Insurers throughout the world are having to face one of the stark realities of the digital economy – innovate or die. This is a huge challenge for many insurance providers. They’ve built their businesses on their ability to assess risk, invest capital and manage the collection of premiums and the payment of claims. Now insurers have got to emulate digital front-runners such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. They have to innovate to survive. They must develop new products, improve customer experiences, secure additional markets adapt their internal skills and culture and change the tasks their employees perform. This is not a once-off shift. It’s a constant requirement. And it’s going to get more and more pressing. Insurers that fail to develop the ability to constantly innovate will see their business rapidly eroded by more nimble carriers and a slew of agile, digitally-savvy newcomers to the insurance market. The need to innovate is being driven by several powerful forces. Each of them triggered by the rapid spread of digital technology. They include: Innovation was the focus of the recent Digital Insurers Network (DIN) gathering in Paris. The DIN is a European insurance industry think-tank co-ordinated by Accenture. At the Paris meeting nearly 40 insurance executives, consultants and technical specialists discussed ways they could improve and accelerate innovation. Innovation has rarely been a prominent feature of the insurance industry in the past. But judging from the talks at the DIN meeting, insurers have plenty of ideas about how innovation can drive their businesses in future. In my next blog post, I’ll discuss one of the big barriers to innovation identified by delegates at the DIN gathering. If you would like to learn more about the DIN, please email digitalnetwork@accenture.com. You can also check our “2016 Insurance Technology Vision” for more reasons to innovate. Learn more about this year's insurance trends in the Technology Vision for Insurance 2016 which takes a look at the primacy of people in the digital age.
Insurers must "innovate or die," according to a new Accenture blogpost. To survive, they must adapt to the spread of digital technology and implement a range of initiatives, including developing new products, improving customer experiences, securing additional markets, adapting internal skills and culture, and changing employee tasks. Competition within the insurance market will intensify: in the last year, insurtech start-ups have secured $2.5bn and many other tech firms are targeting the sector.