Billed as Europe’s largest Insurtech conference, Insurtech Insights, recently held in London, brought executives, entrepreneurs, insurers and investors from all over the world, in person, to discuss new perspectives and strategic issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agenda was broad in its scope, and we had the opportunity to participate in the panel session: How data partnerships can open up fresh underwriting opportunities<\/strong><\/em>. Leon Walker, Senior Director, Business Development, AdvantageGo, was joined by Ed Gaze, Acting Head of Innovation, Lloyd’s, and Moshe Tamir, Founder and Managing Director of Axell, as moderator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The past few years have seen monumental shifts in data-driven marketing and advertising in insurance. However, data silos continue to exist among a proliferation of channels that make it hard to cultivate a cohesive customer experience<\/a>. Leon, Ed, and Moshe discussed how data is transforming how insurers interact with customers and the risks, challenges, and opportunities for insurers in partnering with third-party data providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kicking off the panel, Moshe asked what attracted Leon and Ed to participate in this discussion. Leon responds, \u201cI think from my perspective the reason why this topic is vitally important is because, if we can control the data, make the data work for us better we can create new products and services across the market.\u201d Replying to the same question, Ed remarks, \u201cIn the Lloyd’s Lab, what we do relies on data, and people bring in new data, better data, how they integrate it with insurers, and so it\u2019s a really important topic for us at Lloyd’s and obviously for insurance as a whole.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Data partnerships have been around for some time, and the size of the global alternative data market is expected to reach $17.4 billion by 2027 at 40.1% CAGR (2020 \u2013 2027), FinTech Futures<\/a> reports. This growth will inevitably affect the insurance market, and Moshe’s next question asked panelists where they see the biggest opportunity for organisations to accelerate and improve underwriting<\/a> by leveraging data partnerships. Leon discussed how many insurers lack the time or infrastructure to access large data stores to improve operational efficiencies, enter new markets, provide new products or augment customer experiences, but empowering underwriters to unlock the value of data can change that. \u201cIf you can harness data to drive decision making at point of sale, and it’s not just us that say that, McKinsey says that that\u2019s where you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck in terms of operational growth and operational efficiencies. If we can drive that data to underwriters at the right time then they can open new markets, they can open new opportunities that they’ve never been able to grasp before.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ed commented on the value data can bring not just in underwriting but also along the entire insurance value chain. \u201cI see so many insurtechs coming with great ideas because they’ve got this special sauce of data and some way of understanding it that we currently don’t, and so working and partnering with those insurtechs and bringing something new to the market can help create new insurance products, or can help with claims solutions, can help with modeling risk. All this kind of stuff is super valuable, and we’ve got loads of examples in the Lloyd’s Lab where we’ve done that kind of thing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Can data partnerships not only be leveraged for underwriting, but also in supporting an ongoing dynamic pricing capability, asks Moshe. Leon highlights the work that Adiona, an innovative motor start-up is currently doing in harnessing data to improve the insurance<\/a> options for underrepresented communities in the UK based on their real-time driving experience as individuals, and not on historic rates and rules. Citing a comment recently<\/a> made by Lambros Lambrou, CEO of Commercial Risk at Aon, saying that history is no longer a determinate in predicting the future, Leon discusses that harnessing and sharing data is now the differentiator in how the industry can support clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about real-life examples of successful data partnerships? Ed speaks about Gaia<\/a>, a new insurance product that is making fertility treatments more accessible by alleviating the financial burden of IVF. Developed by Gaia and Lloyd’s Lab, Ed explains how data was captured, analysed, understood, and modelled to deliver a product, the first of its kind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Moving on to \u201cthe elephant\u201d in the room \u2013 Moshe asks if insurers see data partnership as an opportunity or a threat? Are they considering the opportunity to build capabilities internally or a threat that they will enable other players in the value chain to develop underwriting capabilities? <\/p>\n\n\n\n