The ITC DIA Europe team has recently begun to host a series of webinars. Every month, we’ll be getting insights from the most influential decision-makers in the industry who will be showing you how to tackle the latest challenges and stay ahead of the competition. For our first webinar, we heard from Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen, Chairman at Aon Group Holdings, and Ali Hasan, Chief Medical & Healthcare Officer at Vitality to discuss what impact current economic trends would have on the insurance industry and how to navigate the stormy waters ahead. In case you missed it, here are some important key takeaways from the session.

Will insurers have to start focusing on cost over service?

Ali Hasan: Cost and service are not mutually exclusive terms. And I think if you look at what’s been happening in insurance, more widely technological transformation, which is happening really in every B2B and B2C industry within insurance, is going to help customers get the products and services they want.

How to think about technology implementation?

Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen: I think the big question for the industry, and especially the C-suite of the insurance companies and broking houses is how do we adapt the technology into our business models? And how do we as quickly as possible learn from it? Because technology is abundant, but the way we manage and the way we actually implement it in our systems processes – for example in claims and underwriting will be extremely interesting for artificial intelligence – it’s going to be crucial.

How will tech investments be affected in 2023 and what will result from that?

Ali Hasan: I know that in 2021, depending on which report you look at, between 10 to $15 billion were invested in tech alone. That number came down slightly in 2022, but all the larger companies I’m speaking to are continuing to ratchet up their tech spend. I suspect what will happen is that there’ll be continued investment in tech by larger organizations to help transform their core operations, to give the kind of experience and products that customers want, to give flexibility and to give agility. But for newer services, a lot more will flourish in the areas of partnerships and the areas of strategic collaborations.

What can insurers implement into a successful talent strategy?

Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen: I think it’s crucial to take a look at how can we educate our workforce again in a manner which provides them also with the skills and capabilities they need today. If you look at Yuval Noah Harari, everybody knows his “Lessons for the 21st century.” He’s stating we need to unlearn our fundamentals and we need to learn new skills and capabilities for future use. Many of those capabilities are requiring digital knowledge and digital skills.

What do you make of the insurance industry’s future?

Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen: I think it’s important to make sure that our products align with the needs and requirements of our clients, and that our processes internally are managed as efficiently and effectively as possible using all available technology. Make sure you learn from the technology, make sure you adapt your business models and make sure that all those various new solutions and innovations continue. For me, the quote by Jack Welch always stands out: “If the pace of change outside your organization is faster than the pace of change within, the end is near.”

Ali Hasan: We need to think about the skills, capabilities and culture that we use in the ecosystem to succeed. We also can’t lose sight of the fact that despite the fact that it’s more difficult for insurers to make things better, they are trying to help reduce the risks that exist intrinsically and actually to help minimize those risks overall in the first place. This means there is a bright future, it’s just a lot of work to get to it.

ITC DIA Europe’s Point of View

Speed and efficiency are going to be fundamental for insurers moving forward. Much as we saw with COVID there will of course be huge downward pressure on teams to succeed in difficult circumstances. However, with many insurers far more digitized than ever before, they are much better placed to ensure continued success as long as they’re able to leverage strategic partnerships to take on some of the workloads if budgets become smaller. Fewer insurtechs will likely receive investments from investors, nonetheless, we can expect investors to back their portfolio companies with increased funding. This, allied to many insurtechs switching to B2B models, could facilitate even faster innovation and improved customer service for insurers.  

Interested in sponsoring one of our webinars and having a seat alongside other industry leaders and experts? Contact Mariëlle directly to discuss the opportunities.