12th September 2017

As InsurTech fever grips the industry, insurers, brokers and insurance tech companies are re-visioning their solutions and structures to take advantage of the opportunities presented by new technologies and adapt to the needs of consumers and retailers.

To survive the ever-shifting InsurTech landscape and provide an attractive, innovative way for consumers to engage with insurance products, insurance retailers and their partners must embrace three key concepts: creativity, simplicity and agility.

The disruption that guides conversations on FinTech and InsurTech demands that tech companies and insurance retailers take a more creative approach to insurance products, incentives and technologies. With investment in InsurTech start ups reaching a record high, innovation has become more vital than ever to remain competitive in the current digital market.

Both insurance retailers and their partners must embrace the opportunities presented by the rapid progression of technology. This includes experimenting with new technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things and the cloud, and supporting models such as P2P, subscription and 'breakable' insurance propositions. Technology is an opportunity for software partners to help retailers make insurance easier to understand and regain consumer trust. While the underlying principles of efficiency and convenience in insurance technology remain the same, there is a marked shift in focus from thinking purely in terms of distribution to focus on simplifying what is a complex product to engage consumers.

Simplicity in insurance means moving away from long, traditional quotation forms to more natural, conversational interfaces that are simpler to navigate and meet the customer at their preferred touch points. This ethos should not only shape how customers shop for cover, but every aspect of the customer journey, from how customers access and manage their insurance to the product's payment model.

With the market landscape shifting and technology changing at a rapid pace, insurance technology companies can take the lead by using agile methodologies to boost the speed of development and delivery of new software.

Agile empowers businesses with greater flexibility and collaboration, favouring simplicity and creativity with focus on delivering the best results and best value for customers. This approach supports shorter development cycles that enable companies to respond quickly to new market trends and opportunities, resulting in new products reaching the market more quickly.

These concepts of simplicity, creativity and agility are key to meeting the customer where they want to be and for the industry to adapt to the changes required of the ever-shifting InsurTech landscape.