Forrester Predicts 2020 Will See Brands Stake Their Future on Sustainability

This latest analysis of 2020 and beyond comes from Forrester Research, who have a huge Customer Experience show lined up for June 2020 in YC btw;

In 2020, insurers will aim to have a stronger individual and social impact. We expect that:

Insurers will stake their brands on sustainability. A company’s approach to moral, social, and political values increasingly matters to its success. Insurers are taking note, competing on their ethical credentials. In 2020, more life insurers will divest from fossil fuels and launch impact investing products, health insurers will invest in connected health experiences, and property and casualty carriers will develop services that help communities mitigate and manage the impact of natural hazards. And they will widely publicize these efforts in order to court value-driven consumers.

Product innovators will shift their attention from connected car to connected home.

Insurers’ enthusiastic uptake of usage-based car insurance hasn’t translated into improved combined operating ratio or profitability. Now the growing adoption of sensors, smart home products, smart speakers, and the emergence of smart home data aggregators such as Plasmatic Technologies are driving insurers to explore new home insurance and health insurance products and services. For example, Aviva has acquired a majority stake in Neos, which bundles connected home technology with home insurance and 24×7 assistance.

Parametric insurance will boom globally.

Parametric insurance is hot. This trigger-based, fixed payout is providing fast and simple access to cash to both retail and commercial insurance customers, most often for natural loss events — earthquakes, wind, droughts, and wildfires. The breadth of offerings is remarkable: Buyers can protect anything from losses resulting from floods to damage to vineyards and coral reefs to terrorism, pandemics, and public disgrace. The coverage
has grown in Europe but has been nascent in the US. But in 2020, insurtechs with reinsurer backing will remedy the US demand-supply gap, as the frequency of 500-year events rise and agents get courted by offerers.

Open insurance will become a groundswell.

European regulators have unleashed global innovation with open banking. In insurance, the push will come from industry leaders, who have realized they are no longer able to satisfy customer expectations on their own. Some 27% of global insurance purchase influencers who prioritize accelerating their digital business told us that their
firms were creating digital-centric collaboration efforts or joint ventures with business partners in order to do so.10 Liberty Mutual fired an opening salvo several years ago, and others have joined, creating API — and services — marketplaces that surround the transportation, home, and small business experience.

Claims management will win the lion’s share of internal resources.

Claims costs are spiraling due to volatile weather and rising fraud and repair costs.11 To keep them in check and to lift the claims experience, insurers will pour resources into claims management. Many are investing billions of dollars to modernize claims management systems and are now exploring emerging technologies such as computer vision, AI-enhanced text analytics, and machine learning to deliver speed, accuracy, and certainty to the claimant.12 And insurtech firms in those areas will see a flood of venture capital and interest from carriers.