– Aniqah Majid, Fintech Finance
The insurance industry in Asia is full of digital life, from blockchain -based claims processing to satellite verification software. The Asia-Pacific region is to observe the fastest growth in specialty insurance, which is expected to get an annual growth rate of $ 69.11 billion by 2028. The Indian life insurance market is also expected to grow in a CAGR of 10.1% by 2027, the increase associated with the growing use of technology solutions.
The global east has set a profitable precedent for the insurance industry, which is confused by their push to experiment with data tools and policy personalization. Last month, the Insurtech Connect Asia Virtual Summit saw industry leaders from sectors including commercial, L&H and reinsurance come together to discuss why this market is particularly prepared for the opportunity.
With conversations running from automation to online customer preferences dominating the event, COVID remained ubiquitous in the discussion.
“What short-circuited sales cycles is COVID, it’s not any particular technology, COVID short-circuited that for the life insurance industry,” said Kalai Natarajan, General Manager of Digital Solutions and Marketing at Dai-ichi Life Asia Pacific. In the panel discussion “How Are Insurtechs and Digital Insurers Changing the Way Insurance Works?” Natarajan listed how COVID’s isolation has dug up changes in customer behavior. These changes include the remote sale and delivery of enhanced underwriting solutions, bitesize or based on the use of insurance, temporal in products such as COVID cover, telemedicine and home-based services.
On the subject of telemedicine, said Tomas Holub, the CEO and Co-Founder of CoverGo “We work with MSIG, they use CoverGo for Health, and how we started was very fast. The proof of concept was very successful, and after that, we went through full implementation within a month, basically cutting the whole cycle. of sales in less than two months. […] We started with group health first, as this is the main product to digitize at launch for all companies and SMEs, and the main point of the pain is customer service.
The pandemic and standardization of remote products featured and emphasized the basic needs that customers have always wanted from insurance, from regular consumers to commercial businesses. Swiss Re’s 2021 COVID surveys across Asia Pacific, found that two-thirds of customers are still worried about their health, more than half saying they need more medical insurance. KPMG the macro themes on the insurance side, that the companies that survive are the investors in trending products, this is the most important in digitalization.
Natarajan concludes with the point of culture, and how internal relationships within insurance companies need to change if new technologies are to work. “To move all of this, there has to be a commitment at every level of the organization, so from the beginning, it becomes easier because people at the work level look around and they see the changes happening.”
This follows a recurring theme that is taking over not only the insurance sector but all legacy businesses in banking and technology, around demographic change.
A report from Standard Chartered found that after the pandemic, more than $ 20 billion was invested in insurtech in Asia Pacific over five years. It also found that insurers are fitting in with a younger customer base in the L&H division, which is more focused on preventative healthcare and reward offerings. There is a push for strengthening wellness and gamified processing to further personalize insurance products.
Vincent Shi, the Head of Greater China and SEA at Remark, explained to the panel ‘Innovating Customer Experiences for the Post Covid Digital Generation’ the importance of insurers offering healthcare products. “Technology can enable the insurance company to offer health and wellness so that the value and benefits of the insurance product become more visible.” Shi makes the deduction that customers who are aware of their physical fitness become more curious about their future health, thus becoming more inclined to favor coverage.
“As we move into the younger generations, where younger family members interact with an agent, they have no connection, but still believe that personalization must exist,” he said. said Max Tiong, Vice President of the Digital Transformation Office at NTUC Income. Tiong considers the relevance of the banking sector to the insurance industry, saying “We need to connect our agents, we need to connect our digital channels, we need to connect our stores, and it’s all provides the same level of personalization experience to the same customer. ”
With the amount of data points collected by insurance companies today, from medical records to driving history, digital-based claims processing has the potential to be more personal than traditional interaction. of the agent to the customer.
Tobias Puhse, The VP and Head of Innovation and Customer Solutions, Asia Pacific, and MasterCard, was also mentioned in the discussion“You go to a website, and if you’re a returning customer, they’ll suggest you products, they’ll offer you loyalty, different types of offers and rewards that you wouldn’t experience if you went into a NTUC store or grocery store. ” The ability for digital services to do this, and automate front and back-office claims processing, is through data analytics.
A whitepaper from MABIGAT.AI mentioned that Big Data will be a $ 2.4 billion industry in 2018, and McKinsey their report predicts that by 2030 half of the world’s cars will be covered by telematics -based insurance policies, with markets from New York to Shanghai becoming more homogeneous.
By using the data, insurers can further streamline their processes up to touchless claims processing, installation of modern tools such as smart contracts and blockchain technology.
“Smart contracts are nothing but a computer program or a code, which shows, for example, a term of insurance agreed upon by counterparts, between an insurer and a client. An event will trigger, at the end of the day, and automatic execution of the smart contract, according to the terms set out in the agreement, with immediate settlement or payment, ” said Dom Braun, CEO of Lykke Business, during the discussion, ‘Delivering Smart Contracts through Intelligent Information Management.’ Because these types of agreements are written in code, they are stored in an encrypted blockchain. This technology has already proven effective in the insurance sector.
Edmund Situmorang, Chief Technology Officer of Prodigi (Sinar Mas Group), spoke about the need for blockchain in handling personal data“It is almost impossible for us to store such a large piece of information in one place without a way to ensure it. […] the three-dimensional works of the blockchain have helped us understand that there is no other way of doing security in terms of maintaining data integrity. ”
Smart contracts are still new to insurance, but their implementation could solve important issues currently plaguing insurers in cost reduction and oversight.
Implementing automated solutions, with AI and ML, at end-to-end claims processing, reduces the amount of time that will be required to process a claim, thus reducing the amount of cost and manual labor, which can be better applied to the adversarial, personal, aspects of insurance.
“When we talked to our carriers, everyone agreed that we don’t have a unified system that tracks end-to-end travel,” he said. said Chirag Jindal, Head of Insurance and ServicesNow in his presentation ‘Improving Loss Ratio and the Claims Experience.‘”When we think about engagement, it’s not just front engagement. That front engagement can be quick and easy only if it’s tied to the back of the office.”
Their white paper, BluePrism features the key benefits of automating back-office operations. The use of robotic processing automation (RPA) will ensure accurate results because they have no human bias, a Deloitte the survey found among its respondents that RPA adoption increased accuracy by 90%, and further 59% and 86% in cost and productivity reduction.
The BluePrism whitepaper also lists several areas where automation can be incorporated, primarily in the onboarding process and in claim settlements.
With automated document processing and verification, claims can be handled more quickly and attentively because it reflects the current habits of online shoppers.
“When you think of your customers and distributors, they demand the consumer -level experiences they’re used to. They’re used to the Uber of the world, the DoorDash, the Venmos of the world, and they demand that experience from their carriers, especially their claims organization, ” said Jindal.
Reuter featured in their Asia Pacific review that the region is particularly exceptional in their use of data analytics to offer more personalized, on-demand insurance. This is especially true for insurers like Dai-Ichi and Bajaj Finserv, which recently launched app with dispute-free access to insurance products, including a subscription-based wallet and Covid cover.
These insurance companies have found a winning solution in digitalization, one that prioritizes needs in the context of customers.
About InsureTech Connect Asia
InsureTech Connect Asia is the largest insurtech event in the region, offering unparalleled access to the largest and most comprehensive gathering of tech entrepreneurs, investors, and insurance industry executives from across the APAC region. ITC Asia will be held on June 7 – 9, 2022 at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Center. Get a 20% discount on current prices when you use the promo code: FF20. Register now to secure your seat. For more information, please visit: https://asia.insuretechconnect.com.
