Commentary/Opinion
Duck Creek CEO Formations Keynote: Working to Simplify Insurance
Mike Jackowski, CEO, Duck Creek talked about challenges such as climate change and macroeconomic forces, and the combined challenge and opportunity of GenAI and other tech disruption.
“What does it mean to be simplifying within our industry,” asked Mike Jackowski, CEO, Duck Creek Technologies, during his keynote address at the company’s Formation’s 2024 user group meeting in Dallas on May 22 themed, “Simplifying Together.”
Jackowski alluded to simplification efforts commonly going wrong and noted the complexity of the insurance value chain, its distribution system and its regulatory environment.
Jackowski then set the stage by describing what technology has done to shape contemporary life, from the astonishing availability of information through Google, to rideshare and autonomous taxi transportation.
“Simplification doesn’t need to be that profound,” he said. “We can simplify a smaller, tighter or a really important process.”
The insurance industry must manage overwhelming complexity, and it can be a struggle to navigate its challenges, but the industry is at an inflection point, Jackowski opined. Speaking of his own immersion in Generative AI, he noted insurance’s essential informational character and said, “the responsible use of all the data we’ve amassed, and the application of this technology is going to be our moment to catch up and springboard across the industry.”
In undertaking its own contribution to simplifying insurance, Duck Creek relies on its partner ecosystem to tackle various aspects of industry complexity, Jackowski said.
“We work with over a hundred solution partners. They have so many clever solutions that are out there. They’re taking on some really complex parts of the value chain.”
Anthony O'Donnell, Executive Editor, Insurance Innovation Reporter,
How insurers can optimize claims and retain customers
Claims represent a pivotal moment in insurance, often determining customer loyalty and future business opportunities. They not only involve the insurer and the customer but also the beneficiary, creating a chance to impress and potentially convert the beneficiary into a new customer. This underscores the importance of a satisfying service process during claim handling.
Comarch, a global IT products provider, recently delved into claims transformation and how insurers should tackle this opportunity,
At the heart of every insurance company is the sales process, where the journey begins, primarily evolving to digital platforms that equip agents with necessary tools. However, claims management is crucial right after the initial customer acquisition.
According to the 2017 EY Global Consumer Insurance Survey, a staggering 87% of policyholders consider their claims experience a major factor in deciding whether to stay with an insurer. A negative claims experience is a common reason for customers leaving, hence ignoring it post-policy purchase is perilous.
How Early Insights and Integrated Solutions Drive Better Outcomes for Third-Party Casualty
It's no secret that bodily injury claims are more complex than auto physical damage (APD) claims. The subjective nature of evaluating an injury to the human body is usually more difficult than determining vehicle damage.
And while casualty claims make up only a fraction of an insurer’s total claim volume, they still account for nearly half of all claim dollars paid.¹ That's why it’s crucial for insurers to use data-driven insights and advancements in technology to help them improve accuracy and gain efficiencies to simplify and optimize the third-party casualty claims process.
According to CCC's 2024 Q1 Crash Course report, the recent outlook for third-party casualty is a "crystallization of a 'new normal' post-pandemic injury and treatment trends." This includes market trends like increased risky driving behaviors and elevated impact severity, medical care inflation, changing treatment patterns from hospitals and medical providers, an aging population and an aging claim workforce, and an affordability crisis leading to higher numbers of uninsured and underinsured motorists.
Greg Alling, Senior Director, Casualty Product Management, CCC Intelligent Solutions
Predict & Prevent
Westfield Insurance Launches Ting Program to Help Prevent Home Electrical Fires
Westfield, a U.S.-based property and casualty company, is launching Ting, an innovative solution designed to help enhance fire safety for customers. Collaborating with Whisker Labs, Westfield is offering the Ting sensor and three years of fire prevention service for free. Ting uses advanced smart plug-in sensors to monitor the electrical network of a home to help detect electrical hazards, alert homeowners, and lead them through timely repairs to avoid potential electrical fires. Westfield will provide Ting at no cost to 10,000 home and condo customers this year and plans to deploy the smart sensor and service to another 20,000+ homeowners over the next three years.
Steve Butler, AVP, personal lines product management and underwriting at Westfield says, "Part of our mission is to enable our customers' peace of mind and Ting does exactly that by giving homeowners advance notice to help prevent a potential home fire." Butler adds, "Westfield has a long history – 176 years, in fact – of offering insurance products and solutions to protect customers and communities, and this new technology is well aligned with our mission."
Ting is a widely adopted smart home technology with a proven track record of helping prevent electrical fires by giving advanced warnings to mitigate fire hazards before they cause a catastrophic loss. Ting can also detect electrical faults in the utility grid that could damage a home and potentially trigger wildfires in some areas prone to these types of natural catastrophes. Additionally, Ting can help predict issues that can lead to water damage inside a home and users appreciate the engaging, hands-on customer experience with valuable notifications and tips offered by Ting.
"The Whisker Labs Ting team is excited to join forces with Westfield to help prevent electrical fires in customers' homes," Shared Bob Marshall, Co-Founder & CEO of Whisker Labs. "As a company, we are committed to reducing home fires, while delivering an engaging experience that customers have come to expect through smart technology. Together with Westfield, we're proud to offer a product that helps keep homes safer."
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Crash data company QuantivRisk raises $925k
New York-based QuantivRisk has raised close to a million dollars, according to Crunchbase. Founded in 2020 and led by ex-Sapiens Chief of P&C Product and Business Strategy, John Pettit, the startup operates in the auto insurance space.
“Vehicles today collect enormous amounts of data. That data needs to be used to evaluate accidents. That’s what QuantivRisk does.”
QuantivRisk uses Vehicle Performance Data (VPD) generated by cars to establish undeniable facts and resolve accident claims. It claims to be the first company to evaluate accidents using next-gen technology and data science, providing the insurance industry, automakers, and other interested parties with a data-backed view of accident circumstances, eliminating subjectivity in claims resolution and liability determination.
Also, its CRASHVIEW™ tool is designed to provide an “instant replay” of a vehicle collision using VPD.
CAPE to enhance AI-powered property intelligence products with Vexcel partnership
CAPE Analytics, a provider of AI-powered property insights, has partnered with Vexcel, a provider of aerial imaging, to increase its coverage to over 99% of US households and adds access to post-disaster imagery.
The new partnership provides CAPE with aerial imagery at a resolution, accuracy, coverage, and recency to boost its property insights and expand its product footprint in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
For the last decade, CAPE Analytics has provided its predictive property risk insights to the top 30 homeowners insurance carriers in the US, and the largest investment banks in the world, among other clients.
Events
The 18 Largest Insurtech Events & Conferences in 2024
Calendar list of the top global insurtech (insurance technology) conferences and events. Geared towards insurance industry product managers, developers, marketers and C-Suite executives.
Below is our curated list of the biggest and best global insurtech events and conferences for 2024. These are the largest events in the insurance industry geared towards technologists, program managers, marketers, developers and C-Suite execs at both legacy insurers and upstart insurance tech firms.
Event details, dates, and prices are up-to-date at the time of publication but always check events websites for the latest. And once you do get approval to attend, buy your ticket right away to lock in early-bird savings, which can save up to $1,000.
ITC Vegas 2024 - The world’s largest gathering of insurance innovation
Insurtech Consulting, LLC and our ‘Connected’ newsletter are proud media partners of ITC Vegas 2024
Event Date: Tuesday, October 15 – Thursday, October 17, 2024
Event Location:
Mandalay Bay Convention Center 3950 Las Vegas Blvd S Las Vegas, NV 89119
ITC Vegas combines unbeatable networking with what’s new and next, ensuring your time will be spent meeting more people, sourcing more solutions, and creating valuable partnerships.
Discover solutions to your biggest challenges, gain access to unique and meaningful education, and meet the insurance industry’s best and brightest. Join the insurance event that doesn’t just bring the industry together – it moves the entire industry forward.
The future of insurance is here – at ITC Vegas. If you aren’t here, you are missing out on the conversations that are propelling the industry forward
Claims
Study: Insurance claims have become significantly more severe since 2020
We’ve been hearing about rising car insurance rates for a while now, but while it’s easy to blame corporate greed for the increases, some of the blame lies in the fact that insurance claims have become significantly more severe over the past four years. LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ recent study found that the costs for bodily injury and property damage claims have climbed steadily in recent times, contributing to the rise in premiums.
Since 2020, claims for bodily injury have risen in severity by 20 percent, while material damages coverage increased 47 percent. Parts and labor shortages contributed, as did increases in the costs of medical care. As LexisNexis pointed out, the more severe accidents have raised questions about minimum coverage limits and whether they are adequate to cover the increased costs.
There are 43 states plus Washington, D.C., that require $25,000 or less in coverage, while four states have $30,000 minimum coverage limits. Three others have minimums of $50,000, barely covering the average new vehicle price in the United States.
Total loss claims have increased 29 percent since 2020, and over a quarter of collisions in 2023 resulted in totaled vehicles. These claims are more expensive for the insurer and can be customer service headaches for drivers. Almost half of the people surveyed said they were dissatisfied with their experience following a total-loss accident, and 40 percent said it took a month or longer to receive payment for their claim.
Another factor contributing to the severity of claims is the fact that a greater number of people are getting legal help from an attorney. A majority of study respondents – 85 percent – said an attorney had approached them after an accident. Around 60 percent had been contacted by two or more lawyers, and more than half of the people who obtained legal help received more money from their settlements.
Announcements
Enlyte Launches Bundled Solution for Auto Bodily Injury Cost Containment
PrecisionDirect allows auto carriers to improve payment accuracy for provider services
During claims settlements busy adjusters often have neither the time or experience to negotiate and pay providers directly on bodily injury claims. Today, Enlyte is working to streamline that process by launching PrecisionDirect, an integrated provider negotiations and networks solution designed to free up adjusters to focus on claim settlement while securing savings on these bills.
PrecisionDirect's purpose is to help provide auto carriers with a way to improve payment accuracy on bills typically paid in full to providers treating the injured parties. By leveraging two methods of cost containment – the breadth of Coventry's network and the expertise of negotiators – Enlyte is able to facilitate fair and accurate bill payments.
Traditionally, adjusters wait to settle bodily injury claims until the injured party has concluded medical treatment and gathered their medical bills and records with the use of a signed authorization. Once these steps have been completed, adjusters may negotiate a settlement with the injured party. They then pay the claimant directly for the full amount, including any applicable general and special damages.
With PrecisionDirect, adjusters can send unpaid medical bills to Enlyte's negotiations team through a variety of user-friendly ingress points. Once received, the team of expert negotiators initiates strategic, data-enhanced and prompt-pay negotiations by directly contacting medical providers or their staff to obtain contracted discounts on those bills. Information is also garnered through the program's database to determine fair rates based on previous agreements. If the negotiation is accepted, the team works with the provider to execute a signed agreement that outlines the agreed-upon amount and the terms of the negotiation.
Revolutionizing motorcycle safety with cutting-edge Crash Detection
Leading the charge in motorcycle safety
We are thrilled to unveil a groundbreaking leap in vehicle safety: our pioneering Crash Detection technology is now available for motorcycles! At the forefront of extending privacy-first, mobile Crash Detection capabilities to motorcycles, we're setting a new industry standard. Our state-of-the-art approach harnesses the latest in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance road safety like never before.
AI and ML at the forefront
Our advanced Crash Detection system is powered by proprietary AI and ML models combined with sophisticated signal processing. Utilizing smartphone sensors and GPS data, our bespoke algorithms are tailored specifically for the unique dynamics and profiles of motorcycles. By continuously analyzing real-time motion data on-device, our technology offers a privacy-preserving experience on par with the privacy innovations of market-leading mobile operating systems.
Trained on hundreds of real-life crashes, our system boasts a high recall rate of 90%, accurately distinguishing between normal maneuvers and genuine crash events. With extensive datasets of motorcycle riding and crash scenarios, our models are incredibly reliable and sensitive to the needs of riders.
Market pioneers
Sentiance is uniquely positioned as the sole provider of such advanced technology for motorcycles. This places us at the forefront of rider safety and Driving Insights. Our comprehensive suite includes trip details, driving events, scores, profiling, and robust Crash Detection, addressing a critical gap in the market.
While many focus on car safety, motorcycles—vital for transport in many regions and the backbone of the food delivery industry—remain underserved. Our technology not only fills this gap but contributes to transforming rider safety globally.
Canada
Sonnet to withdraw from Alberta auto
Another insurer is backing away from Alberta’s auto insurance market.
Sonnet Insurance Company announced yesterday it will phase out its auto insurance operations in Alberta. The Definity subsidiary said Dec. 13, 2024, will be its intended date of withdrawal, upon which it will no longer issue new or renewal auto policies in Alberta.
“Limited opportunities for Sonnet to grow profitably in the current auto insurance operating environment in Alberta were a key consideration in making this decision,” the company said in a press release.
“This decision will allow Sonnet to continue to focus its efforts on profitably growing Sonnet’s auto insurance business in other regions across Canada,” Paul MacDonald, executive vice-president of personal insurance and digital channels, told Canadian Underwriter in a statement.
The company said it will notify its Alberta auto insurance customers impacted by the withdrawal.
Podcast Sponsor
Introducing 'Connected: The Podcast' --- Sponsored by Pulse Podcasts
Co-curated by Alan Demers and Stephen Applebaum, The Connected Podcast is a condensed audio version of the day's ‘Connected' newsletter, a daily scan of all the happenings in the world of Insurance & InsurTech News.
Pulse Podcasts: Introduce a new way for your audience to hear your voice! We are a podcast creation service that helps businesses turn their written content, like blog posts and news articles, into beautiful podcasts. Our platform writes the script, records the voices, and mixes the audio to create engaging content for your audience. It's affordable and has super-fast turnaround!
LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE BELOW