In the ever-changing saga of insurance and technology, insurtech has often been typecast as the power-hungry villain, but after this year’s InsureTech Connect 2018 conference, technology is taking on a new role.
“In the first year of InsureTech Connect, it was very focused on the disruption – getting rid of agents and brokers, chatbots and finding new ways to disrupt the lead generation channel,” says Laird Rixford, CEO of Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC). “That created a lot of concern from agents and brokers nationally. In year two, it migrated to more of a conversation about how carriers were getting involved in the mix and changing to meet the needs of consumers going forward. This year was a transformation.”
Unlike previous years, the majority of this year’s attendees targeted insurance carriers with ways for them to improve their operations, processes, and consumer experience, explains Rixford.
“It was exciting to see all the great new ideas, from text and chatbot solutions and better claims response times to better ways to understand and underwrite risks – those were the big takeaways that were there,” he says.
But perhaps the most notable aspect from this year’s gathering was how agencies are shifting sentiments to embrace technology like never before.
“In the first year there were barely any agencies [at the conference]; this year, there were more agencies because they were open to the conversation and open to learn. Fear is a good motivator for a lot of agencies, and it is good to see agencies take stock in a technology environment, so they can build themselves to compete and thrive with it,” shares Rixford.
