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The life insurance sector is currently being affected by technological disruption, as new digital technologies force insurance firms to either adapt and change the way they interact with their customers or fall behind the competition.
Advancements in technology and changing customer preferences are driving this disruption. Customers now expert a more seamless digital experience from their insurance providers and demand hassle-free convenience and extreme personalization.
In this article, we’ll take a look at 4 important technology trends that are aiding the digital evolution of the life insurance industry.
1. Wearable Tech
Being able to access and understand customer’s health data and life expectancy is central to the life insurance industry. Insurers provide custom policy quotes based on how ‘healthy’ their customers are deemed to be in order to better forecast payouts.
Wearable tech provides a neat way of gathering health data. Fitness tracking and health-monitoring wearable devices have access to a huge amount of health data, including things like activity levels, blood pressure, BMI, and more.
Insurers are beginning to utilize these wearables by rewarding policyholders that agree to record and share physical activity data from their wearable devices. This allows insurers to offer a higher level of interaction and personalization, and even improve life expectancies.
2. Robo Advisors
Robo advisors are another technological innovation that is changing the life insurance sector. These AI-powered digital advisors can help customers to find suitable policies when they browse websites. They can interact with potential policyholders like a sales representative would, gathering data and using it to recommend specific policies.
This allows insurers to offer a high level of personalization and interaction without having to scale up their customer service team.
3. Blockchain Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are a blockchain application in which assets from two different parties are held in escrow until the transaction is complete. It provides a safe, transparent, and secure way of handling the life insurance claims process and ultimately improves the customer experience.
Smart contracts are also increasing operational efficiency in the life insurance sector by eliminating the role of third-parties and helping to eradicate fraudulent claims.
4. Comparison Engines
Comparison engines aren’t all that new. They’ve been around in some form for many years, but they’re now beginning to really take center stage in the insurance industry. Rather than searching for policies directly with the insurance provider, many consumers prefer to compare policies at a glance using comparison engines like Insurance Hero.
These types of websites allow customers to quickly compare quotes from dozens of providers without having to input their details separately on each site. This dramatically reduces the time needed to find and compare insurance quotes and improves the customer experience.
Considering the growing popularity of comparison engines, life insurance providers need to make sure they’re considering this marketing channel carefully and that they’re listed on all relevant comparison website databases.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
Rolands Selakovs Founder at avoided.io
14 February
Sergei Grechkin Chief Risk Officer at AIFM Cayros Capital
Katherine Chan CEO at Juice
Yuval Shuminer CEO at Piere
13 February
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