From the many thought-provoking conversations that Everest Group analysts engaged in at Formation ’23, three main themes emerged about the future of insurance technology. These priorities are: integrating a humanized and people-centric approach, leveraging data to make intelligent decisions, and strongly emphasizing the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ecosystem. In this blog, we will take a closer look at these growing trends and explore their potential impact on the insurance industry.
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Formation ’23 on May 8-10, hosted by Duck Creek Technologies (DCT), provided an excellent opportunity for Everest Group analysts to engage in exciting conversations with the community of insurance enterprise leaders, technology providers (from DCT and its solution partners), system integrators, consulting firms, and other analysts, about what will drive the next era in insurance.
Based on the dialogue we heard, the following three themes stood out to our team:
- Building humanized and consistent experience will be the key to success
Delivering high-quality personalized customer experience is taking center stage in the insurance industry’s current transformation as carriers move from their traditional role as loss payors to becoming empathetic insurers and guardians for customers.
Digital experience platforms, distribution management systems, and smart communication platforms are becoming increasingly relevant to streamline operations, provide seamless and consistent digital experiences, and engage customers more effectively.
Data will play an important role here by equipping insurers with the right information that they can use to personalize and humanize the experience for individual customers. Interestingly, DCT also gave us a preview teaser of its new product – Elea, an AI-powered and empathy-driven chatbot slated for release later this year.
- Infusing data and intelligence into insurance operations is the industry’s top priority
Data-driven intelligent decisions are a key priority for the industry. As the insurance industry moves toward AI-powered workflows, infusing data and having standard data models at a value chain and workflow level will be a major demand.
We found it interesting to see various point solutions offered by technology providers, such as CogniSure’s AI platform, which helps automate the underwriting process by converting structured and unstructured data to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
We also heard many discussions about early use cases of Generative AI (GAI) for operational tasks (emails, presentations, etc.), GAI-powered chatbots, and writing codes. But concerns remain about using this fast-growing technology in core operations.
- SaaS sprawl requires attention
SaaS sprawl was another theme that dominated conversations. While the point solutions across the value chain come with the benefit of speed to market and bridge the capability gap on the top of core systems, integration across these remains a concern as these solutions often don’t talk with each other.
Enterprises leveraging a wide number of these point solutions now see the need for digital rationalization. Most of these software platforms have evolved and added new functionalities. But enterprises are not taking advantage of the latest features because they are either unaware of these benefits or because they are paying for other software with the same purpose. This leads to duplicate costs and less value.
These conversation themes and focus areas resonate well with what we expect from the industry in this environment, but we felt some upcoming trends did not get enough attention from the community – low code/no code technology being the most prominent one.
As always, Formation ’23 was a great experience for Everest Group to interact, learn and exchange thoughts and points of view with industry leaders about the future. The fun atmosphere in Orlando, Florida, complete with country music, delicious food, and drinks, added to the interesting conversations, resulting in lasting memories.
To discuss these insurance technology trends in more depth, please contact Ronak Doshi and Roma Juneja, who attended this insightful event.
Continue learning about insurance technology trends in this blog, Uncovering a Massive Insurance Industry Cloud Opportunity.
