21 Oct 2019|Noida | I 2 Moot Court
Impact of Industry 4.0 on Insurance Sector
To abreast the budding professionals about the industry expectation, challenges and new reforms, Amity School of Banking & Actuarial Science (ASIBAS) organized a National Conference on ‘Impact of Industry 4.0 on Insurance Sector’ at University campus, Sector 125 Noida.
Welcoming the gathering, Mr. A. P. Singh, Director, ASIBAS shared that over the last few years, the insurance industry has been collecting data and information for underwriting and evaluating it by linking new algorithms and artificial intelligence principles. “The challenge before insurers are real, intangible and unquantifiable risks arising from the network and automation of business process.” he added. He expressed that the conference will explore the different dimensions related to insurance industry in sync with Industry 4.0 and how it will shape the careers of future workforce.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. M. R. Kumar, Chairman, LIC of India said that at the time of digital transformation, every sector is moving from linear growth models to exponential growth and even the insurance industry is witnessing the disruption like never before. He mentioned that artificial intelligence and related technologies will have a seismic impact in all aspects of insurance industry. He stressed that with easy accessibility through technology, the experience of purchasing insurance will be much faster with less active involvement of insurer and customer. He pointed out that as the artificial intelligence permeates live interacting, insurance companies will be able to identify risks in a better value and sophisticated manner, thereby, the future will be about mass market instant issue products. He informed that with integration of technology by 2030, the claim processing will remain the primary function of insurance but the head count associated with claims will get reduced, subsequently easing the process and increasing the efficiency. Mr. Kumar opined that “Over the years, the insurance industry has only touched 20-30% of the Indian population till now, hence there are lot of opportunities available for budding professionals to explore.”
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Amit Kalra, MD & Head-Global Services, SwissRe Global Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. shared his views on global industry perspective and apprised that “insurance industry, globally, is over five trillion dollars, with India around 100 billion dollars industry.” He added that insurance industry is largely, a conventional industry that has not witnessed much re-inventions over a period of time and is still trying to build strong value preposition. The industry is still evaluating the two dimensions, i.e. challenges and opportunities wherein challenge is to figure out niche amongst the financial service sector in view of consumer preference, leads perspective and there are opportunities for substantial revenue and market positioning by redefining the work and exploring the untapped ideas. He remarked that today’s reality is digital disruption with opens up number of avenues and has already started creating threat at CXO level. Furthermore, new-players have become part of the ecosystems and even regulators have started up with ‘stand-box approach’ to encourage more experimentation.
Deliberating upon the future possibilities, he emphasized upon shifting the focus of industry to prevention and protection model to mitigate the risks. Most of the companies have product specific approach, which is expected to change to customer and digital first approach. “With technological advancements such as IoT, Big Data analytics, cloud computations and even 5G telecommunications, the industry is stepping towards mass customization of insurance products as there is abundance of amount of data that has potential to be analyzed.” Mr. Kalra called upon for a multi-connection and multi-engagement approach on part of insurance companies for the customer.
During the technical sessions, industry experts including Dr. Syed Asif, Corporate Vice President – Underwriting and Claims, Max Life Insurance Co; Mr. Deepak Dhar, Sr V P Corporate Business Group, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd; Mr. Niraj Kumar, Member Advisory Board, Howden Brokers; Ex GM, Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd; Mr. Abhyendra Singh, VP - Data Analytics, Max Bupa Health Insurance Co. Ltd; Mr. Rishi Agrawal, V.P., Digital SBU Leader, Conneqt Business Solutions Ltd.; Mr. S Praveen Chowdary, Head - Motor Insurance, Policybazaar amongst others deliberated upon topics such as “Use of Artificial Intelligence in underwriting and claim settlement in insurance” and “Role of Data Analytics in Insurance” which was attended by hundreds of students of amity university who furthermore raised pertinent questions to the speakers who clarified their doubts.