Digital Ecosystems

User Centricity

Digital ecosystems enable a company to interact with customers, partners, other industries and competitors.

Opportunities

In combination with other technologies such as Blockchain, digital ecosystems may allow for a complete unbundling of services. The main functions of banks, such as lending, money transfer and safekeeping of assets could be offered by a group of separate providers in a digital ecosystem.
There’s a shift in the business model to a “layer player” pattern. This means that one step in the value chain is offered to a large number of customers. For example, collaboration with specialists for the underwriting of exotic risks or for more efficient claims handling.
Digital ecosystems offer access to capabilities and resources on a global scale and have the potential to reshape entire markets. On-boarding costs for consumers should be low, since all data can be shared within the ecosystem.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Open API
New Payment Models
Distributed Ledger
Cloud Enablement

Digital Identity

User Centricity

A digital identity is the total sum of openly accessible information about an individual or organisation that exists online.

Opportunities

Digital identities reduce fraud risk, since they are much more difficult to copy or fake than paper-based documents.
Consumers can save time and effort, since customer on-boarding and identity checks (particularly in the financial industry) only need to be done once.
Consumers may command their own digital identity and decide which elements of it are disclosed to which counterparties. Health insurers e.g. only need access to the health information of the customer, but not his or her overall financial situation.
Risk assessment for insurance coverages may be completely based on digital identities. In health insurance, a complete health record of the patient would make extensive questionnaires obsolete, for example.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

New Payment Models
Social Analytics
Distributed Ledger
Truth Identification and Fast Checking

Digital Health Services

Connected World

Advanced technology enables the monitoring of health indicators, provides detailed analyses and can make initial diagnoses.

Opportunities

Enable personalized therapies for critical/complex illnesses and thereby reduce follow-up treatment costs.
Data can speed up claims handling, since illnesses and the corresponding treatments are detected and reported automatically.
Insurance premiums can be adjusted to reflect the altered risk situation due to digital health services monitoring.
Participation in the digital health ecosystem may bolster health insurance sales.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Smart Textiles
Human Enhancement
Smart Home
5G

Open API

Connected World

An open API is a proprietary software or application programming interface that is publicly available to developers.

Opportunities

Open APIs increase competition between providers, since everyone can integrate their systems and contribute to better products and services. Consumers are thus likely to benefit from cost-effective services tailored directly to their demands.
Open APIs enable the growth of a digital ecosystem, allowing for complete and seamless integration with service providers.
Open APIs decrease the need for individual development of certain digital solutions, since the software and systems from specialized providers can be integrated into the existing IT architecture. Open APIs can be used to access the large community of freelance developers to create innovative applications.
Open APIs increase the production of new ideas without investing directly in development activities.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Open Data
Digital Ecosystems
Distributed Ledger
Truth Identification and Fast Checking

Digital Twin

Connected World

A digital twin is a virtual counterpart of a real object that enables IT systems to interact with it rather than the real object directly.

Opportunities

Digital twins allow exploration and improvement in production processes without expensive physical prototypes, something that will be particularly important in the Internet of Things (IoT) era.
Companies can use digital twins to show their products to customers or other third parties during the manufacturing process.
Insurance companies could maintain a digital counterpart of the computer system in an insured’s car in order to monitor usage-based (mileage-based) car insurance contracts (through sensors in the physical product).
Digital twins may be created on a Blockchain to reflect ownership rights of physical objects. This could replace comparable existing ledgers such as land registers.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Digital Ecosystems
Industrial IoT
Virtual Worlds
Open Data

Robotic Process Automation

Artificial Intelligence

RPA “robotize” existing applications in a digital system to achieve automated business processes.

Opportunities

RPA contributes to high employee satisfaction levels since it assumes monotonous tasks. Employees can thus concentrate on activities that are more important.
Focus on core business as operational tasks can be automatized.
RPA bots act only on the user interface of CRM or ERP systems and interact non-invasively with any type of infrastructure.
Through the combination of Artificial Intelligence, NLP and RPA it is possible to develop Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) solutions that foster significantly more efficient operating customer support, financial accounting or complaint management.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Intrepretable Machine-Learning
Digital Ecosystems
Machine Driven Decision
Autonomous Robotics and Drones

Computer Vision

Artificial Intelligence

Computer vision enables computers to gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos.

Opportunities

By identifying objects on smartphone pictures, image recognition may offer cross-selling opportunities for insurers. Computer Vision allows insurers to improve their risk underwriting since it extracts and analyses visual information (e.g. images of property).
This is particularly interesting for small-scale risk coverages such as smartphone or pet insurance, which require an accurate premium. If the premium is too high, low-risk customers are likely to switch provider. If it is too low, loss ratios will explode.
Computer vision may be used to reconstruct accidents or collisions from a smartphone's camera and accelerometer data.
Brick-and-mortar stores could use computer vision to provide their customers with product recommendations during their shopping experience, based on the items already added to their shopping trolley.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Robotics Process Automation
Interpretable Machine Learning
Augmented Decision Making
Augmented Worlds

NLP & Speech Recognition

Artificial Intelligence

NLP can ease human-computer interaction and lead to machines understanding and acting on natural-language content.

Opportunities

Insurers could use this technology to develop services that help customers understand their insurance contracts, i.e. explain wordings, technical terms, etc.
Data collected through speech recognition could potentially be applied for other business purposes.
Since microphones need to be turned on permanently, tremendous amounts of (personal) data are generated that, in turn, require companies to strengthen their security measures. Insurers could therefore benefit from an increasing demand for cyber coverage.
Speech recognition is likely to significantly accelerate claims handling since documentation can be done much quicker, leading to higher efficiency.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Hardware-Embedded AI
Conversational User Interfaces
Smart Bots

Conversational User Interfaces

Artificial Intelligence

Conversational user interfaces, such as chatbots or personal assistants, will bring about a paradigm shift in how humans interact with the digital world.

Opportunities

In terms of privacy, CUI threads are transparent and accessible for the consumer, whereas this does not hold true for apps/websites. The customer can therefore access any information at any time.
If embedded in a company’s website, consumers do not need to install a software or an app in order to use the services. Thus, on-boarding is much quicker and more efficient.
Since Generation Y customers are already used to chatting on WhatsApp and WeChat, they may prefer a CUI as a means of interaction with their insurance company as well. The customer could, for example, file a claim using the chat window by simply sending a picture of the damage, together with a short description of the incident.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

NLP and Speech Recognition
Smart Bots
Machine Driven Decision

Cognitive Cyber Security

Artificial Intelligence

Cognitive capabilities integrated into cyber security systems enable them to “understand” information from external sources like social media, as well as internal systems to identify risks.

Opportunities

Cyber security systems extended by cognitive technologies extend the early-warning systems of IT security departments.
Cognitive Cyber Security enriches and strengthens the service portfolio of organizational and industry related cyber security. Executives have identified cognitive technologies as disruptive technology to strategically invest in.
Intelligent cyber security systems may enable insurers to better understand and control cyber risks and therefore underwrite larger limits of cyber coverage.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Digital Ecosystems
Quantum Computing
Distributed Ledger
Machine Driven Decision

Quantum Computing

Disruptive Technologies

Instead of working in bits of 1 or 0, quantum computing makes a whole new form of computers possible and stands for unprecedented computing power.

Opportunities

Quantum computing is particularly helpful for training and teaching AI devices since it can handle large amounts of data in a short time. Furthermore, due to the higher efficiency, AI could learn from experience or correct itself once a false decision is likely to be made.
Quantum computing can improve drug development through analysing an almost infinite number of molecule interactions in a second. Moreover, by analysing human gene sequences much faster and more efficiently than is possible today, it allows personalized drugs to be developed.
Sensor measurements from smart devices (smartphones, smart home devices, wearables, etc.) are delivering tons of data in real time. Full automation of business processes in insurance (underwriting, claims handling) based on these data flows may not be feasible with current computers and thus require quantum computing.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Artificial General Intelligence
Neuromorphic Hardware
Smart Bots
Distributed Ledger

New Payment Models

User Centricity

Advances in mobile and computer technologies are creating digital payment models that will shape the future of monetary transactions.

Opportunities

New payment models can reduce response times for claim processes and other insurance-related services. This improves productivity and customer service.
For example, AXA is now offering insurance using Blockchain technology. It gives direct, automatic compensation to policyholders whose flights are delayed.
New payment models create the need for new insurance products, e.g. protection of online wallets.
If transactions can be conducted on a globally recognised payment system with a single token of value, exchange rates and capital transfer restrictions become less of an issue.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Open API
Digital Identity
Distributed Ledger
Location Based Services

Social Analytics

User Centricity

Social analytics monitor, analyse, measure and interpret digital interactions and relationships.

Opportunities

Open APIs increase competition between providers, since everyone can integrate insurance coverage to match specific customer needs. For example, information on marital status or homeownership indicate a potential need for term life insurance.
Risk assessment for insurance products can be more precise, taking the social profile of an individual into account. E.g. careless behavior inferred from social analytics may hint at a higher probability of moral hazard issues.
Fraud prevention in insurance may rely on social profiling of the customer, like the discovery of risky sports that were not disclosed by the customer in the risk questionnaire for accident or life insurance.
Open APIs can assist the insurance sales process by providing brokers and agents with key information about the customer’s lifestyle and coverage needs.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Interpretable Machine Learning
Machine Driven Decision
Distributed Ledger

Location-Based Services

User Centricity

Location-based services use real-time geodata from mobile devices to provide information, entertainment or security.

Opportunities

Risk-prevention measures based on the location of the customer, like early hailstorm warnings to avoid damage to cars.
Automatic insurance protection based on the geolocation of the insured person, such as travel insurance when crossing borders or product insurance when entering high-risk zones (e.g. bike insurance around the central railway station).
Establish a detailed risk profile of the customer based on geolocation data to offer tailor-made coverage.
New distribution channels, enabled through loc-based services, offer insurers the possibility to communicate with their customers in specific contexts, with proactive product suggestions.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Deep mapping
5G
Open Data
Machine Driven Decision

Truth Identification/Fact Checking

User Centricity

Applications are being designed to help identify truthfulness in order to combat the spread of false information and fake news.

Opportunities

Truth identification to date is mostly employed in political debates. Companies that invest in veracity saving mechanisms can gain competitive edge.
Trust in seller-buyer relationships gains in importance. Trust is being operationalized and measured. Companies that put emphasis on trustworthiness could stand out of the crowd.
Emphasis on veracity safeguards can create a company culture where people are better aware of threats and less likely to fall prey to false information.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Social Analytics
Generative Adversarial Networks
Distributed Ledger
NLP and Speech Recognition

Augmented Worlds

User Centricity

In augmented worlds, physical and graphical objects interact naturally, thereby creating a mixed reality.

Opportunities

Insurance customers can experience claims scenarios first-hand – in an augmented real-world environment – to illustrate how important and valuable insurance coverage is.
Although the potential of the technology is impressive, there will be many challenges and roadblocks. Identifying key target personas and exploring targeted scenarios.
In the field of car insurance, virtual-reality can provide a range of personal driving-assistance functions including augmented driving, collision warnings and “black-box” services such as video recording.
Assist insurance brokers in the selling process by visualising loss scenarios in the surroundings.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Haptic Technologies
Human Enhancement
Location Based Services

Virtual Worlds

User Centricity

Virtual worlds are digital, three-dimensional environments that users can explore and interact with.

Opportunities

Insurance customers can experience claims scenarios first-hand, which illustrates how important and valuable insurance coverage is. Assist in risk assessment by allowing underwriters to explore insurable objects via the virtual-world.
There’s a potential cost savings as claims adjusters can explore damages without having to be on-site.
Only by examining and exploiting real-life scenarios can you drive tangible business benefits with these technologies. Train insurance brokers with regard to convincing selling arguments.
The advances of this technology are so rapid that we can expect AR/VR devices will soon have sensors that monitor brainwave activity, heart rate, and cortisol levels in the blood.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Smart Textiles
Augmented Worlds
Haptic Technologies
Human Enhancement

Haptic Technologies

User Centricity

Haptic technologies enable users to touch things inside a virtual world, thus opening up a new dimension in virtual reality.

Opportunities

Haptic technologies could improve the claims process of insurance companies by allowing claims adjusters to assess damages from a distance. The possibility to gather a haptic impressions could complement imagery (e.g. taken by drones). Thus, costly on-site visits may become less central for accurate claims handling.
Touch interfaces could aid several e-commerce business models by allowing online shoppers to touch the products before purchasing. An example are fashion web shops, which could offer consumers the possibility of touching the fabric in order to assess its quality.
Scientists are incorporating haptic technology into touchable maps for the blind. Using a haptic interface device, a blind person can feel, along with audio cues, a city’s or building’s layout.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

5G
Virtual Worlds
Augmented Worlds

Industrial IoT

Connected Worlds

Industrial IoT is the integration of intelligent and connected systems in industrial processes, resulting in, for example, smart factories.

Opportunities

In-built sensors can communicate the current condition of a product or machine and help the insurer to optimize the risk/premium calculation (renewal business), or to handle claims faster.
Based on information submitted by IoT machines, insurers might also provide risk mitigation, prevention and assistance services to their clients.
Connected and smart machines that interact with each other could report key risk or safety indicators to the insurer and automatically add coverage if needed.
IoT is likely to significantly increase the demand for cyber security and insurance.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Open API
5G
Digital Ecosystems
Robotic Process Automation

Smart Home

Connected Worlds

Smart home systems are made up of interconnected devices, services and apps, ranging from communications and entertainment to healthcare, security and home automation.

Opportunities

Smart home devices improve the quality of life since they save the consumers’ time.
The installation of smart home devices may substantially increase property value and provide damage reduction and prevention.
Smart devices can track and learn individuals' daily routines and therefore allow people to monitor their elderly relatives without invading their privacy.
Insurers benefit from smart devices since they lower a homeowner’s risk profile, deliver big data for underwriting purposes, and improve the efficiency of claims settlement processes.
Smart Home technology will lead to a wide range of new products, e.g. flexible household insurance based on tracked (and shared) application data.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Open API
5G
Digital Ecosystems
Conversational User Interfaces

Deep Mapping

Connected Worlds

Deep mapping is the layering of multiple types of geo-tagged data within a GIS (geographic information system).

Opportunities

Open APIs increase competition between providers, since everyone can integrate their systems and contribute to better products and services. Consumers are thus likely to benefit from cost-effective services tailored directly to their demands.
Open APIs enable the growth of a digital ecosystem, allowing for complete and seamless integration with service providers.
Open APIs decrease the need for individual development of certain digital solutions, since the software and systems from specialized providers can be integrated into the existing IT architecture. Open APIs can be used to access the large community of freelance developers to create innovative applications.
Open APIs increase the production of new ideas without investing directly in development activities.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Open API
5G
Digital Ecosystems
Location Based Services

Autonomous Robotics & Drones

Connected Worlds

Intelligent robotics and drones can perform tasks without human supervision. Their functions are getting more and more accurate and effective.

Opportunities

Robots are particularly helpful in tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as working with hazardous objects/substances, at extreme heights, etc.
Autonomous robots that share their workplace with humans, e.g. in warehouses, require innovative liability insurance solutions. Similarly, new insurance solutions are required since both soft- and hardware for robots could be subject to malfunctions.
Drones allow insurance companies to improve their underwriting of property & casualty risks through upfront inspections. Moreover, periodic inspections indicate whether the current coverage is still appropriate.
By taking aerial photos and videos, drones provide insurers with accurate data that can be used to calibrate their risk models accordingly.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Autonomous Vehicles
5G
Cognitive Cyber Security
Artificial General Intelligence

Autonomous Vehicles

Connected Worlds

Autonomous vehicles use sensing and localization technologies, such as LiDAR (light detection and ranging), radar, cameras, GPS and map data in combination with AI-based decision-making.

Opportunities

To operate autonomous vehicles safely, a complex infrastructure is needed, which offers insurance companies a new revenue potential (hard- and software insurance).
Autonomous vehicles require a complex hard- (sensors, chips, etc.) and software that are both subject to failure. Insurers could thus offer product liability insurance.
Particularly for large fleets, cyber security and insurance are central topics (e.g., an implanted malware could cripple a fleet) that provide new opportunities for insurers.
Insurers might build up competences regarding the appropriate handling, safety management, maintenance, etc., of autonomous vehicles.
Autonomous vehicles can automatically take into account changes in the environment and adjust the driving profile accordingly.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Autonomous Robotics & Drones
5G
Cognitive Cyber Security
Artificial General Intelligence

Open Data

Connected Worlds

The idea behind open data is about sharing data freely to allow everyone to use them as they wish, without copyright or patent restrictions.

Opportunities

Open and accessible public data can benefit individuals, companies, communities and government by unleashing new social, economic, and civic innovations and improving government accountability and transparency.
In the context of the health care system, Open Data enables recommendations for services for medical institutions and for customer treatment from the insurance side.
Greater access to data fosters and improves competition.
Open geo-spatial information is fundamental to planning and decision-making in most situations, including disaster and risk management.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Digital Ecosystems
Distributed Ledger
Interpretable Machine Learning
Cognitive Cyber Security

Smart Textiles

Connected Worlds

Smart textiles can do many things that traditional fabrics cannot, such as communicate with their environment.

Opportunities

Just like other wearables, smart textiles provide the opportunity to collect data on the insurance holders well-being, which can help to personalise insurance products.
Smart clothes open up new service potential based on vital checks (heart rate, etc.) and can be used for medical and healthcare monitoring and diagnostics.
Gesture recognition through smart textiles enables consumers to operate smart devices such as smartphones, laptops, IoT devices, etc.
Smart textiles can be used in nursing homes to detect when a patient's health condition or hygienic situation deteriorates.
Data collection and statistics on professional athletes in sports can be improved.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Digital Ecosystems
Swarm Intelligence
Digital Health Services
Smart Home

Human Enhancement

Connected Worlds

Soon, people may have the possibility to alter themselves in ways that, up to now, mostly existed in science fiction.

Opportunities

One of the most important developments involves a gene-splicing technique called “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” (CRISPR). This method improves scientists’ ability to edit the human genome in both embryos and adults.
An exoskeleton – looking pretty similar to the Iron Man suit – may soon make soldiers much stronger and largely impervious to bullets.
Enhanced humans may pose lower risks and therefore obtain cheaper insurance coverages. Human enhancements could even be used to cure severe sicknesses or chronic health conditions.
Improved reactions and reflexes may lead to lower frequency and severity of accidents and, in turn, insurance claims.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Digital Ecosystems
Artificial General Intelligence
Digital Health Services
Smart Textiles

Smart Dust

Connected Worlds

Smart dust are tiny chips, as small as a few millimetres or less, that contain communication, computation, and sensing technologies.

Opportunities

Smart dust technology may be applicable for automated damage assessment of insured objects. After a car crash, for example, smart dust-enhanced paint could potentially measure dents and scratches on the bodywork,and report the results to a smart contract for an automatic payout to the policyholder.
Smart dust will create new ways for businesses to deliver services. This will have wide-ranging implications for businesses' technological, social, economic and legal practices across the globe.
This could present a comprehensive solution to collect real-time data for people, industries, cities and the natural environment.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Digital Ecosystems
Industrial IoT
Smart Textiles
Smart Home

Augmented Decision-Making

Artificial Intelligence

Driving insight-driven decision making, augmented analytics combine key the technologies of analytics and AI.

Opportunities

Save time and labour costs when it comes to analysing enterprise data and putting it into intelligible formats to aid in decision-making on the executive level.
Democratise analytics jobs like root-cause-analyses, which were formerly limited to the competencies of data scientists but now open to a broader base of staff members.
More comprehensive data sources provide more relevant insights.
Organisational culture shift is required – leaving behind habits of hiding data and “beautifying” reports towards transparent data management and openness for learning and improving based on past data.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

NLP and Speech Recognition
Virtual Worlds
Interpretable Machine Learning
Computer Vision

Machine-Driven Decision

Artificial Intelligence

Machine-driven decisions are business decisions that are derived and backed by verifiable, quantitative data analysis.

Opportunities

Data on an individual's driving behaviour has been shown to be the most accurate predictor of claims costs; machine-driven decisions therefore allow motor insurance providers to flexibly adjust their premiums if risky driving behaviour is observed.
High-quality statistical predictions through machine-driven decisions could free employees from repetitive tasks.
In contrast to individuals, machine-driven decisions stick to clearly defined decision criteria and are not influenced by personal moods that might negatively affect decision-making.
In combination with smart contracts, machine-driven decisions can automate claims payments in insurance. The machine may measure temperature and decide to execute a smart insurance contract based on a given set of trigger conditions.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Robotic Process Automation
Smart Bots
Distributed Ledger
Intrepretable Machine Learning

Smart Bots

Artificial Intelligence

Smart Bots are programs that are capable of conversation-like interactions with the user. They act autonomously and learn continuously from the received data.

Opportunities

In contrast to classic websites and apps, Smart Bots allow companies to offer each customer/consumer a personalized 24/7 experience through text-based interactions without having to run expensive call centres.
Smart Bots may improve the online shopping experience for the consumer, for example by showing pictures in real-time and giving related advice.
In insurance, chatbots or personal digital assistants, such as Alexa and Siri, could greatly improve the customer experience in on-boarding, underwriting and claims handling. They are available around the clock and interact with the consumer in a familiar CUI.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Industrial IoT
NLP/ Speech Recognition
5G
Conversational User Interfaces

Knowledge Graphs

Artificial Intelligence

Knowledge graphs are used in AI to contextualize data by creating relationships between data.

Opportunities

Graph-based solution enrich data with missing data. Their capabilities can identify entities, e.g. people, by analysing unstructured data from Various sources.
By building up rich knowledge networks from unstructured data graph-based technology can compensate the lack of human reasoning in AI solutions.
With their contextualizing capabilities knowledge graphs unfold their potential in fostering collaboration of formerly distinct data, e.g. from individuals.
Knowledge graphs do not necessarily come as stand-alone AI market solutions. They offer their full potential as concepts implemented in broader AI and cloud platforms and services.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Industrial IoT
NLP/ Speech Recognition
Cloud Enablement
Truth Identification Fact Checking

Interpretable Machine-Learning

Artificial Intelligence

Interpretable ML is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.

Opportunities

Interpretable machine-learning is very powerful if enough data is used as input. In combination with new and large amounts of data, such as is generated by Internet of Things (IoT) devices, insurers can significantly improve their efficiency.
Insurers could collect usage-based data such as driving behaviour in motor insurance and draw on ML to improve their risk analysis and pricing models.
Advanced machine-learning may allow automated underwriting of risks, saving time and costs in the process. One example is determining quotes for life insurance coverage based on smartphone selfies.
Interpretable machine-learning could also be applied in claims handling, substantially freeing up the capacity of human claims adjusters.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Robotic Process Automation
Smart Bots
Industrial IoT
Machine Driven Decision

Auto ML

Artificial Intelligence

AutoML tries to emulate the functions of the inner layers of the human brain.

Opportunities

Thousands of vendors are exploring the applicability of auto machine-learning to a range of fields, such as computer vision, conversational systems and bioinformatics.
Heavyweights like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook are constantly increasing their deep learning skills. For example, deep learning is behind Apple's Siri, Google's Google Now, Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa.
Data and analytics leaders of modernization initiatives should revisit previously intractable “cognitive” problems relating to text, images, video and speech analytics, as well as problems that involve complex data.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Interpretable Machine Learning
Computer Vision
Digital Ecosystems
Cognitive Cyber Security

Generative Adversarial Networks

Artificial Intelligence

A GAN is a network architecture based on two algorithms challenging each other in order to reproduce patterns of data, like images or motions.

Opportunities

In test management, GANs can generate test data if not available.
GANs can be used to explain neutral networks and find weaknesses AI algorithms.
In cybersecurity GANs can help to find platforms in order to destect threats in the data system.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
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History of the Trend's Relevance

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Auto ML
Virtual Worlds
Quantum Computing
Truth Identification Fact Checking

Hardware-Embedded AI

Artificial Intelligence

The integration of AI into hardware creates smart automation solutions with benefits like energy savings and cost efficiency, as well as the elimination of human error.

Opportunities

Based on the ability to recognize and interpret patterns, machines with hardware-embedded AI could perform more complex tasks than simple smart devices in the area of IoT.
In an autonomous car, for example, hardware-embedded AI could evaluate traffic flows to recognize patterns that will allow it to optimize the route to the destination in real-time.
An advanced insurance product could rely on AI embedded in wearables or smart textiles that permanently evaluates data from the customer's environment and automatically adjusts coverage based on certain patterns.
A hardware-embedded AI in autonomous drones or robots could be highly useful for the automation of underwriting and claims handling.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
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Autonomous Robotics and Drones
Brain Computer Interface
Autonomous Vehicles
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Artificial General Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

AGI – also called “strong AI” – does not yet exist, since today's AI technology cannot be proven to possess the equivalent of human intelligence.

Opportunities

In contrast to other technologies, AGI does not require any technical know-how or highly-trained employees with particular IT skills.
In theory, it could fully replace human employees throughout the organization.
By combining advanced computing capabilities with human-like self-reliant cognitive skills, AGI could help companies solve the most complex and demanding tasks.
Take cyber risks: AGI might be the appropriate technology to autonomously prevent attacks, detect and fix security leakages in software, and evaluate and apply potential countermeasures, etc.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Industrial IoT
Brain Computer Interface
Autonomous Robotics and Drones
Hardware Embedded AI

Distributed Ledger

Disruptive Technologies

Distributed ledger technology eliminates the need for a trusted central authority. It is further decentralized, and safe and thus, a transparent data network.

Opportunities

Distributed ledgers do not have a single point of failure and are therefore robust in terms of hacking attacks and can be conducted at low cost.
Blockchain technology significantly increases the transparency of transactions for all parties involved. No further alterations or deletions are possible.
Modern Blockchains such as Ethereum are capable of running smart contracts that allow for the automatic execution of transactions if certain requirements are fulfilled.
It enables the complete tracking of objects or individuals over their life cycle.
An idea is to create a distributed ledger that stores the health history of individuals, which could then grant access to health insurers to facilitate the underwriting process.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Auto ML
Digital Ecosystems
Cognitive Cyber Security
Quantum Computing

Cloud Enablement

Disruptive Technologies

The future of enterprise IT is cloud computing, which is in fact an elementary enabler for digital transformation.

Opportunities

Better integration of business units through sharing data, driving integrated decisions, and moving more quickly to solve customer problems.
Use the implementation of cloud technology as an opportunity to update and enhance IT security standards and systems.
Capture cost efficiencies in dynamic cloud pricing by increasing or decreasing computing capacity as needed, which can facilitate granular spending control.
Tech capabilities and solutions attract new talents and provide access to ecosystems with new skill sets – DevOps, agile, UX, etc.
This means a move from company data centers to gain the ability to replicate data and app services across more than a single data center or region.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Cloud Edge
Digital Ecosystems
Quantum Computing

3D Printing

Disruptive Technologies

3D printing is the process of making solid objects from a digital model. But new technologies, such as 4D printing, are also emerging.

Opportunities

Modelling new products based on this process will become a new future market for the industry as well as a boost for medical progress.
3D printing allows on-demand production of products close to the point of consumption. Thus, shipping, inventory, and logistics costs are significantly lower.
After a design has been completed, 3D printing allows fast visualization through prototypes.
In medicine, 3D printing can be used to produce “customized” parts or organs of the human body – assuming that adequate materials are available in the future.
In manufacturing, this technology allows for greater customization of products with personal designs, etc.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
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Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
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History of the Trend's Relevance

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Cloud Edge
Digital Ecosystems
5G
Quantum Computing

Cloud Edge

Disruptive Technologies

Edge computing processes data as close to its source as possible – at the edge of the network structure.

Opportunities

Edge computing can be deployed in a variety of circumstances. Specifically for IoT networks that generate and move massive amounts of data, Edge Computing is considered to be a real game changer.
Large amounts of data for insurance underwriting and claims handling, e.g. from drones/robots, do not need to be completely transferred to the insurance company.
It could improve the underwriting of risks based on big data in areas with slow network speeds.
Edge computing reduces latency as data does not have to traverse a network. This is ideal for situations where latencies of milliseconds can be untenable.
Local processing enables a better response to local security requirements.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Industrial IoT
Digital Ecosystems
Autonomous Vehicles
Distributed Ledger

Swarm Intelligence

Disruptive Technologies

Swarm intelligence is the collective behaviour of self-organized systems, whether natural or artificial.

Opportunities

High flexibility due to quick adaptation to internal and external changes, i.e. predetermined and new, unknown stimuli.
Due to internal redundancy like multitudes, failing individual parts can be offset by the swarm so they do not affect performance. Moreover, individual parts can be removed without affecting the structure of the swarm.
Swarm intelligence allows for scalability, since the swarm's architecture can easily be extended to include additional swarm members.
It may enable better investment and underwriting decisions.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

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Industrial IoT
Digital Ecosystems
Autonomous Vehicles
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5G

Disruptive Technologies

5G technology is 40 times faster than the current standard of LTE (4G).

Opportunities

5G is more than a new generation of technologies; it denotes a new era in which connectivity will become increasingly fluid and flexible and is a powerful enabler for all related digital services.
Faster data transfer speed: 10-100x higher speeds. Improvements in bandwidth have characterized every new generation of wireless networks. The goal of 5G is to support 1–10Gbps connections to endpoints in the field.
5G will be commercial network infrastructure with early 5G-standard compliance being possibly achieved by 2019.
Gartner expects that by 2020, 3 percent of network-based mobile communications service providers will launch the 5G network commercially.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
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History of the Trend's Relevance

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Industrial IoT
Digital Ecosystems
Autonomous Vehicles
Smart Dust

Volumetric Display

Disruptive Technologies

Volumetric displays create visual 3D representations of objects, with a 360-degree spherical viewing angle in which the image changes as the viewer moves.

Opportunities

Volumetric displays in combination with x-rays can significantly reduce the length of security checks at airports, national borders, high security areas, etc.
In the field of flight security, 3D volumetric displays provide a detailed and comprehensive view of an aircraft’s position.
In insurance, volumetric displays can help underwriters assess insurable objects, and help claims handlers to inspect damage without being physically present.
Also, the consequences of damages or losses could be illustrated with volumetric displays to insurance customers to improve their understanding of risks.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

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Industrial IoT
Digital Ecosystems
Smart Textiles
Computer Vision

Programmable Materials

Disruptive Technologies

Programmable materials are designed to become dynamic in form and function on-demand – which allows for unprecedented possibilities.

Opportunities

It may be useful for risk prevention. For example, roofs or certain building components could be programmed to change their structure to avoid exposure to high wind speeds in catastrophe risk scenarios.
It could be used for theft prevention by transforming objects into useless shapes if they detect an unauthorized user.
Researchers are working on paper-like robots that can fold themselves origami-style. Similar robots could be useful in larger forms, which could lead to a tool capable of turning into anything you might find in a tool kit.
Programmable materials are going to be a big plus in environments where packing efficiency is important, such as outer space or combat zones.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

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Industrial IoT
Digital Ecosystems
Smart Textiles
Artificial General Intelligence

Neuromorphic Hardware

Disruptive Technologies

Neuromorphic chips are modelled after the neural brain network of humans.

Opportunities

Neuromorphic computers could dramatically improve data mining and pattern recognition systems to monitor certain biosphere processes.
Neuromorphic computers could impact financial markets, financial forecasting, or the monitoring of agriculture, or alternatively, they could render certain jobs performed by humans redundant.
There are likely to be major leaps forward in hardware in the next decade, if not from neuromorphic hardware, then from other radically new hardware designs.
Successful application of neuromorphic hardware could result in machines being able to tag, contextualize and react to language, content and people's behaviour, and improve on some things we used to think only people could do (drive automobiles, for example).

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

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Industrial IoT
Brain Computer Interface
Smart Textiles
Artificial General Intelligence

Brain-Computer Interface

Disruptive Technologies

A brain-computer interface interprets the user's brain patterns to control external software and hardware.

Opportunities

Brain-computer interfaces to robots have the advantage that users will not be limited to communication, but also be able to control the devices by imagining actions.
In claims handling, it could become possible to reconstruct accidents and loss events from the recollection of the policyholder and fraud detection may be improved by verifying the statements of the policyholders through brain-computer faces.
Soon, it could be possible to write an e-mail just by thinking. Facebook is about to develop a skullcap to mentally type thoughts and feelings for common use.
Medical device makers will be able to apply brain-computer interface hardware to a wide range of projects. One project is bypassing damaged nerves to reconnect brain and body. Or in an even more futuristic scenario, someone will put his exoskeleton on and go for a walk.

Insurance Value Chain

Product Design & Pricing
Sales & Distribution
Underwriting
Risk Management
Customer Engagement & Services
Claims

History of the Trend's Relevance

Related Trends

Industrial IoT
Neuromorphic Hardware
Smart Textiles
Artificial General Intelligence

Realytix

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