Insurers must make tech work for them, experts say

Two industry leaders joined Intelligent Insurer to explore how innovation and advanced technologies are transforming the insurance landscape.  Shannon Travis is the vice president overseeing the technology practice in insurance at the multinational IT services and consulting company, Genpact, and Ryan Bradley, vice president of commercial underwriting operations at Donegal Insurance Group.

Insurance carriers worldwide have invested millions in technology across all lines of business. According to Bradley, these investments offer organisations the opportunity to enhance efficiency, improve customer experiences, and drive profitability—all while achieving healthier business outcomes. “The key is to focus not on features, but on results,” he emphasised.

However, Travis pointed out that each division within an insurance company often seeks its own technological solutions without considering a holistic approach across the enterprise.

As Travis explained, the pace of insurtech innovation means there is always a host of new products, tools, and solutions being launched—a lot of “shiny squirrels”, as she put it—and it’s easy for carriers to get swept away by the buzz.

A fragmented strategy can lead to inefficiencies as carriers struggle with rapid technological advancements.

"As a carrier, you're constantly facing new challenges, and the drive to be the best makes it even tougher," she explained. "You never want to miss an opportunity." However, she emphasised that discernment is key: "Knowing when to say no is just as important as knowing when to say yes."

“It’s about how a carrier can find and utilise the right technology across their whole enterprise and landscape to make them an effective and efficient insurer.”

Tailor tech to the business

"Personalising experiences, whether it is for an internal distributor, a direct customer, employee, or salesperson, using technology is key to capturing new market opportunities."

Achieving these goals begins not with technology, but with a deep understanding of the business and its customers. As Bradley emphasised, “technology should adapt to serve the business and its customers—not the other way around."

“Being able to customise the delivery and experience is essential,” he said. “No one wants to be a commodity in this space. They want their business partner or their insurance company to know them.”

That will always be the challenge with technology, he said. “Many organisations, particularly in the insurance space today, have struggled to put the whole puzzle together, aligning it with their underwriting discipline, their values as an organisation, and the market segmentation.”

For Genpact, that means starting with the business and finding the technology to fit its needs.

“As a provider and a partner, we take the time to look at the data and understand the current processes, workflows, and technology,” said Travis. That means calling on P&C and change management experts as well as IT teams.

“They pull the whole story together, bringing industry best practices and standardised workflows that tie to the technology the carrier wants to use,” she explained. Then the goals are essentially the same: “Standardise, optimise and then automate.”

Humans play a critical role

The benefit of technology working with the business is making operations more human, not less. Removing manual and non-valuable tasks should free employees, according to Travis. 

“It lets employees focus on the value-added capabilities they bring to the table to support and nurture relationships and focus on the customer experience,” she said.

“That helps you start to differentiate yourself as a carrier.

“Avoiding the constant churn of technology and focusing on solutions that holistically support your key initiatives help carriers excel”

“Everyone says: ‘AI is going to take our jobs’ but it’s not true. The decisions still require people, and they are empowered by input from AI to deliver better outcomes.” 

As Bradley explained, AI provides the data and insights; the people are best placed to direct it where it will generate the best outcomes “creating use-cases and applications that can be practised on a daily basis.”

In that sense, investing in solutions, goes beyond just technology.

“It’s also an investment in the employee experience, empowering them to make tough calls, good choices, and solve problems quickly,” he said. “That’s really the solution that we are working towards.”

To find out more visit www.genpact.com  

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