12 Insurance Industry Trends for 2022

Insurers will have a busy year as rapid growth is expected to continue. Although challenges exist with talent shortages, climate risk, increased regulatory requirements, and managing the technology/human balance, insurers can leverage the lessons of the past year to get closer to providing a ‘frictionless’ customer experience.  

Here are 12 key areas you’ll want to pay attention to in 2022:

1. Customer Centricity
   Customer centricity will continue to hold top focus in 2022. Reimagining the policyholder journey using design thinking and an outside-in approach that considers customer needs first will ensure carriers make decisions that deliver the most direct customer value. Insurers will not only need to meet customers where they are today but innovate to meet them where they’ll be tomorrow. 

2. Low Code/No Code Tools
   Low code/no code tools are revolutionizing the industry by enabling the agility, flexibility, and innovation needed to meet the demand for real-time responsiveness. Empowering business partners to design, build and test allows for resource expansion that contributes to growth. Gartner predicts that low code/no code development will account for 65% of all application development by 2024.¹ 

3. Data and AI
   Data is an extremely valuable organizational asset for carriers across the entire insurance value chain. The volume and quality of available data employing advanced AI will increasingly help insurers better underwrite, price, and manage risk with increased speed. The challenge will continue around how to effectively access and organize vast amounts of unstructured and fragmented data in the most cost-efficient manner. 

4. Data Privacy Protection
   Although digitization has brought significant benefit to the insurance industry, it has also brought demand for data privacy and an increased need for protection. Insurers who are transparent around how customer data is being collected, used and protected will be able to increase policyholder trust. To avoid incurring severe penalties from growing data privacy regulation, carriers will need to adhere to a diligent compliance strategy. 

5. Cybersecurity & Risk Management
   Cybersecurity is a critical focus for 2022. Carriers will need to continue to expand their cybersecurity capabilities to detect, prevent, and respond to attacks in order to mitigate risk, with many insurers incorporating an ecosystem approach to cybersecurity technology. Opportunities will exist for carriers who provide stand-alone cyber insurance coverage with expanded options to organizations. 

6. Distribution Management & Agent Experience
   Although insurers have discovered other distribution channels, independent agents will remain valuable into 2022 and beyond. To drive growth, insurers will need to integrate the agent experience into their digital strategies, enabling digital interactions across agency workflows and ensuring that it truly is easier for agents to place business with them. It will be important to stay in touch with what the new brand of agent requires. 

7. Climate Risk Impact
   With the two costliest natural disasters of 2021 recorded in the US, financial losses from climate risks will continue to impact P&C insurers into 2022 and beyond. According to SwissRe, climate change is the key driver of a riskier and more complex property portfolio for insurers.²  Data needs and regulatory requirements for insurers around climate change will continue to grow.   

8. Embedded Insurance
   As customer demand for convenience increases, embedded insurance will continue to move into broader ecosystem partnerships that drive growth through new distribution channels with noninsurance entities. The prevalence of digitally enabled real-time data sources (e.g., smartphones, wearables, telematics, etc.) will make it even easier to embed offers of the right insurance products to customers at the right time. 

9. Human Touch & Technology Balance
   No matter how much automation occurs, human touch will always be a necessary component of customer interaction, especially in an industry as nuanced as insurance. Insurers will need to focus on finding the balance between human touch and technology, using digitization to augment human capabilities so that customers still have choice with regard to how they communicate with their insurers.   

10. Intelligent Automation & Robotics
    Intelligent automation and robotics technology are critical tools that enable insurers to improve operational efficiencies while expanding capacity, increasing agility, and reducing costs. Farmers Insurance has already begun to use robotics technology in field claims and property inspections during catastrophe situations and natural disasters. This allows them to keep employees safe while fostering innovation that drives growth.   

11. Telematics & IoT
    Growing in its popularity and use, telematics information can give insurance adjusters real time data at the time of an accident and even help reduce insurance fraud. And the Internet of Things (IoT) will not be slowing down any time soon. Per McKinsey, connected consumer devices will increase rapidly with estimations showing there will be up to one trillion connected devices by 2025.³ 

12. Talent Crunch & Skill Development
    Recruiting and retaining the right talent in an extremely competitive job market will be one of the biggest insurer challenges. Roles requiring technology skills top the talent crunch list: cloud engineering, data science, AI, software development and cybersecurity.   Insurers will need a multi-faceted approach that addresses reskilling, work-life balance, the looming effects of COVID-19, and the needs of a remote work force.

 To learn more about these 12 key trends and what will drive the ability for P&C insurers to achieve growth in 2022, download our white paper.

One Inc
We’re here to help. One Inc’s comprehensive payment solution enables insurers to deliver on their promise to provide a secure and superior customer experience. Our reimagined inbound payment platform, PremiumPay® 2.0, features a low code/no code user interface that provides insurers unparalleled speed, usability and customization. Our comprehensive digital payment solution enables insurers to transform the insurance payment experience. And our omnichannel digital communication capabilities allow insurers to proactively engage policyholders on the channels they prefer. At One Inc we provide carriers with the ability to give their customers what they want and expect: control, convenience, consistency, and continuity.

To discuss your digital payment needs, please call (822) 209-1688 or email inquiries@OneInc.com.

Sources:

1. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3631542/low-code-no-code-yields-solutions-that-fit.html
2. https://www.swissre.com/risk-knowledge/building-societal-resilience/growing-risk-insurance-industry-crucial-role.html
3. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/insurance-2030-the-impact-of-ai-on-the-future-of-insurance