Insurance has the potential to transform lives, which is why it is considered essential. The potential to ignite financial confidence is synonymous with transformative change that percolates down to local communities worldwide. However, not all industry players and decision makers appreciate the power of InsurTech and embedded solutions. Only data-driven, razor-sharp visionaries can recognise its potential growth trajectory.
To fuel individual and collective growth, one needs financial resilience and creative imagination the way Steve Jobs did. And it’s probably what he meant when he declared,
“Stay hungry, stay foolish. Never let go of your appetite to go after new ideas, new experiences and new adventures.” Taking inspiration from this iconic quote, we could tweak this to, “Stay uninsured, stay foolish!”
Notably, InsurTech is not just about creating products or delivering services, it’s about disrupting the status quo by unleashing the power of innovative thinking and stitching it together with creative imagination to make it impactful. It’s about anticipating every futuristic need and providing a financial roadmap to secure a consumer’s aspirational goals.
In Andy Stevenson’s words, as cited in Bryan Falchuk’s bestselling book, The Future of Insurance: From Disruption to Evolution: “The insurance industry has certainly evolved; door-to-door salespeople with paper folders to online full-lifecycle management on a smartphone is a large step. In the context of a 100-plus-year time-line, this may not feel as big a change as offered by the ‘innovators’ or ‘disruptors’ of today, where digital technology allows a more rapid progression; but this needs to be put back into context.”
Contextual Insurance: Instant Risk Assessment and Higher Lifetime Value
In India, the insurance industry has largely followed a conventional path that provides a sense of stability and security to its consumers. As new lifestyles take shape and aspirational goals drive growth with young Indians, it is essential to recognise that insurance decisions are mostly contextual. Convenience, easy access and comparative listing of features and benefits add to the ease of decision making online.
Another way to look at embedded insurance is that consumers typically wouldn’t consider travel insurance until they book their flight tickets online. Thereafter, they are urged to take insurance that covers flight cancellations and baggage loss, among other things.
Today, If we look at some current global examples of how future-centric InsurTechs are tackling industry-specific challenges, there’s plenty of momentum to take cues from.
A key challenge for most InsurTechs pertains to the notable absence of historical data, thereby making it difficult to have thorough clarity in assessing emerging risks.
Embedded Insurance: Building Confidence Through Technology
Digital technology paves the way forward for a world of discovery to channel innovation in the industry and to open the golden horizon of growth opportunities through tech disruptors and new entrant innovators.
Worldwide, building confidence through innovation runs across as the basis of many InsurTech solutions. For instance, Wales-based provider Coincover looks at propelling mass adoption of blockchain technology by offering what the industry needs the most: trust and credibility.
A New York-based insurer, Stable protects businesses spanning Agriculture, Energy and Packaging sectors from the glaring risk of volatile commodity prices. Advanced technology enables them to reimagine risk management and deliver price risk management solutions.
Another global insurer Kettle is focused on building a better reinsurance model for protecting the world from the catastrophic effects of climate change. Their predictive fire model is known to have accurately forecasted wildfires in California’s top 20% of risk areas.
Worldwide, the power of innovation is taking the spotlight in the context of InsurTech solutions. In India, InsurTechs are spearheading the digital transformation journey with a wide spectrum of innovative solutions including the Phygital model, Bancassurance, etc.
Embedded Insurance is a perfect lifestyle experience for Indian consumers
There are plenty of use cases where consumers increasingly expect their Insurance experience to be tightly knit and well-integrated, if not fully embedded into their lifestyle choices. For companies, this offers a fabulous opportunity to potentially offer some core products on discount or for free trial, because it is being entirely monetised through the integration of embedded insurance services. In this context, Zopper has taken notable strides across multiple formats of insurance distribution such as Phygital, Bancassurance and Embedded Insurance, among others.
What makes InsurTech solutions more relevant is its agility in setting the context with the right set of audience at the right time. Increasingly, it is well-known that young Indians are keen to explore innovative digital solutions. Factors such as lower onboarding costs, easy collaboration with microcredit organisations and lending institutions.
Conclusion
Clearly, for InsurTechs, this is a great time to be scaling up in India. Establishing trust lies at the heart of their efforts of building innovations for the future. From urging traditional insurers to embrace the evolving culture of insurance-centric innovations to providing coverage to previously underserved segments, InsurTechs push the industry and society towards a more inclusive landscape.
