Commercial insurance is often by complex coverages, heterogeneous exposures and risks and individually negotiated and priced contracts. The selling process involves complex negotiation back and forth between the policyholder, the agent or broker, and the carrier.
Over the next few years technology will play a vital role for commercial lines insurers, as prices firm up and new insurers enter the marketplace. A few of the technology initiatives that will shape the commercial lines marketplace include:
- Rise of the Drones. Several carriers have received waivers from the FAA to test drones for use in inspections, loss control, risk surveys, surety, and other applications. While current restrictions on overflights where people are present limit use cases, there are still applications in agriculture, commercial property (including inspection of rail lines) and other arenas.
- Portals, business intelligence, and core claims and PAS continue to be high priority. Agent portals continue to be viewed as key elements of acquiring and retaining customers, and direct sales capabilities will be increasingly important for lower-margin products. Business intelligence and analytics are providing new competitive capabilities to improve underwriting and core systems investments continue to be critical in improving time to market and product flexibility.
- Mobile is making inroads in commercial lines. For both loss control and distributor communication.
Although drones, IoT, robots and autonomous technology investments may get a lot of attention, most current technology initiatives for commercial lines carriers will focus on the need to improve operational efficiency by streamlining processes and creating a better environment both for employees and agents.
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