Innovations Disrupting the Consumer Insurance Market

Dave Patel is an accomplished Senior IT Executive with over twenty-five years of professional experience in Strategy Development and Execution and Business and Digital Transformation. With his knowledge in process reengineering, managing people, systems, and associated operations across boundaries and cultures, Patel currently holds the position of CIO Commercial Insurance - Senior Vice President at FCCI Insurance.

What recent trends and innovations have you observed in the Consumer Insurance Space? 

Digital transformation has brought about many changes in how industries operate, and consumer insurance is no exception. With the wave of digital transformation hitting the sector, companies are proactively adopting innovations like automation to boost the ease of business. 

For example, if an individual wants to open or reserve an account, they can do it automatically. An account is opened based on who the individual is, their primary risk location, how they are insured, and what they do as a class of business. As an insurance company, we can fetch all the data for that particular insured and offer them products based on their occupation. The data helps us skip the intermediate steps in the quotation process and present the data straight to the customer and validate it. We can offer the customer with the premium options from which they can choose. Upon payment, the policy can be electronically delivered to them. These are a few examples of how simple automation of purchase paths and claim experience is being affected by technological advancements.

"Digital and cloud adoption is here to stay. Automation and ease of doing business have revolutionized the industry, and instead of fighting it, we must embrace it and create more value for our customers."

We are constantly looking to create value for our customers and make their lives easier by improving their experience and making it more straightforward for them.

How do you envision the future of the consumer insurance sector?

Consumer insurance is expected to become a lot more commoditized in the near future. Buying insurance will be like buying goods from e-commerce websites, and there will be tons of open marketplaces available for consumer businesses to buy their policies. Once that happens, there will be pressure on commercial insurance, both small commercial and middle market. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to consumer insurance, and considering the complex risks involved, commoditizing commercial insurance fully may take longer than five years. However, there is scope for creating automation in commercial insurance to reduce the time it takes to develop a policy for commercial businesses and settle the claims. As the consumer insurance business get commoditized, commercial business need to get on with automation and ease of doing business. One who will do that will win the race. 

What would you advise your fellow peers in the industry?

I am a firm believer that digital and cloud adoption is here. Digital transformation is propelling technological advancements like automation and ease of doing business. And instead of fighting it, we must embrace it and try to create value for the customers. 

My advice for fellow peers and anybody who is in the same boat is that the primary focus should be serving the customers while aligning their interests with how the insurance company was born and brought up.