5-Star Insurance Innovations, Products and Leaders in Asia

Fostering a culture of creativity is the key to driving innovation and a defining trait among the 5-Star Insurance Innovators in Insurance Business Asia’s fourth annual report.

David Lynch, group chief technology officer of bolttech, one of IB’s 2024 winners, says, “The expansion of Asia’s insurtech industry can be attributed to favourable demographic shifts, technological advancements and supportive regulatory initiatives that have encouraged greater collaboration between new entrants and incumbents alike.”

Industry expert David Leach, CEO of cloud-based insurtech JAVLN, also underlined the strong connection between innovation and culture.

“You need an innovative culture, and that’s a culture where the team and employees can create and put new ideas on the table,” he says. “They’re given some space to look at data, talk to their end users and collaborate to impact change. A culture where people are taught and encouraged to think for themselves are all the good qualities you need to develop innovation, including everyone in the business, not just executive teams.”

The 5-Star Insurance Innovators are key players in a rapidly growing insurtech across Asia, which has an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.34%.

Moridor Intelligence states, “Companies are adopting artificial intelligence, big data analytics and blockchain to streamline processes, elevate customer experiences and tailor coverage. This tech drive is fueled by the region’s tech-savvy consumers who demand seamless digital interactions.”

Leach highlights that to be globally relevant, insurance innovators need to:

• ensure software is highly configurable to meet diverse customer needs across different countries
   

• address challenges such as compliance and regulation through configuration, not customisation and development
   

• adopt SaaS models for flexibility and speed
   

• avoid reliance on slower development cycles caused by excessive customisation

 

Leach adds, “You don’t need every single person in the company to have deep domain knowledge. To be an innovator, you need to understand the problem you’re solving and to go quite deep on that and work with end users.”

For that reason, Leach points out that business analyst-type roles are worth their weight in gold because of their ability to talk to end users and translate what they need, then build that for them.

To innovate at a faster pace, he suggests that insurance innovators should prioritise:

• transitioning to cloud-based platforms
   

• embracing serverless operations to focus on core strengths while outsourcing the rest
   

• collaborating effectively with cloud vendors to maximise efficiency
   

• adopting software that integrates seamlessly with other platforms to enable smooth data exchange, delivering a unified end-user experience

 

“You can’t innovate on an island; you must innovate together. Where insurance is getting stuck is the inability to connect systems,” says Leach. “They’re also struggling to move from desktop to cloud, but they’re getting there. They want to move to the cloud, but they get very stuck where the integrations are either not built yet or not well connected.”

The 2024 insurance innovators are excelling at collaboration and partnerships, whether in technology or services, creating solutions that feel seamless and innovative for the industry and end users, Leach emphasises.

They also recognise the growing importance of tackling emerging risks, such as cybersecurity, where breaches are increasing and affecting premiums and how companies navigate their insurance needs.

Leach says, “In a fast-changing world, with challenges such as climate events and geopolitical tensions adding layers of complexity, these innovators play a role in simplifying things for their customers. The winners in the years to come will be those who can solve the complexity so that their customers don’t have to worry about it.”

The Top Trends in Insurtechs for 2025 conducted by Gartner found that 58% of insurance respondents allocated increased funding for digital innovation. This trend towards digitalisation and business automation, accelerated by COVID-19, is projected to continue into 2024, with insurtech playing a vital role in enhancing insurers’ performance through modern technologies.

The report also identified three trends expected to have the most significant impact for 2025 that demand immediate attention by insurance CIOs, shown below.

In APAC, hyper-personalisation is driven by evolving customer expectations for tailored experiences. Capco’s recent insurance survey showed that 94% of policyholders in Hong Kong and 90% in the wider Greater Bay Area would be motivated to share additional personal data with insurers in return for a range of benefits, including:

• more personalised services
   

• cheaper premiums
   

• enhanced claims processes

 

The results are similar across other surveyed markets, such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Respondents also reported they are open to new ways of sharing personal data, such as wearing wireless smart devices and using them at home.

IB Asia’s 5-Star Insurance Innovators of 2024 have pushed the industry into the future with groundbreaking technology, products and distribution channel strategies.

IB Asia invited insurers, brokerages and service providers from across the region to submit a nomination detailing their steps to introduce new innovations to the insurance industry.

Lynch says, “The increasingly pervasive application of AI, cloud computing and predictive analytics in insurance operations and across the value chain has set the stage for incredibly transformative changes in the coming years.”
 

 

 

Convenience

As South Korea's leading digital non-life insurance service, it allows customers to complete various tasks in a few clicks, including:

• getting a quote
   

• paying their premiums
   

• filing claims, tracking the status and receiving payouts
   

• chatting with support
   

• uploading relevant documents and details

 

Streamlined customer journey

• leveraing various tools and functions of the messenger app, the insurer minimised manual input of information

 

Customer empowerment

• enabling customers to use a do-it-yourself function to select plans with coverage suggestions based on social graph data, with options frequently chosen by customers of similar age
   

• providing information on duplicate coverages based on scraped data from the national insurance regulator

 

 

In South Korea, insurance has long been viewed as complicated and inconvenient.

Kakaopay Insurance is flipping that script and has earned a 5-Star Insurance Innovator award for being the first Korean insurer to run a major service platform from a business account chatroom within a single messaging app.

By embedding a comprehensive, end-to-end insurance service in KakaoTalk, the messaging app used by over 90% of Koreans, Kakaopay has made insurance easy and accessible.

With over two million overseas travel insurance subscribers on its flagship product since launch 16 months ago, Kakaopay is winning over customers in record numbers with its commitment to convenience and transparency.

This significant achievement is demonstrated through:

• a 50% conversion rate from quote to premium paid
   

• a conversion rate three times higher than competitors
   

• 99% of claims filed online

“We have a culture where we respect each other’s expertise while working together to solve problems,” says CEO Brad Chang. “It’s an environment that encourages freely sharing diverse opinions and trying new things, which provides ample opportunities to learn.”

The company’s collaborative approach to turning an idea into an innovation sets it apart as an industry leader, characterised by:

• futuristic mindset where team members take the initiative to find and solve issues and proactively suggest areas for improvement
   

• horizontal structure that brings together people from various roles, backgrounds and expertise

“We brainstorm and work together; communication and collaboration are important within our company, which has been key to innovating successfully,” says Chang.
 

 

The global leader in claims management has harnessed its extensive experience and digital footprint to create a robust ecosystem of digital tools through the core components known as smart.ly and viaOne.

The company’s digital tools address various aspects of claims management, including the availability of information and services, timeliness, accuracy, transparency and discretion of information shown to stakeholders.

smart.ly

• offers a flexible, API-based platform that allows claimants to easily notify losses online using custom-built forms
   

• addresses high-volume incidents or claims events by integrating advanced technology, such as real-time system interactions, AI, optical image analysis and intuitive scripts, behind the scenes to simplify the intake process
   

• provides intuitive scripts that make incident reporting easy, with new scripts created within hours, not days or weeks
   

• uses AI and automation capabilities to reduce the claim approval process from days to seconds, while connected APIs quickly ingest and share information from various sources, including weather data, traffic data, policy databases and fraud detection watchlists
   

• features API-based architecture that integrates with clients’ in-house risk management systems

viaOne

• provides a configurable, secure web portal that allows insurers, corporate policyholders and brokers to view details and real-time updates of their claims portfolio
   

• draws data directly from the adjusters’ claims management system, ensuring that updates by adjusters are immediately reflected
   

• enables corporate policyholders or self-insureds to track their claims through viaOne, with access to both live and historical claims and self-serve reporting tools to gain insights that improve their risk management program
   

• removes the busy work from claims processing, directing adjusters to claims that need more attention and time with customers

 

 

Sedgwick is uniquely positioned to combine digital and data science for innovation in claims management, highlighted by its integrated digital solutions that demonstrate the impact of relevant, rapid data for faster, more accurate and more transparent claims decisions.

The company’s insurance innovation saves vital time when handling major events when claims volumes are high and physical site visits may not be possible.

Sedgwick’s team has witnessed first-hand the powerful benefits digital claims platforms can offer brokers, insurers and policyholders: improved customer experience, greater transparency and faster claim close times.

With the rise in widespread catastrophe losses, the 5-Star Insurance Innovator’s digital tool suite has proved invaluable, helping clients collect and process claims data faster than previous fragmented and manual methods.

“Sometimes, the simplest solutions make the greatest market impact,” Asia’s chief executive officer Stephen Kerr says. “Sedgwick has done this by transforming how claims are handled via innovation and creating digital claims platforms.”

Sedgwick’s data and technology team saw an opportunity to improve the claims process by:

• reducing friction for policyholders
   

• mitigating fraud risk
   

• benefitting an entire ecosystem of service partners

“Technology has revolutionised many industries, from banking to e-commerce, but I think the insurance industry has yet to fully embrace technology to the same level,” Kerr says.

“When customers can see the whole process of their claim, it can help answer their questions and ease their doubts or anxiety about the claim. They know exactly where their claim is at any point in time. Our tools, smart.ly and viaOne, bring that timeliness and transparency to claims notifications.”
 

The general perception of insurance as difficult and unfriendly inspired KakaoPay to innovate and break that negative stereotype.

“We wanted to show that insurance can be easy and convenient,” Chang says. “One of the aspects that our customers are most satisfied with is the simplicity of filing claims and the compensation process.”

Team members focused on making claim payouts easier and faster by launching the country’s first instant payment service using AI-powered optical character recognition. This technology enables customers to upload photos of their documents to receive their insurance payout for simple claims in less than a minute.

Sedgwick’s customer feedback has been positive and suggests using its digital platforms smart.ly and viaOne as transformational in their experience.

“There’s definite client interest in our digital solutions,” says Kerr. “They have said it helps improve the claims process for everyone that touches the claim, giving them greater visibility and improved efficiency.”

The company has seen results in action for policyholders, third-party partners, brokers and insurers, with its digital tools well received.
 

Through an open and transparent approach to communication with customers across the insurance journey, Kakaopay is helping to quell long-held misperceptions about the industry.

The company achieves this by:

• using simple and straightforward language to inform customers about policy details and their entitlements
   

• sending messages to remind customers how to file a claim and get reimbursement

We can solve these problems because our organisational structure is dedicated to technology, compared to traditional insurers,” says Chang. “More than 50% of our employees are software/system developers, and 30% are service designers, whereas only 5% of employees at traditional insurers are software/system developers, on average.”

 

At Sedgwick, the obstacle encountered by the team was seen in the early adoption of technology in the claims process for stakeholders.

While the insurance industry has yet to embrace technology fully, the insurance innovator is working to close this gap.

“We are a major contributor in this endeavour, as we relentlessly find new and better ways to do what we do best, which is to manage claims,” says Kerr.

“Our digital tools are flexible to address clients’ demand for technology solutions but also allow for traditional methods of processing claims,” he adds. “Our clients can still call our experts and talk to someone about their claim in their native language. Across our nine countries in Asia, it’s huge to be able to offer both types of solutions.”
 

 

5-Star Insurance Innovations, Products and Leaders in Asia

• 
  bolttech
   
  
• 
  Kakaopay Insurance
   
  
• 
  Sedgwick
   
  

• AIA Group
• AXA Hong Kong
• Beazley Security
• Cover Genius
• Crawford & Company – Asia
• discovermarket
• Finology Group
• Igloo
• Zurich Insurance (Hong Kong)
• Zurich Malaysia