Insurance digital innovation is worth 18 billion dollars in Italy

New behaviours and technological trends: as in the paradox “What came first, chicken or the egg?”, it is often difficult to understand whether it was a technology that determined new behaviours, or rather the opposite, since business and innovations are often born out of a need, either emerging or hidden, encouraging humans being to work. From the time the wheel was discovered, onward.
However, be sure of a thing: the combination of technological trends and new behaviours is the direction for transformation in the insurance sector. A transformation needed by the Companies, already underway, starting to have a measurable economic dimension.
Accenture research shows that the market potential for those investing in digital innovation is approximately 375 billion dollars worldwide, with 18 billion dollars in Italy.
Connected cars, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, analytics, sharing economy and gig economy, these are the technological trends (and aspects of a new economy as well) with the greatest impact on any business and industry segment, including insurance. These have generated new consumers attitudes and expectations (67% of them want to buy whatever they need at any time and on different channels), which led to the economy of sharing and to the transformation of the working system, increasingly autonomous, flexible and remote.
Insurance carriers need to meet new business demands. For this to happen, it’s essential for processes and products to be innovative and for in-house and external expertise to be developed to improve customer interaction thereby ensuring new growth opportunities.
“Today, more than ever, we are living an age of evolution, characterized by relentless changes in lifestyles and methods, with technologies crossing countries and sectors”, said Daniele Presutti, Senior Managing Director, Insurance Lead for Europe, Accenture. “Therefore Companies must work with an approach enabling to discover the motivation of each of the consumers – goals, needs, feelings, actions – to develop customized offers. On the other hand, companies must create synergies between the “old” and the “new” through an investment approach to generate value while maintaining a focus on the core business, to be re-invested through targeted and wise trials in new business models and digital technologies, and then implement successful pilots on a large scale. For years Accenture has been supporting Insurance carriers in their digital transformation efforts and the establishment of the Accenture Insurance IOT Innovation Center in Rome unveiled today, is likely to further support them in imagining and implementing digital and IoT solutions to create new connections and ecosystems and become part of clients’ lifestyle”.
According to the consulting firm, returns for companies investing in innovation will be great. 50% of the estimated 375 billion dollars globally, is gonna be derived from new market acquisitions and the remaining 50% from new revenue sources. In a nutshell, it’s all new business.
Following on from Daniele Presutti, the key suggested by Accenture to develop the new business is to test new products, new services and new business models addressed to the end-user. This is the direction taken by Accenture Insurance IOT Innovation Center in Rome (the cover picture), where Italian and European insurance companies can test new products, personalized services and new interaction methods with the end-users in the field of IoT and AI.
As for research and testing of new insurance solutions, BNP Paribas Cardif is one of the companies most involved in the digital transformation. This company has long been playing on the field with several projects, including the open innovation initiative Open-F@b Call4Ideas (in partnership with InsuranceUp), now in its fifth edition. After having proposed in recent years call for ideas for technologies to support digital innovation and customer centricity, the new edition is addressed to the Positive Impact Innovation. The aim of this call, open to start-ups, scale-ups and innovative companies, entrepreneurs, young students, is to collect ideas and solutions having a positive impact on people and the community as a whole.