September 2019 – Underwriters have come to rely on the many public and semi-public data sources and advances in AI. It’s now possible to take what has been a manual data-gathering process for underwriters and automate the matching, gathering, and analysis of this data, allowing it to be used in a similar manner to more traditional structured sets.

This report reviews the public and semi-public data available, the technology that is changing data collection, and how data can impact insurers’ underwriting and analysis. It also includes brief profiles of prominent providers including Carpe Data, DataCubes, Enigma, Guidewire Cyence, Intellect SEEC, Maprisk, Planck, and Terrene Labs. These data sources and vendors lean toward small commercial, but the implications are important for all insurers.