Insurtech: The teenage years

If we were to anthropomorphize the entire insurtech industry, we would probably say it has passed its infancy, toddler, and childhood phases, and is now facing adolescence: not yet mature but still growing strong. Still potentially disruptive but, most notably, learning to get along with others, especially older, wiser, players in its sandbox.

That, essentially, is the theme of Kartik Sakthivel’s planned session at this week's LIMRA Annual Conference (through Sept. 17 in Nashville). Sakthivel is vice president and chief information officer and regional chief executive officer – Asia West for LIMRA and LOMA and will moderate a panel of experts on the topic of “Insurtech, the Teenage Years.”

The conference session will explore the evolution of the insurtech industry over the past 10-15 years, highlighting its transition from a disruptive force to a collaborative partner with traditional insurance carriers.

“If you think about it, [insurtechs) really are smack dab in their teens,” said Sakthivel. “What that looks like in terms of where we've been and where we've come from is the central premise behind the session.”

Insurtech is the name given to the innovative companies that use technology, data analysis, AI and IoT (Internet of Things) to improve the staid or legacy insurance companies, making products more competitive, processing claims more quickly and efficiently, and evaluating risk.

Insurtech has evolved

It has evolved from being a disruptive force to a more collaborative partner with traditional insurance carriers, fostering innovation and integration within the industry, instead of outside it.

“The industry, the legacy carriers, didn’t know what to make of insurtech at the beginning,” Sakthivel said. “Everybody was watching their six in terms of what's going to happen. ‘Are these companies going to disintermediate us or disrupt us?’”

The mutual need for knowledge exchange between traditional insurance companies and insurtech startups fostered a boom in growth and innovation, he said.

Joining Sakthivel on the panel will be Bobbie Shrivastav co-founder and chief operations officer at Benekiva, a software company where she leads the security, product development, customer care, and delivery of transformational technology solutions to help modernize the insurance industry; Mercedes Concepcion-Gray is the industry chief strategy and transformation leader for NTT DATA's Global Insurance Digital Platform; and Nicole Buckenmeyer, the head of distribution for marketplace with Zinnia, a company that offers comprehensive technology solutions for insurance carriers and distributors.

“They are three wonderful female leaders, really pillars of the industry in their own right,” said Sakthivel. “They're going to talk about the journey stewarding their organizations and their insurtech firms through the past and the present.”

Key topics will include the current landscape of insurtech, successful partnerships, regulatory compliance, the role of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), and the importance of knowledge exchange between traditional insurance companies and insurtech startups.

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