The use of data and analytics will be key for ensuring the industry remains relevant to clients, a global exec has said.
With emerging risks playing a massive role in the development of the future of the insurance industry, Paul Mang, global CEO of
Aon Analytics, said that while the industry is presented with an opportunity an investment in data and analytics will be paramount.
“What we call emerging risk is really an opportunity for growth,” Mang told
Insurance Business.
“We need analytics to model those kinds of new risks because insurance is the assessment of risk, followed by mitigation and when necessary the transfer of risk. All of that requires modelling.
“I see it as how we will grow the relevance of insurance. Where we don’t use data and analytics, we will become less and less relevant because many of the risks that are traditional have become less and less important.”
Lambros Lambrou, a member of the Global Aon Risk Solutions operating committee, as well as CEO for the business in Australia and a member of the Pacific board of the company, backed the importance of investment in data and analytics as a way for the industry to increase its relevance to its clients in the current turbulent climate.
“Data and analytics plays a key role in enabling transparent discussions around how risks are evolving. [It also plays a role in] how do we identify, quantify and understand how that risk is evolving so the industry can meet that opportunity with insurance solutions that enable customers to make better choices around the risks they are going to retain and the risks they are going to transfer,” Lambrou told
Insurance Business.
Insurance has a long history of its use of data and analytics, with Mang calling the industry “the original big data industry” as data has played such an important role in the development of the global business.
Mang said that, in the Asia Pacific market, the use of mobile technology offers opportunities to the industry to cement its role in the lives of customers. As the penetration of insurance in the industry grows hand-in-hand with the use of mobile devices, Mang noted that “leap-frogging” may occur with clients accustomed to a digital rather than physical presence.
“Mobile has become so standardised and I think that will be something that all insurance carriers, as they talk about growing and expanding in this market, really have to think carefully about,” Mang continued.
“It is also a huge opportunity because you get to collect a different kind of data.
“It is an opportunity for a different type of relationship; you don’t just interact once a year, you have an on-going relationship.”
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