Innovation driving new insurance start-ups

Innovation is driving new insurance start-ups, suggested a panel at the Insurtech Showcase presentation during the  Intelligent Automation event in London today (Tuesday, May 21), sponsored by  Slice Labs.

Three new start-ups introduced themselves, with Philippe Lafreniere, chief growth officer of Slice Labs, kicking off the presentations. Lafreniere said that Slice Labs has recently launched Slice Mind, a product that turns data into action.

Slice Mind is powered by an insight engine that helps companies with personalisation, experimentation, simulations, predictions, risk modelling, and product recommendations. It combines AI, machine learning and behavioural psychology to transform data insights into actions to deliver real business value and advantage for companies looking to future-proof themselves. The behavioural science element is provided in collaboration with Max Bazerman, the Jesse Isidor Straus professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.

Lafreniere said the technology means customers are saving money via lower cost ratios. Slice Mind operates through an insight engine that is open to insurers to allow them to predict risks. They can experiment – develop a hypothesis, observe it, manage it, and then run simulations, to learn with models. Results can be used to ‘nudge’ customers, promoting or rewarding actions and behaviours.

Forbes McKenzie, CEO of McKenzie Intelligence, said his company takes intelligence from around the world on natural catastrophes and provides images and data from space or the air, to provide imagery of the damage for quick analysis. This allows underwriters to track properties in the affected area and evaluate damage.

Finally, Avinoam (Avi) Baruch, chief operating officer of Previsico, spoke about the real-time flood predictions that his company offers. He said flooding is increasing around the world due to global climate change and that surface water flooding has particularly affected the UK.

The panel concluded by agreeing that there are fantastic opportunities out there in the insurance market and that added efficiencies are always attractive to the industry.