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 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.

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

Leaders and providers in this movement include Penni.io, Cover Genius and Tigerlab, which all enthusiastically used their booths to point to datasets and diagrams in an attempt to persuade any attendees unsure about the embedded phenomenon. The consensus that emerged was that such a product was imperative and a natural feature of today’s digital marketplaces.

Daniel Malmvärn, chief commercial officer of Tigerlab, said: “Embedded insurance [has] been around for a while, but is gaining prominence because it allows people to sell anything online, whilst adding insurance to the process. As we know, insurance does not sell itself, [and] it is good to have quick integration digitally online, so you can add insurance for a fraction of the price of the product, but provide great value to the customer.”

Bitesize and parametric insurance were also discussed – both a direct consequence of changes caused by the pandemic and climate change, which had brought a whole new audience to the industry. Innovators – from Urban Jungle, which offers a range of alternative contents-related insurance suited to post-COVID lifestyles, to ICEYE, which large-scale flooding, life and health and even pet insurers were concentrating on promoting wellness, while legacy insurers – among them AXA XL – were concerned with avoiding catastrophic loss by addressing big issues such as climate change and public health.

Ben Smyth, CEO of subscription-based insurer Arma Karma, spoke at a panel on the impact big tech has had on insurance distribution. The company markets predominately to 18-to-35-year-old consumers, usually viewed as ‘high-risk’, and insures individual products, from tablets to musical instruments. By prioritising this group, Smyth believes the industry can close the ‘knowledge gap’ about insurance among nearly all consumers.

He blames existing insurance players for failing to adequately cater for younger people in the past, thereby perpetuating the notion of them being a high-risk group. To reach these young people, Arma Karma has adapted to their preferred methods of communication; posting memes on Twitter and partnering with TikTok influencers.

Interviewing Smyth was refreshing. As a young consumer myself, engaging with insurance in a laborious, paper-based way, can build an aversion to such ‘serious’ customers outside the transactional processes of onboarding, renewal and claims management as the reason for this. Insurtechs which showcased and spoke at the event sought a different way to talk about insurance, one which didn't leave consumers – or, indeed the event’s attendees – jaded or disillusioned.

In one of the most exhilarating panels, speakers rumbled back and forth on industry successes and trends. Heavy-hitters in the discussion included Anthony Grosso of EIS Group and Ed Halsey of hubb (which stands for honest, user-based broking), who have collaborated extensively on EIS’s Coretalk, a talk show-inspired web series presented by Halsey. Hubb also generates its own video and news content, delivering an unorthodox and entertaining spin on insurance and broking.

Speaking outside of the panel session, Rory Yates, business leader and strategist at EIS, talked about the relationship between insurance and technology, and how it has evolved.

“Insurance is getting to a tipping point right now, where it’s getting more confident about what its future is going to look like. It’s asking the right questions

Insurance is more confident about what its future is going to look like. It’s asking the right questions of the technology providers. So, I think we're all going to move to a more positive place Rory Yates, EIS

develops bespoke products for property and casualty insurers, based on data from its always-on SAR satellite constellation – have been the main beneficiaries of that.

Looking around the conference, it was clear this was the era of B2B, the biggest insurtechs focussed on helping to enhance carriers, expand the range of products and leverage new distribution channels to deliver the modern policies that meet the needs of today’s consumers.

As a consequence of the high cost of servicing those needs, preventative insurance solutions took centre stage. From young people and COVID cover to whole communities threatened by talk. Getting down with the younger generation and finding ways to engage with a demographic often misunderstood by the industry, Arma Karma represented, to me, the meaning of customer focus.

As Smyth says, though, it’s not just the young generation who struggle to grasp what insurance is all about. The Price Of Accuracy: Consumer Attitudes To Data And Insurance, a report by the Association of British Insurers in 2019, had already established that many more were bemused, illustrated by the fact that 44 per cent of consumers of all ages were not confident they understood how their premiums were calculated. Many point to insurers’ inability to engage with of the technology providers. We haven’t just imagined this technology platform into being without having those insights from the industry. So, I think we’re all going to move to a more positive place.”

Attendees from Asia to Ohio itched to talk to and banter with fellow innovators at ITI – the frustrations of Zoom meetings and dial-ins had exhausted everyone. And, as part of London Insurtech Week, there were plenty more opportunities to engage face to face. As partners including Vitesse and Amazon Web Services hosted contact events for delegates beyond the conference, from luncheons to five-a-side football, on one thing everyone agreed: it was good to be back.