Frontline underwriting firm, Leadway Assurance Limited, has declared that the future of insurance largely depends on the relationship between the insurer and the insured.
It noted that insurance operators that want to remain relevant must conciously create digital channels that are customer-centric by always appealing to the needs of the customer.
Speaking on the topic “Insurance For The Future In 2021” at the virtual training for insurance journalists organised by Leadway Assurance Company Limited, Mr. Akinyemi Alebiosu, Principal Investment and Strategy, Leadway Assurance Limited, said that underwriting in the future was going to be driven by data. According to Alebiosu, if companies have proper data, they can predict incidents of loss and properly price it.
He said: “Data is the new oil and underwriting in the future is going to be driven by data and analytics. We are getting to a point where we will be using historical records, using robotics, artificial intelligence in making decisions of pricing, type and extent of risks we take. “Insurance companies of the future will seek to collect large pool of data, analyse it, try to make meaning of it, prepare or create predictive models, and at the end of the day make decisions that will make the product better.
“For example, in analysing the data, I want to know the pain point of our customers, what is their biggest concern, how am I able to create products that meet these needs at the lowest cost because if I have a proper data I can predict incidents of loss and properly price it and also know what their price point is.
“So, at the end of the day, if we use data and analytics correctly in our underwriting process, the customer will be happy, the underwriter will be happy and all the stakeholders will benefit from the insurance ecosystem.”
Alebiosu stated that digital channels would soon displace insurance agents despite their current dominance of the market.
According to him, “insurance is largely driven by agents and brokers, it is only a matter of time that the digital platforms will out number insurance agents in the distribution of insurance.
So for insurance companies of tomorrow, for insurance products, we need to conciously gravitate from directly selling to customers to creating digital channels that are customer friendly and customer-centric