ILC ARTICLE

ILC ClaimsTech launches 2022 programme

6th April 2022

ILC launched an exciting and ground-breaking year of events with the ILC ClaimsTech 2022 launch event at The Loading Bay in Shoreditch, London.

Sponsored by CoreLogic, the evening provided a fantastic opportunity for industry colleagues to network and share their experiences of a fluctuating market, before a keynote address from world leading futurist Richard Watson and a panel debate including Michael Porter, Senior Vice President, International, CoreLogic Protect, and Martin Milliner, Claims Director LV=.

Show me happy customers

The event was held under the theme of ‘Show me happy customers (and the money)’, and sets the ball rolling on a full ILC ClaimsTech 2022 programme which will include demonstrations, discussions, interviews and showcases of some of the latest technology influencing the insurance claims sector.

While crystal ball gazing has been a fool’s folly in recent years, Watson, a best-selling author of titles such as Future Files: A Brief History of the Next 50 Years and Future Minds: How the Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, has a renowned reputation for understanding and identifying trends.

Now a professor at the London Business School, having previously acted as advisor to the Cabinet Office and Strategic Trends Unit at the Ministry of Defence, he explained that the pace of data gathering will accelerate through trillions of sensors in our everyday lives.

Big Other

“The future will not be so much Big Brother, as Big Other,” said Watson, describing the ‘other’ as either big tech companies or governments.

For insurers, this aggregated data will offer what he described as ‘total information awareness,’ enabling them to calculate risk in real-time on a local and individual level. He predicted policies would change almost by the minute, according to the customer’s activities at any given moment, with an inevitable swing towards gamification in order to encourage safer and healthier behaviour.

Our vehicles, he continued, would be at the epicentre of this data gathering.

“10 years ago autonomous driving was in the slow lane of the implausible, now it’s in the fast lane of the inevitable. But I think the overlap of smart cars and dumb drivers will result in chaos.”

Advance of AI

One result of harnessing so much data will be the continued advance of artificial intelligence (AI) into all aspects of our lives, and while there is some ‘hysteria’ around this, particularly around creating a technology that can outsmart humans, he pointed out that narrow AI has been a part of lives for years through applications such as spellcheck, SatNav and Netflix recommendations.

He said, “Is AI a threat or an opportunity? It’s probably both. The future is ‘and’ not ‘or’. It’s a tool like any other and we can use it or abuse it, it’s up to us. But we need to be careful because it’s a fine line between noticing how people are behaving and trying to control that behaviour.”

But as influential as big data will be, Watson told attendees that its impact on society will depend on digital trust, and that can only be maintained if human interaction remains valued.

He said, “This technology is being designed by a certain demographic for that same demographic, and that’s not the world; it’s part of the world, but it’s not the whole world. I’m concerned about a future where there is no choice between automation and actually speaking to a person.”

Foundation of success

Watson was then joined on stage by Milliner and Porter, who agreed that in the insurance sector people must remain the foundation of any successful business and partnership.

They highlighted that acquiring and retaining talent would continue to be a key focus for insurers going forward, and, while mergers and acquisitions between traditional companies and insurtechs continue apace, they insisted that it was culture above almost all else that determined good partnerships.

Milliner said, “The starting point is always a cultural fit.”

Porter agreed: “Partnerships work best when you align your cultures and objectives. If you treat someone like a supplier then that’s who they will remain, the scope of the relationship narrows, but if you share a vision and set a joint goal you’ll get a much better outcome in end.”

People first

The same people-first approach is true in the claims journey. While automation can accelerate and simplify the process, Milliner pointed out that ENOL must guard against being seduced by a digital first and only approach.

He said, “Voice is the most powerful start you can make to a claim. If all you’ve got is a digital impression of the customer then you’re basically just guessing what they need rather than actually handling the situational element.”

Ultimately, it was suggested, technology has many benefits but to make it work it must be employed with the customer in mind, rather than just efficiency.