Four Big Trends Reshaping Insurance
Explosion of Data from Connected Devices
As homes, cars, wearables, and medical devices increasingly talk to the web, insurers gain intimate visibility into risk. That means more personalized pricing and real-time service.
Rise of Physical Robotics & Automation
From drones to autonomous vehicles to 3D-printed structures, robotics will shift how risk is distributed and how claims are handled.
Open Data Ecosystems & Sharing
Insurance won’t sit in isolation. Data will move across industries — home sensors, auto telematics, health devices — creating richer profiles for insurers to use.
Cognitive Technologies & Deep Learning
Models that “learn” will increasingly power underwriting, claims, fraud detection, and customer service. Algorithms get smarter and more autonomous over time.
What Insurance Might Look Like in 2030
1) Distribution:
Buying a policy becomes almost instant - minutes or seconds. Insurance shifts away from “buy & renew annually” toward continuous, usage-based models.
2) Underwriting & Pricing:
The manual underwriting we know now mostly disappears. Machines use live data flows and external sources to decide risk and price policies in real time.
3) Claims: Automation rules. Smart sensors, cameras, drones, AI routing—these reduce human intervention to only complex, contested cases. Response and repair become faster.
What Insurers Must Do Now to Get Ready
1) Learn the tech : not just IT teams but board members and business leads must get fluent in AI, IoT, and related innovations.
2) Build strategy : map out a multiyear roadmap that strikes balance between pilot projects and hard bets. Decide whether to partner, acquire, or build in-house.
3) Deploy a data strategy : collect, integrate, license, secure external and internal data. The richer your data, the better your models.
4) Invest in talent & infrastructure : you’ll need data engineers, AI specialists, cloud architects, creative thinkers. Expect to reskill existing staff. Also, your tech stack must support rapid, adaptive change.
Source:
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/insurance-2030-the-impact-of-ai-on-the-future-of-insurance#/
