as their favourite, 57 per cent choosing online and 29 per cent saying they would prefer an aggregator. But, from baby boomers to Gen-Zers, the responses showed ‘the vast majority of respondents selected multiple channels – meaning that the omni-channel engagement trend is continuing’, researchers said. The tectonic shifts in consumer demographics were echoed throughout the conference, cropping up in panel discussions and showcases. Insurers are now undoubtedly dealing with an audience more comfortable with online buying, demanding more in terms of immediate services and varied products. The topic of embedded insurance was inescapable. Insurance products ‘bundled’ with other non-financial services have existed for some time; it’s the method of delivery that’s changed. How and how far the industry should embrace that was the hot focus. Panels dissected whether embedding insurance products into third-party avenues was a positive change in the customer journey, others questioned if it was a gamble for insurance companies and their underwriting process. ffnews.com
