In the past five years, many innovative insurtech companies and technologies have emerged and rattled the insurance industry — unquestionably urging traditional insurance to bring major digital transformations to their businesses to uplift their sales.
What does Insurtech mean?
A combination of the words insurance and technology, Insurtech refers to new insurance technology that improves the customer experience, simplifies policy management, and increases competition – Insureon
Insurtech companies use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science to provide an improved user experience at an affordable rate. These companies possess disruptive technological infrastructure along with deep knowledge of the insurance sector.
These insurtechs are transforming the insurance industry by developing consumer-friendly products. Insurtechs have also made the process of purchasing insurance simpler, convenient, and more efficient for everyone. Now anybody can make an online purchase of insurance policies safely at home through user-friendly applications.
So, let us dive into some awarding winning cutting-edge solutions by innovative insurtech companies.
Innovative Insurtech Companies
Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards is a global competition held every year. These awards celebrate the best innovative ideas and practices in the insurance industry that benefit insurers and customers. The visuals exhibit insurtechs that have won the Insurtech 2021 awards by Efma-Accenture.
Winner | bAIby (Switzerland)
This innovation has rightly earned first place in the insurtech category in this year’s award ceremony. HITS and Jeniot, the innovative insurtech companies by Generali, won the Efma-Accenture Insurtech 2021 award for bAIby (pronounced baby but with Artificial Intelligence in the middle).
HITS and Jeniot with Zoundream created a steller product called BabyT that translates baby cries based on this AI-based technology. It is interesting to note that baby cries are universally similar in the early six months of their life. A baby makes five distinctive sounds showing hunger, discomfort, sleepiness, stomach pain, and need to burp. BabyT recognizes and interprets all these sounds. The AI-based solution bAIby interprets these sounds and provides indications on the baby’s needs.
HITS and Jeniot assisted Zoundream with the baby cry data by enrolling parents at Generali to test the BabyT prototype on their newborns. This technology processes the data gathered from these newborns’ sounds for the benefit of the babies and the parents. Additionally, this information has enabled the early diagnosis of various diseases, abnormalities, and disabilities.
Silver | Air Doctor (Israel)
This Silver award winner product makes it easier for its users to find appropriate health care services while traveling. It is very overwhelming to find a general practitioner or specialist in a health system abroad. The COVID-19 pandemic has already put extra pressure on hospitals. Besides, it can be expensive to visit a hospital in foreign lands.
That’s where Air Doctor’s technology seeps in. It is a smart network on an easy-to-use platform (smartphone app) that has details of physicians all around the globe making life easier for travelers and expatriates.
The platform allows customers to access physicians with their details across 70 countries in six continents and in four languages. The patient now can book an appointment digitally with a general practitioner or specialists at their clinic, home, or through telemedicine while stuck abroad.
The solution benefits not only customers but also insurers. For insurers, Air Doctor offers a digital link of customers and physicians to keep them out of expensive and overburdened hospitals abroad. Thereby, they can reduce claims and operational costs.
Bronze | bolttech (Singapore)
Lastly, let’s talk about our bronze winner in this insurtech list: bolttech. This data-driven digital platform powered by cloud-based technology powers connections between insurance providers, distributors, and customers. bolttech has three main capabilities — insurtech exchange, device protection and digital insurance. It makes buying and selling insurance products faster and more efficient via its technology-driven insurance exchange and distribution model. Through their microservice-based architecture, the insurers can quickly connect their customers to digital insurance products as per their needs.
Now bolttech has a network spanning 14 countries across Europe, Asia, and North America with $5 billion in premiums. It also has a competitive advantage to reach the market faster because of its capabilities to develop in-house solutions.
Moreover, the platform allows for a fast connection between insurance underwriters and concerned parties. boltech claims to be a leading device protection provider across Europe and Asia, featuring services like repairing, switching, upgrading, trade-in, and other digital services for your devices. In other words, it aims to make insurance processes easy and simply with the use of technology.
The Future of Insurance
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly forced every business to go remote including the insurance sector. The insurance industry has seen momentous digital transformations, and agent and broker that fail to adapt to these transitions are left behind.
So, we can easily conclude that the future of insurance is digital. bAIby, Air Doctor, and bolttech show how user-friendly and powerful digital networks can make the insurance process easy and less stressful for everyone. Now the customers can access hundreds of insurance options through insurtech solutions leading to enhanced customers engagement.
Lastly, the insurtechs pose risks to the traditional insurance model through their digital ecosystems. Therefore, if insurers want to move ahead and raise their sales, they need to align their technological capabilities with insurtechs — from digitizing their operations to acquiring or partnering with the insurtechs.
