One industry veteran has spoken out about the future of insurance, saying the most meaningful progress will come once companies are able to master sweeping interconnections.
“The insurance industry has long been seen as a traditional and conservative space, however things are changing,” says James Maudslay, global head of insurance at Equinix.
“The advent of the digital era is having a transformative impact on businesses across all industries, and the disruption caused by new technologies […] has stirred up competition in the insurance sector for both existing insurers and completely new entrants.”
Pointing to digital advancements including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and blockchain, Maudslay says these developments have already prompted insurers to undergo massive, digitally-driven shifts. However, he also says the transition is in desperate need of improved interconnection.
“The key to reaping the fruits of such transformational technologies for insurers lies with their ability to interconnect everyone in a single ecosystem – be it a cloud service provider, banking partner, or customer – in a highly secure and almost instantaneous way,” Maudslay tells Insurance Business.
“This is powered by interconnection, which will play a crucial role in the digital evolution of APAC’s insurance industry, partly due to the need for greater efficiency, but also as a result of the need to partner with multiple other firms to enrich products,” he continues. “Insurance players – big and small – will need to compete on this basis.”
Maudslay also claims that, when asked about the future of the industry, insurance firms are united on the fact that new technology and data analytics underlie all their business strategies and development.
“It therefore comes as no surprise that some insurance companies in APAC are already investing in current tech trends, such as AI,” he says. “In the next few years, we expect to see such technological capabilities be much more widely adopted among insurers across Australia and the wider region, and witness the rapid evolution of the industry from being one of the most conservative sectors, to one that best embraces the digital age, fuelled by interconnection.”
