At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the question on every businessperson’s mind was “How will my industry be impacted?” and “Where will this go 6 months from now?”. With now that we are past the 6-month-mark since this disruption hit the United States, we are now living in the moment that we were all trying to get ahead of.
So, what does it look like now?
Fulcrum Digital’s industry thought-leaders have been servicing our clients through this disruption. For insight for the Insurance Industry, we turn to our VP of Insurance Practice, Kalyan Gopalakrishnan.
The last 6 months has been both a challenging time and a very opportunistic time for the Insurance Industry. During the times of the pandemic outbreak, the entire industry was put to test in many levels. From people working remotely, to sudden change in risk profiles, and to the apparent need for digital presence, many carriers were pushed to go beyond their limits. While some of them could not raise up to the expectation, many went far beyond. Some of the traits of carriers who took this as an opportunity include extension of payment grace period, showing flexibility around underwriting, life insurance using data instead of medical exams, and rapidly moving toward digital presence.
There is a surge from the customer side looking for life, disability and homeowners insurance. This has definitely pushed the carriers to significantly change their investment strategy towards digital transformation. Many carriers and reinsurers are looking at AI/ML based engines to automate their life underwriting process. Carriers along with Insuretechs are looking at IoT devices to better manage the claims processing for Home and Auto insurance. Even though these experiments have been going on for several years, this pandemic situation has brought a significant acceleration towards driving specific outcomes.
As we look at the future of the Insurance industry, it is going to face a new normal. Several fundamental aspects that shaped the industry so far will be permanently changed. The last few years of rapid innovation within the industry definitely puts many of the carriers in a much better roadmap not only to face this challenge, but also to emerge successfully.