Depending on who you choose to believe, tech is either the revolution that the insurance industry has desperately needed – or it is potentially its biggest threat in centuries.
While there are undoubtedly opportunities for insurers and brokers alike to grasp on to with tech – and potentially the chance to boost their relations with consumers by offering a more tailored, individual service – there are threats waiting too with many pinpointing the car insurance sector as most at risk, particularly if driverless cars take off and dramatically reduce accident rates.
However, according to Thomas Buberl, chief executive of
AXA, the main threat of tech’s burst on to the insurance scene does not come in the car insurance sector – it comes in the health insurance arena.
“Technology companies may attack us on motor insurance but they will mostly attack us in health. If we do nothing then in five years they’ll run us over,” he said in an interview with
The Financial Times. “They will break down the barriers between pharma and device companies, and between doctors, hospitals and patients.
“Driverless cars are less of an issue as we can be the intelligence and protection for the manufacturers. I believe the big revolution will come on the health side.”
It’s a point that plays close to AXA’s own business – it has a significant health insurance operation that yielded some €2.7 billion in premiums during the last year alone. The company has been on an expansion drive too, having picked up Simplyhealth last year and taking over a stake in Medlanes earlier in 2016.
However, the threat from tech companies appears to be very much on the AXA radar, with Buberl explaining to the publication that they have the potential to collect and analyse data rapidly – with Google already producing a smart contact lens that can bypass blood tests by measuring glucose levels in tears.
Indeed the health insurance market has been a clear target for insurance start-ups, but Buberl is hopeful that if big tech companies did choose to look at the market, his company would have a significant advantage as it already works across 64 countries and he believes “they don’t want to talk to 60 providers around the world. They want to talk to one partner. Their speed challenges us.”
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