How the top 15 car insurers are going digital

March 19, 2018 5:40 AM

Each year, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners releases U.S. market-share data for all major lines of insurance business. Here are the top 15 auto-insurance carriers in the country for 2017, along with a rundown of some of their recent digital initiatives.

State Farm corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois

1. State Farm

Market share: 18%
Direct premium written: $41.8 billion
Recent digital initiatives: State Farm had a relatively quiet 2017 as the industry zoomed ahead on digitalization, but has a strong structure in place to facilitate new development. The company is particularly interested in the coming impact of autonomous vehicles, technology research director Chris Mullen told DI last year. State Farm has patented wearable technology to dissuade distracted driving and taken a leadership role in addressing it as underwriting losses mount. EVP of IT Duane Farrington also highlighted the company’s work with drones this year in a speech at a local university.

2. Berkshire Hathaway

Market share: 13%
Direct premium written: $29.6 billion
Recent digital initiatives: Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico unit is responsible for the vast majority of this market share. It’s focused on digitally enhancing customer service, with a robust online portal and mobile app. In 2017, Geico launched a virtual assistant, Kate, presaging an industry trend toward chatbots. The company also transitioned its core systems to Duck Creek last year, which it expects to support further digital developments.

The Progressive Corp. headquarters is seen in Mayfield Village, Ohio on Wednesday, January 18, 2006.

John Quinn/Bloomberg News

3. Progressive

Market share: 10%
Direct premium written: $22.8 billion
Recent digital initiatives: While Progressive is mostly known for its innovation around usage-based insurance, it’s been making inroads in other digital realms as well recently. The carrier’s partnership with Slice on homeowners insurance represented a new model for insurer-insurtech partnerships, Celent’s Mike Fitzgerald posited. The company also launched a Facebook chatbot and has been active in developing for Amazon’s Alexa. Finally, the company has promised more to come with an active hiring push including IT staff.

Allstate signage stands outside its headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois, U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010. Allstate Corp. sued Bank of America Corp. and its Countrywide mortgage unit over $700 million in residential mortgage-backed securities the insurer purchased, claiming Countrywide misrepresented the investments. Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg *** Local Caption ***

Tim Boyle/Bloomberg

4. Allstate

Market share: 9%
Direct premium written: $21.4 billion
Recent digital initiatives: Allstate has been very active in deploying digital solutions, especially in claims response after 2017’s major hurricanes. Claims leader Glenn Shapiro was promoted to head of personal lines with a mandate to continue that transformation across the business. The company also is employing advanced analytics in fraud fighting and to develop ridesharing-insurance coverage.

Santana, Danni

5. USAA

Market share: 6%
Direct premium written: $13.2 billion
Recent digital initiatives: USAA has been active in leveraging different data sources to power the customer experience. The company has made upgrades to its analytics infrastructure to support that growth and is ramping up staff at a tech campus in Arizona. It’s also been a leader in deploying drones at catastrophe sites.

6. Liberty Mutual

Market share: 5%
Direct premium written: $11.6 billion
Recent digital initiatives: Liberty Mutual rolled out a revamped usage-based insurance platform in 2017, including gamification and driver-feedback components. The company is also getting results from its innovation workshop, Solaria Labs, including Dwellbeing, a platform for gathering and responding to home appliances and systems in order to reduce claims.

Farmers Insurance headquarters in Los Angeles. In November, the carrier announced the acquisition of three companies: Kraft Lake Insurance Agency, Western Star Insurance Services and Farmers General Insurance Agency.

7. Farmers

Market share: 4.5%
Direct premium written: $10.4 billion
Recent digital initiatives: Farmers has announced an array of new tech solutions recently. The company is using virtual reality to train claims personnel, and contracted with Kespry to use its drone fleet at catastrophe sites. Its new mobile-based UBI program, Signal, targets distracted driving as well by alerting drivers who pick up their phone while driving.

8. Nationwide

Market share: 3%
Direct premium written: $7.3 billion
Recent digital initiatives: Nationwide made a big splash with blockchain in late 2017, announcing it would pilot a proof-of-insurance concept based on the distributed-ledger technology. The company also is working with insurtechs at a higher level after announcing a $100 million investment fund. It partnered with TrueMotion to capture distracted-driving data from users of its UBI program, SmartRide.

The Travelers Insurance Co. office building in Hartford, Connecticut in 2015.

Ron Antonelli/Bloomberg

9. Travelers

Market share: 2%
Direct premium written: $4.4 billion
Recent digital initiatives: Travelers named its first enterprise chief data and analytics officer this year, and shortly thereafter announced a new data-driven approach to homeowners insurance. The company is also exploring automated flight for claims drones and deploying a mobile-based UBI program.

10. American Family

Market share: 2%
Direct premium written: $4.4 billion
Recent digital initiatives: American Family has been active in the insurtech sector under business development leader Peter Gunder, including the purchase of two companies last year: Networked Insights, a marketing analytics company incorporating AI and machine learning into its core platform; and HomeGauge, a home inspection software company. The company also rolled out a new UBI program with Automatic.

11. Auto Club Enterprises

Market share: 1%
Direct premium written: $3.1 billion

12. Erie Insurance

Market share: 1%
Direct premium written: $3 billion
Recent digital initiatives: Erie has focused on the home-insurance segment recently, including a robust drone program and a partnership with Roost devices on home telematics.

13. AmTrust

Market share: 1%
Direct premium written: $2.9 billion
Recent digital initiatives: AmTrust is very active in insurtech. The company announced partnerships with Farmobile, a crop-insurance tech company; and Sure, which provides smartphone insurance. It also named a new CIO in August 2017.

14. CSAA Insurance Group

Market share: 1%
Direct premium written: $2.8 billion
Recent digital initiatives: The AAA insurer is attuned to its Silicon Valley-area clientele with a focus on autonomous vehicles and telematics. Company CTO Michele James was a Women in Insurance Leadership honoree last year for her work consolidating the company’s disparate core system environment.

15. Auto-Owners Insurance

Market share: 1%
Direct premium written: $2.5 billion