While 2021 heralded a potential return to “normal” for property/casualty insurers, emerging variants of the coronavirus causing COVID-19 have made it clear that there is no going back to the world we knew in 2019.
Return-to-office plans are being delayed yet again, and the movement known as the “Great Resignation” is only making the insurance industry’s talent issues more apparent. Roles like underwriters and claims adjusters were already difficult to fill without needing to backfill employees seeking greener pastures.
2022 will be shaped by all of these factors, but it’s not all bleak. Property/casualty insurers are finding ways to improve efficiency, adapt to an increasingly remote workforce, and engage with customers on their preferred platforms while navigating the uncertainty of life during a pandemic. This year, property/casualty carriers are taking digitalization to the next level to improve the insurance experience.
Here are some of the top trends Aite-Novarica Group sees dominating the property/casualty space in 2022:
- Insuretech will become a mainstream area of focus.
While carriers have been interested in the capabilities insuretech startups have offered for years, investment in emerging technology is becoming increasingly common. Even traditional core systems vendors are getting more involved, broadening their partner ecosystems to include insuretech solutions or acquiring startups with strong capabilities. - Purpose-built AI-based solutions will become more popular.
Cloud-based solutions rooted in AI technology that were created for an insurance-specific purpose are gaining traction. Insurers are using these applications to give employee productivity a boost and provide additional business benefits like accessing data feeds from Internet of Things devices or automating damage estimation. - Insurers will optimize their claims departments.
Intelligent decisioning and other types of AI are being used to optimize the claims process; in some cases, this means automating tasks and determining the next best action. Incorporating AI into the claims process also helps claims workers have the right information at the right time to identify potentially severe claims, claims that might lead to litigation, or instances of claims fraud. - Carriers will identify and combat the ever-evolving world of insurance fraud.
As technology evolves, so do the types of fraud that insurers must contend with. Carriers are using a multilayered approach to minimize their risk of fraud. For many, this includes the addition of a chief fraud officer who oversees fraud risk minimization efforts across the organization. Cloud computing and AI tools like image analysis are also helping insurers identify suspicious activity more effectively.
To learn about the rest of the top ten trends Aite-Novarica Group foresees impacting the property/casualty market in 2022, please register for our webinar on February 1: Top 10 Trends in P/C Insurance, 2022: From Disruption to Evolution. If you can’t make it, you can read about these areas of the industry in our report Top 10 Trends in Property/Casualty, 2022: Succeeding in the Face of Uncertainty or reach out to me at [email protected].