InsureVite

insurevite

Let's learn about via these 46 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Insurance /Learn Repo 1. Allstate Accused of Overcharging Loyal California Customers $1 Billion Allstate, the insurance company, has been accused of overcharging customers in California. 2. If You Do Not Report Your Gun Stolen or Missing You Can Held Liable For Crimes the Gun is Used For Crimes committed with stolen guns that were not reported remain liable for property damage etc. 3. The Insurers' Dilemma: Balancing Consumer Demands and Legacy Conventions In an era of rapidly changing technology, the greatest challenge facing the insurance industry is its ability to keep up with consumer demand. 4. Top 3 Benefits of Insurance Data Analytics The Importance of data analytics and data-driven decisions across the board and in this case insurance data. 5. "Insurers Miss Out On Millions Of Dollars In Business", Manuel San Miguel, Ignatica CEO Ignatica CEO and Co-Founder Manuel San Miguel discusses why he founded the company, AI and Machine Learning and why he should have gone to Japan sooner. 6. The Social Impact of Mixing Business and Medicine COVID-19 has been hitting the healthcare system pretty hard these last few weeks. In U.S. hospitals they are now facing critical shortages of equipment. As of the end of March, nearly 1 in 4 hospitals have fewer than 100 N95 masks on hand and 1 in 5 reports immediate need for more ventilators. Already back in February, the FDA reported shortages in drugs related to coronavirus. 7. A Guide to HIPAA Compliance in 2021 & Its Benefits Following HIPAA laws provides a higher level of safety for your corporation and its leaders. 8. The Perks and Obstacles of AI Adoption in Insurance Imagine that you are a leader at an insurance company. You know that artificial intelligence (AI) will give you a competitive edge and have decided to invest. 9. The Glorious Return of the Conference: Highlights from My First Tech Conference in 2 Years As the world reopens, it's becoming evident that the new Insuretechs don’t see what they are doing as disruption but as an evolution of their strategies. 10. What Are The Advantages Of Usage-Based Car Insurance? In recent years, Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) has become one of the most talked-about technologies in the automotive insurance industry - and for good reason. 11. A Digital-First Approach Could Take the Headaches Away from Buying Insurance A deep dive into major tech-driven changes within the legacy insurance industry. 12. Startup Interview with Ato Kasymov, CEO & Co-founder of Zentist 13. How To Be a Responsible Employer and a Leader in Times of Workplace Crisis Based on the type of work you are doing and the capacity in which your workers operate, any or more of the following occupational injuries can occur to your employees. 14. "All DeFi Applications Are Shooting For The Sky But no One is Wearing a Parachute" - Allan Henders There is a lot to take away from the price performance of the digital asset market in 2020. One of such is that the concept of bitcoin halving, as expected, is a major contributing factor to the success of the bitcoin market and has eventually delivered the level of price swings projected during the pre-halving days. Another is that DeFi is perhaps the most potent application of cryptocurrency technology, which makes it the most plausible instigator of the next wave of growth. In the months following the global market crash, the DeFi landscape has attracted around $14 billion worth of capital. Why is this so? 15. Can Robots Manage Health Benefits? In an attempt to manage soaring health care costs, some government officials and health care companies are turning to algorithms to determine how to allocate limited benefits, who to provide care to first, or whether a person should receive care at all. 16. Insurance for Digital Assets Can Help to Protect Users in the Crypto Space Cryptocurrency insurance can be instrumental in reducing the losses that come with engaging in the crypto market. 17. Fintech Is Dead: All Hail Insurtech Wall Street. Tokyo. London. Shanghai. Hong Kong. 18. How I can Save my Insurance Firm During Disaster? Natural disasters are unpredictable that has the ability to destruct the
globe entirely. It has so much force that even giant construction can
get into the ground in seconds, imagine where humans would go. In
such scenarios, one should stay full secure but preparedness is the
only way to combat a natural disaster. 19. What Does 2021 Hold For Insurance on The Blockchain? Blockchain has seen multiple use cases over the years, from simple payment coins to tokenizing art. But there is a class of projects aiming to build solutions to last over the years, with a level of complexity rivaling traditional business and financial structures. 20. Insure your Bitcoin with Options [A How-To Guide] 21. Technology Is Transforming The Auto Insurance Industry Faster Than We Know It Car insurance is about as dull as things can get, right? WRONG. In the dawn of artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics, just about every industry is undergoing huge transformation - and the insurance industry is no different. For instance, auto-reminders are now in place so clients can have a peace of mind - one of the many ways technology affords us more convenience. 22. Guide to Online Liability Insurance Application Thinking of applying for liability insurance for your business online? Congratulations, you have come to the right place! We will take you through each step of the process, so you know exactly what to expect when you apply online. 23. Cryptocurrency Insurance Can Protect You Against Hacks [Infographic] Crypto insurance is worth checking out in order to protect your cryptocurrency gains in the market. 24. Unlocking the Power of Artificial Intelligence in the Insurance Industry Today, artificial intelligence (AI) has barely begun to scratch the surface of the insurance sector. Here are a few of the most AI-friendly applications. 25. How Can Insurance Companies Pivot To A Digital-First Future With Technology? The future of the insurance industry looks bright with insurance technology trends such as AI, ML, cloud computing, hyper-automation and APIs on the rise. 26. A Buyer's Guide To Cyber Insurance, Cyber Liability, and Fraud Protection Cyber insurance can be a great way to protect your company against cybersecurity risks like fraud. But what are you liable for and what does insurance cover? 27. RPA in Insurance: Your Complete Guide 28. Unemployment Insurance Fraud Rose During the Pandemic A ProPublica investigation reveals that much of the fraud has been organized — both in the U.S. and abroad. 29. Did Insurance Companies Benefit From COVID-19? Lewis Carroll – author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland – once wrote, “every story has a moral you just need to be clever enough to find it.” The Covid-19 pandemic, for example, has taught us that things can always take an unexpected turn. The question then emerges, how can one protect against this kind of event? The answer is very simple – insurance. 30. Providing Decentralized Insurance Services Worldwide with Hybrid Smart Contracts In this piece, the CTO of Etherisc discusses the central role that hybrid smart contracts and oracles play in enabling parametric insurance products on-chain 31. "Be ready to fire youself," advised Markus Wunsch, Executive Chairman at Mount Wish Mount Wish was nominated as one of the best startups in New York City in Startups of the Year hosted by HackerNoon. 32. 4 Challenges Of Implementing AI In The Insurance Industry and How To Overcome Them AI in insurance comes with its set of challenges that can be pivoted into opportunities. Read all about it here. 33. Implementing a Bridge Between Next-Gen Insurance Claims and Exceptional Customer Service In the insurance sector, customer service takes on multiple roles and features at various touchpoints. 34. Hacking Auto Insurance: Are Givebacks a Good Deal? COVID-19 has changed the way many of us live our lives as stores, restaurants, and more have begun closing up shop, causing many to lose their jobs or start working from home. With millions now stuck in their homes, people are driving much less. Less driving means fewer low-speed accidents, and fewer incidents of aggressive acceleration. Insurance companies have started to give back to their customers to help them financially through the pandemic. Insurance companies are offering financial assistance and more flexible payment programs, penalty-free grace period for late payments, to pause cancellation due to non-payment, and waive deductibles for commuting healthcare workers. In response to the sharp decrease in Americans’ driving mileage, some of the nation’s largest insurers have begun to refund auto insurance premiums. Companies such as Allstate, Geico, Progressive, and StateFarm have returned a total of $14 billion to policyholders. 35. Drones Will Change The Insurance Industry It is never too early to be thinking about the future. And if you are thinking about the future, think about drones. 36. How Self-Driving Cars Will Change the Auto Insurance Industry Welcome to the dawn of the self-driving car era, and a subsequent emerging challenge: how to insure them. 37. Startup Largo Coin Found a Solution to Reduce Investment Risks Largo Coin Limited has launched a blockchain-enabled warranty service targeted at securing private investors’ funds. This project looks to partner with startups and established firms by providing a trustless investment relations solution. 38. Founder Interviews: Lingke Wang of Ethos Lingke Wang and the Ethos team have recently raised over $46 million in order to simplify and modernize the archaic life insurance industry. 39. The Defi Ecosystem: Risk Reduction by Defi Insurance Everything you need to know about DeFi insurance 40. Hacking Better Solutions With AI Powered Insurance Verification A look at how improving the healthcare insurance data capture system will improve through OCR and AI card scan. 41. Research: Organizational AI Adoption in the Insurance Industry Executive Summary 42. Insurance and Blockchain: An A-Z Guide The insurance industry is a huge market. In the United States, in 2019, the volume of paid insurance premiums amounted to a trillion dollars. However, despite such volumes, the industry is experiencing great difficulties, because of which insurance companies are losing more than $100 billion every year. 43. 12 Years of Blockchain: Where Are The Applications? There were a lot of talking about where and how blockchain is suitable. Attempting to stick the blockchain everywhere and to everything is a parody. 44. Is Cyber Insurance Worthwhile? A cyber attack can cost a business everything. Cyber insurance isn’t a bulletproof shield, so is it worth it? 45. Allstate's Car Insurance Algorithm: How Insurance Algorithm Squeezes Big Spenders Seven years ago, Allstate Corporation told Maryland regulators it was time to update its auto insurance rates. The insurer said its new, sophisticated risk analysis showed it was charging nearly all of its 93,000 Maryland customers outdated premiums. Some of the old rates were off by miles. One 36-year-old man from Prince George’s County, Md., who Allstate said in public records should have been paying $3,750 every six months, was instead being charged twice that, more than $7,500. Other customers were paying hundreds or thousands of dollars less than they should have been, based on Allstate’s new calculation of the risk that they would file a claim. 46. Allstate's Car Insurance Algorithm: How Insurance Algorithm Was Analyzed State regulators and consumer advocacy groups have scrutinized Allstate Corporation’s use of big data and personalized pricing in the way it calculates how much the company charges its private auto insurance customers. Thank you for checking out the 46 most read stories about Insurance on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

46 Stories To Learn About Insurance

361 Stories To Learn About Big Data

Let's learn about via these 20 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Hyperledger /Learn Repo 1. The Syllabus for Hyperledger 's Upcoming Open Source University Course A recent Hyperledger Lab, created this month has the goal of providing a university master level course on Blockchain Technologies, focused on Hyperledger Fabric. 2. The Glorious Return of the Conference: Highlights from My First Tech Conference in 2 Years As the world reopens, it's becoming evident that the new Insuretechs don’t see what they are doing as disruption but as an evolution of their strategies. 3. Maliciously Manipulate Storage Variables in Solidity [A How-To Guide] Smart contracts, in general, offer the ability to determine factors and expectations set out by the contract. In the field of programming, factors and expectations can be described as ‘variables’ and ‘conditions’ within the actual code. 4. How are Smart Contracts Executed in Hyperledger? A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to digitally facilitate, verify or enforce the performance of a contract. Know how it iexecutes in Hyperledger 5. Satoshi Nakamoto vs Centralized Blockchains: How Did We Get Here? As the world changes, so do its driving forces. When the war was the most universal language between the kingdoms, the arsenal, the weaponry was the main focus of engineers and scientists. And when the world realized the economy and prosperity would make a lot better medium, they shifted their attention to financial technology. 6. Hyperledger Fabric: create a Blockchain Network in under 10 minutes [no scripts] One of the biggest pains of getting started with Fabric, even though it's a powerful framework, is getting the infrastructure to work. This small tutorial will get you up and running in less than minutes. No script. No pain. 7. Hyperledger Composer is deprecated Hyperledger Composer is officially deprecated, you can check the message on Composer's Github repo and in the official Rocket Chat channel: 8. Enterprise Blockchain Technologies — A University-level Open-Source Course Enterprise Blockchain Technologies is a flexible, extensible, open-source university course, part of Hyperledger Labs🎓 9. Does CPU Clock Speed Impact Your Blockchain Node? If you are going to plan your Blockchain Network Deployment on AWS, Azure, GCP or even a Private Cloud. My question is how do you decide what metal should power it and then what's the definition of that Metal? 10. The Essentials Guide to the Hyperledger Family of DLTs, Blockchain, Libraries, Tools, and More When Hyperledger was announced in December 2015 and then further refined through early 2016, I saw all the corporations getting involved and I was immediately skeptical over the number of corporations getting involved. 11. Enterprise Blockchain Platforms: Current State and Further Development Over the past year, we’ve seen a lot of interest from clients in regards to Enterprise blockchain platforms or DLT technologies. Due to privacy, regulation and scalability concerns, businesses tend to go for Private permissioned ledgers instead of using the public mainnet networks that are available currently. As a result, we are seeing two projects that are gaining traction – Enterprise Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. In this article, we are going to explore and compare them. 12. 🥳 HAPPY BIRTHDAY HASHTAG! The hashtag started with this tweet 13 years ago. 13. Oracles for Hyperledger Fabric with Convector Suite How to gather data from the real-world (i.e.: APIs) and boost your smart contracts built with Convector Suite. 14. The Concept of Blockchain Views Today I would like to express some ideas and leave you with the concept of blockchain view. 15. Making A Case for OffChain Storage in Hyperledger Fabric [Deep Dive] In this article, I’ll try to explain the significance of OffChain Storage in Hyperledger Fabric and also the offchaindata application that I have built to demonstrate the offchain storage implementation using the Go Programming language for Hyperledger Fabric. 16. Hyperledger Fabric : Technical Overview [Part I] 17. How Blockchain is Revolutionizing the Supply Chain Industry A supply chain is a network of people and businesses involved in creating and distributing a product or service. It includes everything from the extraction of raw materials to the end consumers who purchase the product or service. A basic supply chain system involves suppliers of materials, manufacturers who turn it into a commodity, the logistics companies that manage the transportation of the raw material and commodities, as well as the final retailers that sell goods to consumers. 18. In First-Person Experience: Why Should You Become a Linux Foundation Intern? Last year, I was a mentee at the Hyperledger Summer Internship program, hosted by Hyperledger and the Linux Foundation.Here, I share with you some of the processes. A trick for applying is to build up some skills and to investigate the topic of the internship beforehand, if possible. Showing enthusiasm, and a sense of mission also helps. After applying, I got to know my mentor, David Huseby. Dave explained what he expected from the now realized blockchain course:Enterprise Blockchain Technologies (https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/university-course).The program was nicely paced, with my course being delivered in four phases. You can check the progress here: https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/INTERN/Build+a+university+course+on+Hyperledger+Fabric+using+Hyperledger+Umbra 19. Issues With Private Data and Confidentiality in Hyperledger Fabric [Deep Dive] In many blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, data confidentiality is a kind of excluded item in their blockchain framework. In these distributed blockchain platform transactions are executed in every participant node in the network. So, every transaction in the network can be visible to all the peers. The ledger update process through all the endorsed peers and has to reach an agreement among all before it committed successfully to the ledger. So, in this scenario creating a private record and comprises within a certain group of participants in the network is a complete “No”. 20. What is Protobuf in Hyperledger Fabric? [Explained] In this article, I’ll explain the technique used in serializing structured data using Protobuf in Hyperledger Fabric. Protobuf makes simpler in data processing and formatting. It structures the data with specially generated source code to easily write and read data within the same smartcontract. Thank you for checking out the 20 most read stories about Hyperledger on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

20 Stories To Learn About Hyperledger

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer. Hey Hackers! I’m and I’m the Software Development Engineer at . Rohit Mathew McAfee Enterprise First of all, a huge thank you to the HackerNoon community and staff for nominating me for a 2021 award! I’ve been nominated in the following categories please do check out these award pages and vote: Noonies HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - authentication HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - covid-19 HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - remote-teams HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - remote-work Post the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a significant shift towards remote work and cloud-based workflows. However, the task is to make sure they are well secured. We have seen multiple attacks like Colonial Pipeline, data breaches, and many more threats that have increased since the pandemic started. as a whole has risen in importance and as someone in the software development and cybersecurity industry, I believe that advancements in this area are very exciting. Cybersecurity While my interests currently lie in the development of scalable solutions, DevOps, Developer Relations/Dev Evangelism as well as smart AI-based systems, I'm excited by almost anything in tech. Learn more about my thoughts and opinions as well as my journey in the tech industry via the interview below. 1. What do you do and why do you do it? (tell us your story) I work at as an SDE on their platform engineering team working on building SecOps products. I'm also an working on sharing knowledge, tips, and best practices on topics relating to identity, security, and authentication. McAfee Enterprise Auth0 Ambassador There are no secrets to my inspiration. It's just that I love what I do. The challenging and gratifying feeling you get when you see people use a product you helped build and something that brings value to their lives is what keeps me going. I also enjoy giving back to the community and hence I write articles and try sharing my knowledge as much as possible. 2. Tell us more about the things you create / write / manage / build! At McAfee Enterprise, I work on building SecOps products and products to help enterprises better secure themselves. Outside my work at McAfee, I also spend time on a few personal projects that can be found on my . A few projects I’ve worked on in the past few years I’m proud to include are: Github : It is an online editor to help developers make readmes for their project. readme.so : A GitHub App built with Probot that requests more info from newly opened Pull Requests and Issues that contain either default titles, whose description is left blank, or templates not followed. Templater : Slack Notifier for India’s Vaccine Appointment. This checks the Co-WIN portal periodically to find vaccination slots available in the provided pin codes and for your age. Vaccine Notifier : It is a chatbot built on the Hubot framework to trigger Jenkins jobs and post status updates back to slack. Slack Jenkins Bot And last but not least, my that contains random bits and pieces of tech that I find interesting. I don’t really have a set rule for what I write about. I usually get really curious about something and then go about finding out more about it, and once I’ve learned a bit about it, the ultimate test that I understand is whether I can explain it to someone simply enough for them to learn about it without any prior subject experience. This is where my writing comes in. blog Outside of work you will find me generally creating a lot of music playlists. These can be found on my . I also actively play Fantasy Premier League and managed to get a top 200k finish last year. Spotify Profile 3. How did you end up on your current career path? Do you like it? Since I was a child I have always been fascinated with puzzles & logical problems. I started programming in primary school with simple LOGO programs and then slowly went on to C, C++, and Java. I was also extremely interested in Technology and the advancements happening in it. Thus I decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. During this time I went about pursuing internships as I am a staunch believer in understanding things both technically and practically. I managed to pursue 7 internships during that time. I started off with Android Development and worked on building multiple apps with friends in college as well as for companies. We even managed to participate in multiple hackathons and ended up coming Second in the Student Category in conducted by . Save the Hacker Freshworks My final internship was at . That internship helped shape a lot of things for me about technology, development, culture, what I like and dislike, etc. I worked as a full-stack engineer and that exposed me to engineering at scale. I was completely intrigued by this and it played into my childhood fascinations for puzzles and logical problems. This put me on a journey to become better at building products at scale which provide value to users. HackerRank After graduating I ended up joining a small Insuretech startup called . When I joined they were a small Series A funded startup with about 20,000 insurance agents on their network. Over the time I worked there the company grew 50x to 1 million + insurance agents and a growing SaaS business. Along with them, I grew massively. I was exploring things, building from scratch, and gaining so much real-world experience. Turtlemint During my time there I was also exploring Developer Relations and joined the Program. This program gave me a platform to explore how I could give back to the community and share my knowledge better. It also exposed me to a lot of interesting new things in the domain of Cybersecurity. Auth0 Ambassador Finally, here I am at . With the onset of the pandemic and the uptick in cyberattacks, I felt that this would be a great sector to get into. Not only do I get to work on building products that help secure some of our everyday activities but general mass awareness about cybersecurity and privacy-related topics are very few. I wanted to thus also help people understand the need for it and share my knowledge about such practices. McAfee Enterprise Like Naval said in his iconic Twitter thread, - I have pivoted many times in my short span of pursuing software development but I have learned a lot and believe I am going in the right direction. How to get rich ( without getting lucky) Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now. 4. What tech are you most excited or passionate about right now and why? Cybersecurity & Privacy Crypto Being someone who is very conscious of his security and privacy, I do try to keep my eyes open for new advancements in that area. Crypto has been such a buzz for a while now and I have been making small inroads exploring it. 5. What tech are you most worried about right now and why? Cybersecurity & Privacy AI I know both sound very cliche but with things becoming remote and online there is a growing risk of cyberattacks like Colonial Pipeline which could have major impacts on society as a whole. AI is another worry because technology can be used to improve or destroy peoples’ lives, so the main problem here is how we will use it? We have seen examples from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the Facebook whistleblower story on misinformation, and even mental health problems which lead to the question of how both AI as well Cybersecurity & Privacy related issues if not properly regulated can see capitalistic companies and nation-states cause havoc. 6. If we gave you 10 million dollars to invest in something today, what would you invest in and why? Considering this as a situation where I personally don't get the money but can decide on how I allocate the money I would focus on: - Coming from a country like India where rural infrastructure is not at par with developed countries, delivering education with access to the internet is difficult. I currently donate a lot toward this effort and would allocate money to upskilling the rural community and giving them access to technology and the internet. Education - Climate change and the effects it's having on the Earth are very clearly seen around us. It’s a cause I truly believe in and do my bit monetarily now as well, to save the environment. Hence this is another effort I would support. Climate Change - Having worked in multiple startups and seeing them disrupt multiple ecosystems I would allocate money to any interesting startup I find and would love to help them grow and scale. Startups 7. What are you currently learning? I generally learn about whatever makes me curious. Work-wise I am currently learning a few of these things: Golang Python DevOps Practices System Design & Architecture I am also working on: Improving my marketing & social media outreach Converting some of my articles into talks I believe the world works in systems (systems thinking). I am hence always working on improving my current understanding of this Trying to implement some of Naval’s wisdom in my life Other than these I am always reading up on things I have mentioned before. 8. What’s the best advice you’ve ever given someone? Don't think about it, just start doing it. The more you think about it, the more reasons you'll give yourself to not do it. 9. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? - How to get rich ( without getting lucky) Naval Ravikant - The Best Advice You've Ever Received Sahil Bloom - How to Make Smart Decisions Without Getting Lucky Shane Parrish - Self Improvement Shane Parrish - Systems design explains the world Avery Pennarun - The Product-Minded Software Engineer Gergely Orosz - Get your work recognized: write a brag document Julia Evans Thanks for reading! Thank you for taking the time to check out this post. For more content like this, head over to my actual or my . Feel free to reach out to me on , and follow me on . blog website Twitter LinkedIn Github About HackerNoon’s 2021 Noonie Awards The annual Noonie Awards celebrate the best and brightest of the tech industry, bringing together all who are making the Internet and the world of tech what it is today. Please be sure to , nominate, and vote for the people and companies who you think are making the biggest impact on the tech industry today. check out our award categories The 2021 Noonies are sponsored by: , , and Thank you so much to these sponsors who are helping us celebrate the accomplishments of all our nominees. bybit Dottech Domains Avast.

Your Resident McAfee Engineer on Cybersecurity, AI, and Career Growth

We’ve all attended all kinds of conferences, team kick-offs, and company gatherings in the past. And they all pretty much go the same way: CEOs tell us how exciting it is to be here and we all fake a reciprocal excitement level that weakens as the week progresses. However, for the first time in years, I was actually excited about attending a conference. It was held in Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay from October 4 through 6. It’s not an exaggeration that the energy and excitement at the event were palpable. InsureTech 2021 I was excited because it was my first day in my new role as a CRO with the Hong Kong-based insuretech company, . But, it was also the thrill of being in the company of nearly 6,000 people, under one roof, who - like me - sensed that after almost 2 years of COVID lockdowns and restrictions, it was great to actually attend a conference. Ignatica Excitement meant engagement and attendees couldn’t wait to share their success stories, failures, and plans for the future. On stage, companies used the forum as the opportunity to launch new brands — Haven Technologies being the primary promoter, using the stage to launch its new business, and CEOs to outline their vision for both their enterprises and the industry. Offstage the vibe was obvious; InsureTech will achieve the success of FinTech because we can learn from them and we have more time on our side. Consistently being told about the money available and how willing VCs were to have it put to good use was certainly good to hear in light of where Ignatica is in their journey. The speakers were exemplary. Two Highlights Two stand-out commentators came from very different ends of the spectrum but both left a strong impression. The first was Chubb CEO and Chairman who decided that despite his audience would poke a hornet’s nest in suggesting that Insuretech will not affect his business against the backdrop of his letter to shareholders — if you’ve not read it, it’s worth a look. Evan Greenburg 2020 Annual Report Insuretechs don’t see what they are doing as disruption but as evolution The second was , CEO of , a start-up insurer in the niche market of sports coverage. Burks stood out because of his strong position: Tackling a niche market successfully and growing market share through class-leading service was more rewarding than winning a tiny piece of the pie in one of the more traditional lines despite the possible comparative value. Tyrre Burks Players Health In hindsight… I left the sessions with a strong desire to look at how we at Ignatica can learn from both Greenburg’s and Burks’ views and understand how a niche market player can succeed whilst looking to challenge the traditional. From what I witnessed, industry focus seemed to align to three sectors, Embedded Insurance (click to pay at product purchase), Parametric Insurance (fixed payout against an insured event occurring), and Cyber (related to all things internet and its impact on businesses in the future connected world and our dependencies on it remaining secure and constant). To the latter, the timing of the Facebook outage couldn't have been more impactful (almost as if someone planned it) and it quickly became the primary topic of conversation, principally on how the industry will innovate to manage and meet the needs of customers the next time such an event happened. To my surprise, I was expecting a more aggressive line of engagement around disruption of the traditional providers but frankly, what was clear, is that the in the room don’t see what they are doing as disruption but as evolution, if a few legacy players get shaken up or in some cases acquired in the process, so what? Primarily there’s a belief that there’s enough pie to go around for everyone. InsureTechees I left with a sense of great optimism and anticipation. Ignatica is positioned to get its piece of that pie. Our technology has the ability to support both change in the traditional and a springboard to addressing the niche. I can see this through our current lines of engagement but also in partnership with go-to-market strategies that will differentiate all involved. Over the next few weeks, that will be a real focus for me as I follow up on the great conversations that were started at the ITC2021 demo hall and I look forward to seeing where the opportunity can take us. For the first time in many years, my conference excitement has lasted beyond the event itself. Bring on ITC2022! Rob Edwards is the Chief Revenue Officer for Ignatica. Originally hailing from the United Kingdom, Rob has held senior leadership roles in global, Fortune 500 insurance, telecom, and food processing companies on three continents. Lead Photo: Creative Commons/Håkan Dahlström

The Glorious Return of the Conference: Highlights from My First Tech Conference in 2 Years

Photo by on Alice Pasqual Unsplash If you’ve ever used the Internet to transfer money between accounts or apply for a bank loan or trade, you’re probably aware of how deeply rooted fintech has become in our day-to-day lives. In 2018, about used digital banking services and this number is set to exceed 65% in 2022. One of the newly-emerged traits of the 4th Industrial Era, fintech is an application of fast-evolving digital technologies to improve and facilitate financial services. 61% of Americans Companies are rapidly adopting fintech to keep abreast of the competition. The investments into this industry are also impressive: in 2018, it attracted in the UK alone, according to KMPG. over $16 billion investment On the other hand, entire countries are rapidly adopting AI technologies to compete for the biggest piece of the pie. South Korea to to strengthen its AI R&D capability by 2022. The plan includes the establishment of 6 new AI Research Institutes across the country. The country ranks 1st globally for R&D spending as a percentage of GDP (4.3%); in particular, a huge part of that spending covers AI. released an ambitious national plan invest $2 billion One more country that’s aiming to reserve its seat on the bandwagon with the world’s leading AI-driven nations is Israel. In 2018, AI startups raised over in funds. $1.5 billion Israel is a hotbed for AI talent, tracking at almost 4,000 developers, engineers and data scientists working on AI R&D and integration (software and hardware included). Of them, 64% are employed by startups, while 31% work for both local and multinational corporations with dedicated AI centers/labs based in Israel. However, the demand for AI solutions development, deployment, and maintenance is so high all over the world that the current national pools are simply not sufficient enough to meet the demand. It makes many FinTech companies leverage external AI talent pools to avoid being “locked” in domestic talent deficiencies and in order to speed up their time to market. For instance, an Israel-based 3rd generation blockchain platform SkyCoin for its AI-based solution development and hired a dedicated software team in Ukraine to accelerate time to market and access a much larger AI talent pool than the one available in their home country. couldn’t find enough Golang engineers FinTech is often believed to be the catalyst of the global AI-driven change, as many banks and financial organizations have already had a chance to pioneer AI to a certain extent and reap benefits, while many other industries stayed apart and waited to see the first successful use cases and justifiable ROI. According to FinTech Symposium 2018, companies that use robotic process automation (RPA) typically see within only 3–8 months of implementation. 40%-100% ROI The predictions are even more sensational. As per , a U.S.-based independent analytical agency specialized in FinTech, in the United States alone, AI will help banks and financial institutions save (as a result of RPA and other AI technologies); is expected to be saved with a substantial reduction in the number of specialists in cash operations, security personnel, and other staff. Autonomous Research more than $1 trillion $490 billion As you can see, AI and nascent technologies will be playing a key role in fintech transformation into a mature industry in 2019 and beyond. Let’s take a look at 6 cases of effective ML, NLP and deep learning use in the fintech industry to have a better understanding of how powerful and unique the transformational nature of AI is. 1) Customer service bots According to the number of studies conducted in recent years, would happily ditch their banks, if presented with a viable alternative. This tech-savvy generation had listed difficulty resolving problems, standing in long lines and unpleasant interaction with bank personnel among things they hate most about their banking experience. the overwhelming majority of US millennials The use of natural language processing (NLP), a set of technologies aimed at recognizing human language and speech, has propelled the evolution of to the level where they can perform an impressive range of operations: from virtual assistants to automatic claims processing. Virtual assistants turn the previously daunting experience into a pleasant one. NLP-based chatbots help customers sort through a plethora of financial products, create savings plans and control their spendings. For example, , a digital coach created by Sun Life, helps customers navigate through their benefits and pension plans. chatbots Ella In , most of the operations facilitated by AI use are customer-related: personalized telematic devices that track driving and fitness trackers reporting to insurance companies on exercise and health play an important part in client risk profiling used by insurance companies. AI tools then automatically select insurance products suitable for each risk profile and offer them to customers via virtual advisors. insuretech 2) Creditworthiness assessment NLP is the driver behind a so-called financial inclusion, helping maximize the accessibility of banking services for the previously unbanked population. For example, while in the USA and EU banks can assess customers credit history to evaluate creditworthiness, in developing countries most customers don’t have any credit history at all. Here’s when NLP and advanced text mining come into play: by analyzing the digital footprint customers leave while browsing the internet and using social media, the software generates a credit score that helps precisely predict their further behavior. 3) Algorithmic trading In 2017, according to , as much as 73% of daily trading activity was carried out by ML algorithms. Today, financial companies increasingly acknowledge the benefits of algorithmic trading: it goes along predefined rules, reduces slippages, requires no time-consuming market monitoring and, most importantly, it’s free of human emotions, which are often to blame for high fallacy rates. As fintech evolves, more and more rather than human intuition. Techfunnel organizations are willing to trust machine learning 4) Predictive analytics Another vivid example of ML use in fintech is predictive analytics. By promptly capturing, processing and analyzing massive data sets, businesses are capable of making faster and more precise predictions of future financial trends than with traditional methods. As of today, traditional analytic tools are being steadily replaced by machine learning algorithms which help analyze data, predict risks and identify opportunities. 5) Natural language search In customer service, NLP is applied to help clients search for transactions with a particular company or service, but natural language search is also a highly useful feature for sifting through internal company data. Financial companies need instant on-demand access to internal data to keep up with the competition. Natural language search enables organizations to perform such a search in a matter of seconds. NLP translates a human language into a SQL request and has results delivered in convenient visual form. In modern markets, when banks operate 24/7 in different time zones having relevant information at hand can save billions of dollars and help make well informed strategic decisions. 6) Fraud detection Technological advancements often result in more fraud risks and security breaches for financial institutions. In fact, no other industry suffers from fraud-related losses to the extent financial industry does. In 2018, according to , about 17 million organizations in the US have experienced fraud. Fortunately, ML fraud detection tools are also getting more advanced and have proved to be far more effective than traditional manual methods. ML algorithms detect anomalies in the real-time, use lower numbers of verification measures, and identify hidden fraudulent activities. Banking transactions and biometric user authentication are just some of the examples of ML use in detecting fraud. Javelin’s Identity Fraud Report Regtech is another newly emerged fintech segment. In plain language, it is defined as “using new technology to facilitate the delivery of regulatory requirements ”, which are becoming ever more complex and omnipresent in modern fast-developing markets. For example, companies like Comply Advantage leverage AI and machine learning to build apps that detect money laundering and terrorist financing and help companies comply with global regulations and protect their business.” Driven by the advent of AI, increased use of mobile devices and the Internet, fintech market has been reported to have the highest expected during the 2014–2025 forecast period. Initially used to power backend processes of most financial institutions, fintech is now the main force behind customer-related financial operations and is transforming the way we handle finances on the global scale. Admittedly, what’s hindering its adoption is lack of qualified AI consultants, but, in the long run, companies can tackle this issue by leveraging AI outsourcing and partnering with reliable third-party providers to advance their financial services. CAGR of 74.16% And how else does AI disrupt fintech these days?

The Awesome Duo: 6 Cases of How FinTech Benefits From AI

It will crush every single idea we have of what value exchange mediums are all about. David Bowie predicted the essence and impact of the internet in 1999. He was a visionary and regarded as one of the greatest artists of our time, but little do people know, he was also a genius in more than just music. In this interview in with The BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, he captures the essence and the power contained within what was then skeptically viewed as “just” a message-delivery system. He accurately predicted the unimaginable potential of the internet not just as a conveyor of information, but a conveyor of rebellion. Jeremey also perfectly represents the other side of the story, the skeptic everyday person who resists change. I want to explore that analogy and compare it to today, 20 years later, in the nascent world of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency along with the significance of Bitcoin’s emergence just ten years after that video came out. In the entire video, you can see the struggle on the face of the interviewer, the pained expression of trying to grasp something beyond his comprehension as he tries to get into that same headspace as Bowie. That, or he thought David was on some real strong trippy shit. Rock and Roll and Rebellion When asked about being a musician, specifically Rock and Roll, David Bowie had a very interesting analogy to make, one that most people have already forgotten in this new millennium: . And even more interesting was how he jumped from Rock and Roll to the Internet as the new flag-carrier for the spirit of revolution. that Rock and Roll was originally about rebellion David said: “…it had kind of like, a call to arms kind of feeling to it, like this is the thing that will change things, a dead-dodgy kind of occupation to have. It still produced signs of horror from people when you said “I’m in rock and roll.” Now it’s a career opportunity, and the Internet now carries that flag, for the subversive and chaotic, nihilistic and…” The interviewer then makes a face that says “how the hell did he connect those two random things like that? Is he high?” But before he can say anything, Bowie interrupts and says: “Oh yes it is! Forget about the Microsoft element, the monopolies do NOT have a monopoly… maybe on programs.” A Call To Arms Against The Monopoly Some of the smartest people in the world have compared Bitcoin and the technology that has emerged from its wake as , and I completely agree. The parallels are pretty obvious. something as significant as the internet itself Anyone working in Bitcoin or the broader blockchain technology industry will understand what David was talking about. Just like with the first Rock and Rollers, that call-to-arms feeling was exactly what attracted most of us to work with Bitcoin in the first place. That feeling that something had to change in the existing system, in this case, in the world of money and finance, was a common denominator among the first movers in this industry. He couldn’t have been more accurate in describing it as a “dead-dodgy” kind of occupation to have. It took my own mother over three years to understand and believe that this was a real industry we were trying to build, that I wasn’t going to go to jail for what I did for a living. To this day, we get looks of skepticism from most people when we tell them that our business is built on Bitcoin and blockchain technology platforms. The world is only starting to see this as a career opportunity, and not something subversive or chaotic. In many ways, it is still as chaotic as anything can be. David also talks about how the monopolies have lost their monopoly. This is a perfect analogy with the complete destruction of the monopoly on money creation by nation states and central banks brought upon by the Bitcoin protocol. When , that monopoly suddenly became a sand castle in a fast-rising tide. the first person other than Satoshi Nakamoto started running Bitcoin Hal Finney was the first user of Bitcoin other than Satoshi Nakamto. RIP, Hal. Interviewer: “What you like about it is the fact that anyone can say anything? Or do anything?!” This was the biggest argument against the Internet back then — everyone can say anything or do anything or be anything, therefore, it won’t work. It is a great underestimation of the power of the individual when expressed through a collective network. David Bowie responds: “From where I am, by virtue of the fact that I’m a pop singer and writer, I really, like, I embrace the idea, that there is this demystification process going on between the artist and the audience. Now it’s a communal kind of thing , it’s about the community, it’s becoming more more about the audience, because the point of having somebody who “led the forces” has disappeared! Because the vocabulary of rock is too well-known, as a currency it is not devoid of meaning anymore. It’s only a conveyor of information, not a conveyor of rebellion. — And internet has taken on that, as I say, and so I find that a terribly exciting idea, so from my standpoint being an artist, I’d like to see what the new construction is between artists and audience. It’s almost like the artist is to accompany what the audience is doing, and that feeling is very much permeating the internet. A Demystification Process Let’s analyze that statement for a bit. Bowie talked about the demystification process going on between the artist and the audience due to the Internet’s ability to breakdown the importance of the artist versus that of the audience, where the audience now becomes as important, if not more important, than the artists themselves. When the world of money and finance started to become global, the rise of institutional financial gatekeepers have become personified and glorified in the role of banks and bankers. Banks were the most revered institutions of the new industrial era, providing credit, savings, and safekeeping of our wealth and assets. If you wanted a good and stable job, find work in a bank. Up until the 80s and 90s, this was a common narrative. In this context, banks are the artists (and maybe the record label), and everyone else is the audience. Big banks “led the forces” and had vast amounts of power and influence over society. They still do to this day, but the coming of age of the internet and the vast improvement in the interface between the user and the network is rapidly changing all that. Fintech, Insuretech, Regtech, mobile payment platforms and the like have come out strong in the last decade, and the customer is now as important, if not more important, than the institutions themselves. New applications using technology have begun to show us that these revered institutions have been sleeping on the job, and that they have been too slow to adapt to the changing needs of their audience. Going back to the interviewer, he again mentions what he believes to be the absurd idea that “anyone can say or do anything”: “But what is it specifically about the internet? Anybody can say anything… but it all adds up to what? There is nothing cohesive about it in the way there was something cohesive about the youth revolution in music…” Here we go again, that same narrative. “If anyone can say anything, it must be worthless, it will be meaningless.” If anyone can say or do anything then nothing will come out of it except chaos. This could not be further from the truth, and David knew that, with conviction. in a way that it becomes censorship-resistant, with permission-less access, Bitcoin’s invention allowed anyone in the world to “say anything” in the context of commerce and value exchange, the same way the internet did in the context of communication and information exchange. David responds: “Oh but absolutely! Because I believe that, at the time, up until at least the mid-70s, we really felt that we were still living under the guise of a single and absolute creative society where there were known truths and known lies, and was no kind of duplicity of pluralism about the things that we believed in. That i started to breakdown rapidly in the 70s and the idea of a duality in the way that we live, in there are always two, three, four, five sides to every question that the singularity disappeared, and that, I believe, has produced such a medium as the internet and it absolutely establishes and shows us that we are living in total fragmentation.” The Breakdown of the Singularity Up until 2008, we were still living under the guise of a single and absolute financial society where there were known truths and known lies, and nothing can be questioned. This started to break down in the midst of the confusion caused by on of the biggest financial meltdowns in modern history and the house of cards that fell along with it. Suddenly, we realized that there are two, three, four, five sides to every question, and that monopoly disappeared forever. It produced an entirely new medium in the form of Bitcoin, as a new kind of software, a new kind of network, a new kind of money, and a new subversive idea that came out of nowhere and completely demystified the relationship between the gatekeepers of money and the consumers of money. Things like blockchains, consensus algorithms, and peer-to-peer networks showed us that the emperor had no clothes, and that we are living in total fragmentation because of all the trust we gave to these institutions. Interviewer: “You don’t think that some of the claims that are being made for it are hugely exaggerated, I mean, when the telephone was invented people made amazing claims for it — David interjects: I know! The President at the time, he was outrageous! He said he foresaw the day in the future when EVERY TOWN in America will have a telephone. Now that, how dare he claim that, absolute bullshit (Sarcasm). So, no, I don’t agree, I think the internet — I don’t think we have even seen the tip of the iceberg. “I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good an bad, is unimaginable! I think we are actually on the cusp of something exhilarating AND terrifying.” he says. Interviewer: (Still looking exasperated) It’s just a tool isn’t it?! Some would argue that David was an alien. Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom… ( Image from Google images) “No, it’s not. No, it’s an alien life form… Is there life on Mars? YES, and it just landed here.” Says David. Bitcoin, The Alien Life Form Right now, some of the claims about the potential of Bitcoin as a new decentralized global monetary standard or how blockchain technology will change our fundamental understanding of trade, ownership, and trust seems hugely exaggerated, and rightfully so. Just like the early days of the internet, there is a lot of hype in the industry today. But, like David, we believe that what we are seeing today is not even the tip of the iceberg. We believe that we are on the cusp of something both exhilarating and terrifying, like an alien life form landing on Earth. Bitcoin’s impact has barely made a ripple in the coming wave of innovation and disruption in the world of finance, yet here we are, only ten years in and moving trillions in value on a global scale, enabling millions of people to transact with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Interviewer: “It’s simply just a different delivery system there. You’re arguing about something more profound…” To which David says: “Oh yeah, I am talking about the actual context and the state of content is going to be so different from anything we can envisage at the moment, where the interplay between the user and the provider will be so in sympatico_,_ it’s going to crush our ideas of what mediums are all about.” Something More Profound Isn’t Bitcoin just another payment system like VISA or Paypal? Isn’t it just another delivery system for money? No, we argue that it is something much more profound, just like David argued for the Internet in 1999. We live in a world of digital commerce and value exchange that was severely limited by the restrictions placed by gatekeepers, where every action is monitored by a middleman, every participant is vetted by a process that excludes two-thirds of the world’s population from participating in the global internet economy, because it was the only solution to a problem we could not solve — the double spending problem. The release of Bitcoin in 2009 gave the world a better practical solution based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, and it has opened a pandora’s box of possibilities that cannot be undone. The actual context of transactions and the state of the content being exchanged, not just money, but entire classes of value both tangible and intangible, will be so different from anything we can envisage with our limited perspective today, where the interplay between the two parties in a transaction, between the user and provider, senders and receivers, become perfectly in sync with little to no friction. It is going to crush every single idea we have of what mediums of value exchange are all about. RIP David Bowie, a real legend.

Bitcoin is the New Rock and Roll

The World Insurance Report 2018 from Capgemini and Efma underscores the need to enhance technologies so that market shifts and customer expectations evolve. The insurance industry is yet another industry being disrupted by technology in some of the most innovative ways. According to a recent study, the operating InsurTech models are poised to experience explosive growth, upwards of $375 Billion U.S. dollars in the upcoming years. As with most new models, technology is a key enabler to this trend. Artificial Intelligence (AI), chatbots and image recognition are helping insurance companies to serve their new prospects and existing customers in a more holistic way. The process is becoming effortless and more user-friendly. The emerging models are helping to shrink costs while providing highly personalized services and products beneficial to both insurers and customers. The Insurance industry is seeing a broader spectrum of software solutions, including blockchain technology used to process claim automation. Claims management software reduces manual workflow, reducing labor costs and overall lending to much more cost effective process. , The combination of disruptive and foundational technology will help in increasing efficiency and promote growth. All of these Digital technologies like AI, Blockchain, and IoT are bringing disruptive trends to insurance companies . InsurTech is growing fast, allowing insurance carriers to build better customer experience and boost operational efficiency.. To keep updated on the new trends, get insights and develop the skills required to stay at the top of the InsurTech industry there are 40+ workshops and conferences in the United States Find below the list of some top U.S. InsurTech events . Here is the list of top InsurTech Conference and Workshop companies and list of events in 2018 (USA): SVIA — Silicon Valley Insurance Accelerator — (Visit Website) SVIA conducts more than 10 InsurTech workshops events and an annual summit during the year for senior Insurance executives. SVIA focuses on providing insights and skills Execs need to compete in a rapidly changing InsurTech landscape through digital innovation. The attendees gain insights from presentations, case studies, and hands-on experience through workshops. SVIA conducts an annual Summit, the next one is coming up is in March 20–21st, 2019. The event is called “InsurTech Fusion Summit”. The agenda of the Summit will be “Rise of a Digital Insurance Industry”. Upcoming InsurTech Workshops and Events from SVIA: SMB Insurance — InsurTech Workshop Event SEP 25–26 (TUE — WED), 2018, Palo Alto, CA SMB Insurance event will help executives and their teams the connections and comprehensive insight they’ll need to compete in a rapidly changing SMB insurance market driven through digital innovation. Get Answers to Critical Strategic Questions You will get answers to the most asked questions like how is Big Data, IoT, AI and Blockchain currently being used and how it will shape the future of Insurance? How will customer journey/customer engagement look like in the coming years? Special App for networking: SVIA provides Brella Meeting App to set up 1:1 meeting before you arrive. End of the first day includes Cocktail Reception with Speakers, Startups, and all Attendees. Workshops for better skill development You’ll gain insights from presentations, case studies, and hands-on experience. Your experience will include hands-on workshops. . Know more about the event Book Event Tickets Blockchain and Smart Insurance — InsurTech Workshop Event NOV 14–15 (WED — THU), 2018, Palo Alto, CA This event focuses on how Blockchain is disrupting InsurTech. (more about the event) The event covers a wide range of topics from introduction to Blockchain to implementation of Blockchain and Blockchain enabled business models. . Know more about the event Book Event Tickets Past SVIA Innovation event attendees include companies like MetLife, Max Health Insurance, EY, IBM among many others. Few popular speakers in the previous events include: Denise Garth — Majesco, Gary Meshall — IBM Security among other influencers from leading tech, insurance and fintech background. Full list by name of Events with link to SVIA Events page InsureTech Connect InsureTech Connect — A popular insurance innovation event company. InsureTech Connect is a popular annual event. The attendees of the event include tech entrepreneurs, investors and insurance industry incumbents from around the world. InsureTech Connect 2018 OCT 2–3 (TUE — WED), 2018, Las Vegas InsureTech Connect 2018 will be held in Las Vegas. The world’s largest and most global gathering of insurance innovation. InsurTech News InsurTech News is holding 3rd annual summit in 2018 InsurTech News is launching the 3rd annual summit on “Internet of Insurance” in London, UK. The event is one of the Europe’s leading InsurTech event helping to explore how IoT and emerging technologies are enabling insurers and reinsurers to streamline the process. Upcoming Event from InsurTech News in New York. AI in Finance Summit New York 2018 NOV 06–07 (TUE & WED), 2018, New York The summit is a great opportunity to meet influential technology leaders, data scientists, and founders of fintech startups. This event will include discussions on stock market prediction, retail finance and banking, fraud detection, and security and privacy in the changing financial environment. The AI in Finance Summit in New York will also throw light on the advancements in AI tools, techniques and applications from the world’s leading innovators working in the industry, academia, and startups across the financial sector. The summit will have professional presentations, networking opportunities, and interactive workshops. More Details Insurance Nexus A London based InsurTech company. Insurance Nexus is a London based company. Insurance Nexus is at the innovative heart of an industry undergoing significant disruption and innovation. Connected Insurance USA NOV 28–30 ( WED, THU and FRI), 2018, Chicago Connected Insurance event is bringing the executives information on designing valuable and relevant insurance products and services to be able to deliver with a seamless experience. At the event business executives and innovation teams are coming together and is a great opportunity for networking. Organization-wide team can come together and build a holistic strategy. . Know more about the event Dig-In Insurance Analytics and AI 2018 NOV 27–28 ( TUE — WED), 2018, New York The Dig-In event bring AI visionaries, analytics experts and big data practitioners transforming Insurance. AI will be front and center at this year’s event, along with the usual high-level analytics exploration. The sessions in the events will explore how personal assistants like Siri to Internet of Things and Machine Learning are transforming insurance. . Know more about the event SVIA, InsureTech Connect, InsurTech News, Insurance Nexus and Dig-In are the top 5 companies conducting InsurTech Conferences in the United States in 2018. If you want to list your event, contact me by adding a note on this post.

Top InsurTech Conferences and Workshop Events in the USA — 2018

It’s been more than 6 weeks since I wrote the last piece on experimenting on creating a new-age product for the modern traveler. I must say, it’s been a journey of discovery and reflecting so far. Much of the foundational work is what I usually go through at startup accelerators and it’s nice to be on the discovery end for a change. travel insurance So here are some of the points I attempted to solve? What do we stand for? What could the product look like? Who are we selling to? Would the product be something people are willing to pay for? What is the customer value? How does an insurer operate? What are the current pain points users face with travel insurance? Of Note: Travel Insurance is a fairly vanilla type of insurance and serves a specific purpose. Since we are re-imagining Travel Insurance on what it could be, rather than what it is. From this I made a concerted effort to make sure to that we start on the right foot and think of simplicity, customer-value and discovering what is possible using today’s technology. I found early on that it’s easy to complicate things. So, I wrote a memo to myself using some quotes that I belief in during early development of a brand and product. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” — Leonardo Da Vinci “It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple — Steve Jobs With that in mind: Let’s dive in. 1. What do we stand for? This is one of the most important steps that I go through with startups I help. Quite often, a founder will have a valid idea, concept, or even be in the market, yet as they start building/ scaling it, they often missing key fundamentals; most of all… what do we stand for? An easy way to look at this is through a few exercises before the design or product process begins. These include: Product Beliefs — what must we have, and what do we want to avoid. Brand Narrative and image — what do we want this to become? Product Beliefs First up is from a product stand point. What we stand for? My Product Beliefs The points above represent what the what the product should encapsulate. While these seem generic, it’s always good to write these down as part of the platform. Brand Narrative and image For brand narrative and image, I usually attempt to understand how the brand should make users feel and what we want to become. Below is a simple exercise in this. If our brand were x, what would we be? and Why? If I were a x exercise My answers: Brand Complete Picture I wont go into everyone of those, however some of the highlights include: If we were a , we would be a . Why? Volvo’s are historically known to be safe, secure. Yet the recent evolution of the brand is becoming more progressive, sporty and innovative. Being safe and secure is a pillar of being an insurer. Car Volvo If we were a , we would be . Why? She is famous for being a humanitarian as much as she is an actress. She stands for something that people can identify with and that has a lasting effect on people. We want to become the sustainable travel insurer giving back to the places that users visit. Celebrity Angelina Jolie The rest are fairly vanilla and are based on similar principals. From these two exercises, it’s clear that we stand for being , , , , and most of all, add to a users travel behavior pre-trip, during and after. natural seamless safe secure progressive unquestionable value 2. What could the product look like? Travel insurance products today are unsophisticated… we already know this. From research, I found that Travel Insurance today is: The red-headed step-child of the insurance sector; Mainly paper/ human centric; & Mainframe tech stacks built in the late 80’s early 90's. What could it be, if nothing was created before it. Here are some thoughts: To consider for the product: What should we cover? How do people travel with today? Has it changed over the last decade? Insurance is typically a product users don’t trust. How do we build trust? Travel Insurance today relies on known where users are going. Could we use geo-location technology to make this seamless? Geo-fencing… could this be used? is full of user travel data.. today, everyone ‘check’s in’ and shares photo’s while traveling — could we use this? Facebook What are the main reasons for claiming? Is there something missing in the current product suite? What’s the likely weather while away? Is it tropical cyclone season? Does this affect a users travel experience? Could understanding what airlines, transport or hotels users are using impact our insurance? Do people claim more if they use a specific airline or stay at a specific hotel? So with all that… how might we tackle this? Let’s start: Be mobile first Being mobile-first or native means we can use a host of features including providing on-point notifications based on travel information changing or updating. We could use geo-location technology from the smart phone to understand if the cover matches their movements. We could use Facebook SDK to gather more detail about the user and personalize the experience based on this data. We could do similar things on the web, however the geolocation data matched with common behavior on the device pushes a stronger case for mobile. Better yet, a large portion of us take a smartphone while traveling, so it make sense that we build on that first, not a laptop or PC. Use a REST API REST API’s go hand-in-hand with mobile development these days. However when it comes to insurance, much of the understanding and fabric of the products are still evolving. Sure, the API can handle the basic core/ hygiene functions of the app, however I aim to create micro-services connecting to all sorts of meaningful services. If we hooked in Amadeus (travel framework), Smart Traveller (safety platform) and WeatherAPI, we’d get a deep understanding of the user, the locations the user is visiting and what risks will be present during the trip. Add A.I to continuously automate Claims process Part of being an insurer is to collect the appropriate data, analyze against some business rules and create a price based on the risk. Using AI, we could automate the pricing phase of insurance with up-to-date business rules mashed with real-time data collection of the user, the location data and supplementary data that affects the policy. On the flip-side, we could use AI to power the claims process checking policy data, user data and claim business rules to automate decisions. I estimated around 60 micro-services could be used to validate a claim using AI. Could chatbots help automate claims processes? This one I feel is worth the exercise in experimentation. I do feel that chatbots can be useful when the intent is clear and valuable. Some chatbots I’ve seen try to do too much and the user is often overwhelmed or confused with the responses. I think for simple claim processes that don’t have as many variables, chatbots could be used. For more complex claims, like medical claims, we should attempt to blur the line between chatbots and real humans creating a seamless and valuable experience. Easier said than done! Be relationship centric, not product centric Where we want to be One angle I think is often missed is what truly matters when building a product to meet the needs of today’s users. User expectations have shifted fundamentally over time. Today, building relationships is where it’s at, so we want to focus on that. 3. Who are we selling to? Essentially, travelers are the end user. So it should be called out. However 69% of travel insurance is sold through ‘brokers’. Brokers can be airlines, booking sites or travel agents. For this exercise, I’ll be focusing on the digital ones first since we could use REST API’s to integrate seamlessly. Who are well selling to? For the current discovery phase, I am concentrating on the travelers first since they are the true end-user. However, digital brokers will likely be required to reach scale, therefore I started to understand what value they received from on-selling travel insurance. In a nutshell, they receive up to 50% commission of the premium (i.e. if the policy costs $102, the digital broker will receive $51 commission). That is a lot of commission… I think it’s worthwhile discovering in the later stage however this could be flipped (iTunes to the music industry?). 4. Would the product be something people are willing to pay for? What is the customer perceived value? This is the interesting one. Travel insurance often is a free add-on service, so why would people pay to use it? Speaking to a few insurers about this… there is an internal understanding that this is the case, therefore on-going investment in travel insurance development is low. I disagree with this mentality. When there is value, people are willing to spend money. The case could be made for a range of products today that were free or included at a point in time. Bottled water, food delivery, plastic bags, compressed air, online newspapers, even everyday banking now cost something due to the perceived value. Even Slack was a free tool for a period of time, until they created enough customer value, mainly through their marketplace of apps and achieving a level of product polish that it was worth paying for. Customer perceived value Customer perceived value isn’t a technology, but rather a formula as described above. It’s a good tool to use to understand if your products or services are inline with customer perceived value, against the benefits and cost associated with those benefits. Imagine if you got travel insurance for free, but: Sign up took up to 8 minutes and at the end, you still had to see the fine print to make sure you’ve covered for what matters most. Had to wade through up to 10 documents to complete a claim. Had to wait up to 12 days to receive money (current industry average*). Policy was loaded with fine-print that is built to trip you up (excuse the pun). What if: The sign up process was simple, clear, transparent and digital, using today’s technology to streamline the process. That what you took on the trip was covered completely. Laptops, phones, snowboards, guitars, you name it. That users could actually view their trip in detail and be informed of any risks as they travel. Even check into flights and hotels digitally (where possible). That the users policy updated with the user as they progressed through their journey. That ~70% of claim process happened digitally, and is personalized to the users travels. Claims should be automated completed within 3 minutes, not 12 days. That once a claim was approved, that receiving the funds happened in real-time, not after the 12 days. That if the policy completed without a claim, a portion of the premium would be donated to a selected sustainable travel body based on where they user traveled to at the end of year FY. These are now the goals I’ve set to attempt to hit while building. A mantra I came up with during this discovery states: “ ” We know that people seek to achieve a measurable result, and it can be realized. We want our value to be perceived through our commitment to understanding and fulfilling the users desired result, rather than simple selling a solution. 5. How does an insurer operate? Today insurers fall into two categories: They are a fully-blown insurer, handling underwriting, claims etc. (Allianz, Suncorp, IAG, Lloyds are in this category). They are a ‘Cover holder’ which essentially means they are the front-end to the names in point 1. (Real Insurance, Budget-Direct, Huddle fall into this category). Number #1: Lengthy process to achieve this, expensive to do, and requires a lot of capital. Number #2: More streamlined, however you need to negotiate a product, pricing model, claims process, operating model, validation of the business is solvent… the list goes on. Normally, #2 is where most new insurers head towards, however if you want your product to really be customer-centric and to the mantra’s above, you need to negotiate with an insurer. So, from this, I’ve started a conversation with an insurer with the aim to co-build a product that meets the needs of today’s travelers. Normally most insurers take an product and change the brand name. It’s going to be a lengthy process, however it will be essential to going-live with the intended customer value. off-the-shelf 6. What are the current pain points users face with travel insurance? Throughout the 6-week journey, I’ve spoken to 32 users who have purchased travel insurance and made a claim. Of the 32: with travel insurance. Comments included not requiring the insurance, the claim process was handled swiftly and in an acceptable timeframe. 12 had a positive experience with travel insurance. Comments including lengthy yet satisfactory claim experience. 8 had a moderate experience travel insurance experience. Comments included not being paid out fully against the claim, having to provide a range of documentation which was difficult during their trip. 10 had a somewhat negative with their travel insurance provider. 2 users had a horrific experience Overall, 91% of Australian’s took out travel insurance when they traveled. That is a large stat to say that travel insurance is valued, however most saw it as a necessary evil! What really shocked me was that some of the feedback when it comes to booking flights with travel insurance. When booking flights, users often wanted to use their platinum credit card ($150 per year) to purchase the flights due to the free insurance. When they booked using a credit card, they were extra for using the credit card. I actually tried this and attempted to book a flight to Amsterdam. Two people return, it came to $3,788 (with no travel insurance). I selected credit card, which added an extra 4.0% or $151.52, bringing the total to $3,939. charged 4.0% If I booked with my debit card and purchased comprehensive insurance via Allianz or Covermore (avg. $150 as the premium), I’d be at the same amount of $3,939. This would be common user behavior will require some education to change this known path towards travel insurance. Of note: I’d say that due to the sheer weight of real-time data I’m looking to capture that will drive the risk model and business rules, my expectation is that the premiums would we ~30% less than the incumbents… making our product competitive on pricing, but also, there is power in data. New income streams could improve the income per customer to a high lifetime value. Next chapter, I’ll go into the actual product discovery, what I’ve designed, delivered, and what’s to come in the development. Thanks for reading.! Twitter: @mrbretthales

Stories, News & Mentions about INSUREVITE

Insurevite’s Stories on HackerNoon