The Future of Digital Transformation: Insights from ITC Vegas 2023

Last week, the ValueMomentum team was excited to be a Title Sponsor for ITC Vegas 2023, hosted at Mandalay Bay. Members of the insurance ecosystem gathered from across the country to talk about how carriers can leverage technology like generative artificial intelligence (AI), enable digital transformation to power value streams like underwriting and claims, and improve efficiency to drive the industry forward.

Our team had a great time conversing with industry partners and colleagues at our booth, celebrating Halloween at the kickoff party, hosting colleagues and partners at our happy hour and networking dinner, and gleaning meaningful insights from the many content sessions offered.

ValueMomentum booth at ITC Vegas 2023 with employees and industry colleagues having a meeting.

While generative AI was a dominant theme of the event, it is not the only key to unlocking business growth for insurers.

“Carriers are doing a hundred things besides Gen AI. Does it have a place? Is it coming? Is it real? Absolutely,” said Adam Garey, SVP and CIO of COUNTRY Financial. “But core system transformation, improving client experiences, and strengthening data foundations — so we can have traditional AI, not just gen AI — are still incredibly important to carriers.”

Unlocking Business Growth in Insurance

That insightful remark from Garey came during a panel moderated by ValueMomentum’s President James Carlucci. The discussion featured both Garey and Jamie Kinsley, Deputy COO of Tokio Marine HCC’s Cyber and Professional Lines Group. These insurance technology leaders shared their perspectives on the changes sweeping the insurance industry and how their organizations are navigating them.

From macroeconomic trends to cyber threats and changing climates, insurers are having to reexamine their risk management strategies as well as how these factors are affecting their policies, services, and the capabilities needed to support both. In addition, customer expectations for a seamless, personalized, digital experience have never been higher. To keep up, insurers, new entrants, and insurtech companies alike are transitioning from product-centric to customer-centric business models, forcing incumbents to rethink their operations to stay competitive.

But insurers are up to the challenge. They are prioritizing value streams such as product design, underwriting, distribution, and claims. This means more personalization across the customer experience, real-time analytics capabilities, alternate modes of distribution where appropriate, innovative tools that can offer real-time service, and more to stay competitive and deliver business value to their customers.

Adam Garey, Jamie Kinsley, and James Carlucci sitting on stage for their panel discussion at ITC Vegas.

Addressing a Changing Insurance Landscape

Insurers, agents, and customers all need better tools to review and consider coverages and make better buying decisions across products and services. Those capabilities should be accessible at any time from any channel. Intelligent workflow, ecosystem-wide application programming interface (API) platforms, and other capabilities are enabling better customer service, efficiency, and ultimately business growth.

Kinsley added that, as a cyber-liability carrier, her team saw a huge surge in submissions as the number of ransomware attacks rose in 2020. Their focus was primarily on being able to get more submissions through the pipeline while demand remained high. This year, the market has started to normalize, and prices are stabilizing, giving her team a chance to expand their customer experience capabilities, especially with respect to their underwriting and distribution portal. Her team’s ability to stay nimble helped them keep up with shifting industry conditions.

Digital Capabilities and Customer Experience Are More Important Than Ever

Both insurers noted that they are continuously investing in digital capabilities to provide the speed, scale, and agility needed to stay competitive in today’s volatile market and improve their customer experience.

For Tokio Marine HCC, Kinsley stressed that the goal is to meet the customer where they are, serve as a trusted advisor, and provide the best digital experience possible. A few years ago, Kinsley said, her team implemented insured vulnerability scanning tools to help protect customers. They have started improving the organization’s insurer portal and risk management tools, including e-learning courses, resources from the cyber threat intelligence team, and even phishing simulations. Any opportunity to expand the digital experience for their customers is a priority, as it helps the organization build a life-cycle relationship, not just appear at the time of a cybersecurity breach.

Garey pointed to the core platform replacements his team has undertaken for multiple lines of business. For example, their farm product system has been operating on legacy processes that were extended to provide agent and service capabilities. However, with this line it’s important to go digital-first. He specified that COUNTRY’s farm clients are some of their most technologically advanced. Today’s family-owned farms are large operations that rely on technology like advanced planting capabilities, driverless combines, and data and analytics to examine crop yield by square foot. Many of these tech-savvy clients expect a digital experience that serves their needs most effectively.

Partnerships Are Crucial for a Successful Insurance Ecosystem

When asked how partnerships and collaboration help his organization achieve its business goals, Garey remarked that the industry has evolved from carriers building everything in house into an ecosystem of carriers, platform partners, service partners, and integration partners like ValueMomentum.

“We definitely could not be doing what we’re doing today without our partners,” Kinsley said when asked the same question. Partners like ValueMomentum have helped Tokio Marine HCC build the talent and resources needed to be competitive, she added, and each member of the partner ecosystem plays a role in helping keep the industry running as it should. “We can’t, and don’t want to, build it all ourselves. And you can find the best of breed in the market.”

Both Garey and Kinsley provided invaluable insights throughout the panel discussion, highlighting the importance of not only technology capabilities and digital transformation but also the vital role that customer experience plays in today’s insurance industry.

Prioritizing these areas and working with partners across the insurance ecosystem can help carriers achieve their business goals and drive growth across their organization.

Find out more about how ValueMomentum can help you leverage digital capabilities to drive business growth with our Digital & Cloud Solutions.