Lansing, Mich.: The Next Insurance Tech Hub?

What's the hottest spot in the country for insurance innovation? Lansing, Mich. wants in on the conversation.

That's the thrust of an article in the region's local paper, the Lansing State Journal. According to the article, insurance companies make up a considerable amount of local employment in the area, and they're adding more jobs daily. 

Further, the majority of those jobs will be in information technology, according to an Auto-Owners insurance spokesperson, John Lindauer, who told the paper: “Reliance on automation and data analytics has increased the need for more I.T. and actuarial staff.”

And Jackson National, the paper reports, " began a $100 million expansion project last year, which will include a new 225,000-square-foot building to house 1,100 information technology and legal associates."

Insurance has tended in its history to be clustered in small- to mid-sized cities -- Lansing, Des Moines, and Hartford, Conn., among others. But with the industry moving headlong toward digitalization, those insurance hubs will increasingly become technology hubs as well.

Just look at what Des Moines accomplished with the Global Insurance Accelerator. Not only did the initiative draw the eyes of the insurance industry to Des Moines, it also vanguarded an increasing focus in the insurance industry on the cultural side of technology innovation. Insurance companies are adopting the language and tactics of the tech industry at large to support their tech initiatives.