The High Cost of Being Unprepared: Part Two (An Insurtech Tale)

The January edition of Best’s Review contained an article entitled, “Turning a Corner”. The article was about so-called insurtechs (as if insurtechs are something other than the insurance technology we’ve known, loved, developed, and used for decades.) It said this, in part:

Through the Great Depression, there were as many as 300 U.S. auto manufacturers. But by the 1960s, the Big Three in Detroit controlled 90% of the market, after others died or were gobbled up by competitors. Similarly, it’s only been a few years since the word insurtech became part of the industry’s lexicon. Yet today … a current round of mergers and acquisitions in that space seems to follow a similar path as those earlier auto companies.

Well, yeah. “But what does this have to do with preparation?” we hear you ask. We’re glad you did.

Like Water

Everything evolves. Few things evolve as quickly as technology and its applications. As in nature, some of the things that evolve will survive. Some of them won’t. As with water, some of the things that survive will seep into usage, adopted by companies that recognize their value adapt to include them. The important question is not, “Which ones will survive and which ones will perish?” The important question is, “Which companies will be prepared to adopt and adapt to those that survive and constitute discernible value?”

In the insurance industry, we’ll all be keeping an eye on AI, on machine learning, on telematics, on personalized rating and pricing, on 5G, on the Internet of Things and the digitalization of everything. Again, the important question won’t be, “Which ones will stick?” The important question will be, “Which companies will be using core systems that will allow them to integrate the insurtechs that demonstrate discernible value?” Or to hone that question to two sharper ones: (1) Will you be ready?  (2) Do your core systems allow you to be?

Loaded

We’ll grant you those questions are loaded. But we can afford to ask them because we built the Finys Suite to enable that readiness. We just happened to think it was a good idea. Do you?

Are you prepared?

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Image by emerji.