Insights from Dig-In 2023

In Florida, any discussion of smart home programs intended to prevent water damage has to start with "affordability," according to Laura Hanson, chief brand/digital officer, VYRD Insurance, a Florida-based homeowners insurance company, speaking at Dig-In on June 6, in a session titled "The Rise of Peril Focused Technology."

Florida has been coping with a home insurance and reinsurance crisis. "There's a lot of factors that are causing that insurance premium to just skyrocket," Hanson said, pointing to increased catastrophic events, litigation and fraud. Overall, though, water-related losses even outside of catastrophes are higher, she observed.

"The other big issue for us is the surprises, the non-CAT water event damage," Hanson said. "It's a little bit higher in Florida. Nationwide, it's around 25 to 30%. Our water losses non-CAT are 50%. So the way we're thinking about is, can't stop mother nature. We're Floridians. We love everything it brings, good and bad. But we're looking for ways to manage and provide options for our policyholders out there."

VYRD offers a smart home water protection program in partnership with DIY smart home monitoring company Notion.

Principal Financial Group's group benefits business shifted its claims handling from a methodical operation to a focus on identifying outliers, according to Kara Hoogensen, senior vice president, specialty benefits at the firm, who spoke at Dig-In on June 6.

"We've deployed this technology against our long-term disability claims," she said. "We feel confident that we're headed on a path that is similar to another firm that has already parlayed the same technology. That particular firm is seeing seven to 10 times ROI in their first year. They have seen a greater than 25% reduction in what we call intrusive claim activities."

Intrusive claim activities means unnecessary outreach to claimants when nothing has changed in their claim. "We're having interactions where it really makes sense to do so," Hoogensen said. "We feel so confident in this technology that not only have we played it against our long-term disability block, but we're actually implementing modules that will support our individual disability blocking business, as well as our short term disability block."

The ROI increase, Hoogensen explained, derived from the cost of the technology relative to how much time it saved for a group benefits business employees. That ROI means high-value growth, she added.

Erik Roen, senior vice president & CIO, claim technology and claim business intelligence at Travelers, spoke about the benefits the carrier gained from using ServiceNow, a cloud-based platform services provider, during a case study presentation at Dig-In on June 5.

A looser coupling of different systems within the firm's operational architecture increased flexibility and made different experiences possible for Travelers customers, according to Roen. "It's a system of action that really allows us to leverage other AI models or rules that can orchestrate and automate parts of the process, whether they're in a no- or low-touch [system]," he said. "Parts of the process may need a more complex plan, if you're going to need a more senior rep to get involved in certain parts, but not all parts of it."

Roen described the ability to string together systems for insights, a system of record and an operating platform. "It's basically our API layer that allows us to respond very nimbly to different business conditions or changes, but also allows us to interact in a lot of different ways, both internally and externally," he said. "Our system of insight will continue to elevate, build and deliver all of the descriptive and diagnostic recording, but also that predictive and prescriptive analytics that we're looking for."