Customer focused innovations driven by Insurance disruption

Insurers in Singapore have been increasingly customer focused in an attempt to retain and attract new policyholders which has been fuelled by the continued developments in technology. Disruption will continue throughout the year, as will the rise of unions between innovation-starved insurers and technology-related start-ups. The main technologies driving these changes are artificial intelligence, open application programme interface (API) and blockchain. The growth in innovation has led insurers, including Aviva, AXA, Allianz and Manulife to set up labs in Singapore in recent years. Many have also moved to improve front-end processes, including making it easier for their agents to sell products or for customers to purchase policies, particularly through digital channels. Zia Zaman, chief innovation officer at MetLife Asia, highlighted that the more insurers can make the link between the problems customers are trying to solve, the way they want to solve it, experiences they want delivered and follow ups done in the way they expect, the more likely insurers are to deliver value to customers. Zaman said, "We live in an experiences economy and the product is just a part of it. It's an important part of it but it needs to be more customer-centric."