AI & AUTOMATION: GAMIFICATION AND THE METAVERSE The next step: Insurance presence in virtual worlds is a logical extension of gamification
Play to win! If gamification can help life and health insurers engage this generation of coverholders, Alex King considers how digital worlds could lock in the next They say anyone can sell an umbrella in a rainstorm. So it was that, during a deadly, once-in-a-century pandemic, life and health (L&H) insurance providers began reporting double-digit increases in policy purchases, with an 18.5 per cent spike in the US in March 2020. If you want truly stunning sales figures, though, consider this: during the pandemic period, Corona beer saw consumption soar by 40 per cent in the UK, and by 20 per cent globally. L&H insurers might question why a brand whose name – given the circumstances – might have put punters off, in fact out-classed sales of financial protection for life, health and wealth. The answer, perhaps, lies in consumers’ disengagement from what were once considered essential policies. According to research from global financial services organisation LIMRA, the percentage of American adults with a life insurance policy dropped from 63 per cent in 2010 to just over half in 2020. A recent Deloitte survey found that only 20 per cent of those who’d never had mortality
40
TheInsurtechMagazine | Issue 7
coverage were interested in buying it. According to Swiss Re, the global mortality protection gap now sits at $114trillion. Taken together, those stats add up to a gigantic opportunity as well as a reflection of just how slowly the insurance industry has adapted to the demands of modern consumers. But there are promising – even exciting – signs of movement from this famously risk-averse industry. As David Priestly, who became chief digital officer at Vitality, the innovative digital health insurance in 2017, recently explained: “If you just concentrate on trying to deliver value for your customers and creating an exceptional experience, more often than not, you’re going to do the right thing.” Which means touchpoints are now seen as a priority. Millennials spend an average of six hours per day on their phones, across an average of 80 apps, yet their insurance provider ordinarily makes contact just twice a year – once with a renewal email, and once with a receipt. Smartphone absorption is an open goal that L&H insurers have been scuffing the ball wide of for years. Now they’re beginning to hit
the net, leaning on gamification as an appealing, youthful way to generate dozens, if not hundreds, of touch points per customer per year. Vitality was one of the first L&H insurers to gamify health insurance, incentivising policyholders to lead healthier lifestyles with premium reductions and a rewards scheme full of healthy treats. Several other insurers have since followed its lead, building game-like mechanisms of their own. Sproutt, the Connecticut-based life insurer, opted for a Quality of Life Index to score customers’ ‘hidden health’, as revealed by AI and predictive analytics. Its 15-minute quiz generates a score that is immediately accompanied by bespoke health and wellbeing advice. The health score generated by Zurich-based Dacadoo’s Wheel of Life, meanwhile, is based on an astonishing 300 million patient hours of data. Dacadoo sells this scoring system to insurers, alongside a digital lifestyle coach and points-based rewards, which can be redeemed in an online store. Then there’s London-based YuLife, which offers group life insurance to ffnews.com
