Last year, I had a vision of an on-site survey at the Dig In: The Digital Future of Insurance conference in my adopted hometown of Austin, Texas, where we'd talk to the great community that we convene every year about core trends and issues in insurtech, from funding to adoption to ROI. A few short weeks into planning it, though, everything changed. The conference was canceled, and new crises in the industry emerged. (In March, Digital Insurance reporting on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on insurance was some of our best-read, most-engaged content.)
Late last year, once all of us had settled into our current "normal" -- temporary though it was promised, things seem to be stubbornly plugging along -- I was able to re-vision that survey as a digitally distributed survey through the all-star research group here at Arizent, Digital Insurance's parent company. You probably saw the first release of data from it yesterday; if you haven't,
There is still more data to come from here, which we will put out along with some coverage of how insutechs and insurers are working together right now, at the beginning of March. But I wanted to talk about one question -- that yes, I drafted and sent out -- and when I saw its stark numbers upon getting access to the crosstabs for the survey caused some mixed emotions. Here it is, along with our survey results:
The idea that the COVID-19 pandemic was a net positive for the insurance and insurtech industry isn't uncommon. It's implied that the reason it excites all of us so much is that the rush to digitalization has widened the industry view of what's possible in this sector. Until recently, and especially before the pandemic, insurance still had a reputation as slow to adapt next-generation technologies, even leaving money on the table at times. Being forced to embrace everything from remote claims assessment to remote work has supercharged digital literacy across companies and made modernization more accessible.
But this Overton window shift has come at a grueling cost. Nearly half a million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19. A multiple of that have been sickened, lost their incomes, and are being pushed to the brink by an uneven policy response to this devastating disease. To ascribe any positivity to these events can come off as aloof at best, despite the best of intentions.
This isn't to tut-tut our respondents. I put the question in front of them, and ultimately it's my responsibility to consider phraseology. And in fact, I'd like to use this wave of good feelings as a springboard for the industry. There is no shortage of financial resources across insurtech and insurance. We're talking about anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion being invested in the sector this year. Many in the industry are taking that surplus to the people, with a lot of charitable work done in the industry.
But the transformation of the sector offers more opportunity than just that. How are we looking at the solutions we design and thinking not just about the professional urban home-worker, but also the delivery person bringing them their meals without substatial insurance coverage in case of disaster? How are we ensuring that people whose budgets are stretched to the limit understand their coverage and are eligible to be made whole in the ways they really need in case the worst happens?
Insurance is more than just snappy graphic design and the best mobile app. It's a service, and the promise implied by that service is what brings people into this industry. COVID-19 has revealed how many people could benefit from a safety net. Let's keep every level of customer in mind. We're all in this together.
