Key Insurance Trends to Watch in 2022

By Assaf Tayar, Managing Director, BCG Platinion.

1. The Insurance market will continue to grow in maturity based on the richness of solutions by InsurTech

In 2022, we’re going to see a true acceleration in the modernisation of the insurance industry. We’ve already started to see this change this year, but it will continue to grow at a rapid pace because of the amount of competition in the market. Competitors are now able to provide direct value propositions to clients that are much more convenient.

It will be key to modernise full technology stacks to get the value from IoT, data and the cloud. As a result, the rise of InsurTech is going to become the norm, with SaaS based solutions based on APIs put in place to deliver personalisation on a grand scale.

2. The Insurance industry will become cloud native

Many companies are already using cloud as part of their growing infrastructure and this will be even more apparent in 2022.

Many of the newer technology solutions in the market are cloud native and as a result the insurance sector is starting to understand the true value of the cloud. Whether that’s based on accessing the wealth of third-party solutions available, improved efficiencies or cost savings , this trend will not slowdown and we’ll continue to see insurance companies look at solutions to help accelerate cloud migration.

3. In 2022, the insurance industry will start using data managements at scale

Once insurance businesses move their IT infrastructure to the cloud, they will see huge gains from using data platforms.

While there are still many constraints in the sector around data management due to various regulations, the need to have proper solutions to cope with GDPR, cybersecurity and more has never been more vital.

We won’t see an explosion of new technologies, but instead insurance companies deploying current technology at scale and leveraging it to fulfil its true potential.

4. The Insurance industry will continue to connect and work together with other industries

There is a huge role for insurance to play in several different industries and this will continue to increase in 2022.

For example, the automotive industry. Many modern cars have various IoT sensors which collect data on how a car travels. The telematics of the data is embedded in the car, which means data can then be sent back to relevant organisations, such as an insurance company, if an accident was to occur. This technology will only continue to get more sophisticated. AI also has a role to play and this will be driven by insurance as well.

There is also a huge opportunity in the healthcare industry and how the ecosystem of services and devices available can help individuals live a healthy life. As more products enter the market, such as Fit Bits and the Apple Watch, having the right solutions to process the data, store data and ensure its compliant will be key. It will continue to be an explosive market for insurance.

5. The insurance sector will move towards being part of a wider ecosystem which will be API driven and open

With new platforms being created every day all over the world, we are already starting to see the development of micro insurance products that are built in a way that can be plugged into different marketplaces. This is driving product simplicity as well as ensuring focused customer engagement and services.

To take this to the next level, next year we will see the insurance sector take a larger role in this wider technology ecosystem. The focus for insurers will be on getting value from the technology. This requires a better use of APIs and creating partnerships with open architecture.

In Europe this has already started to happen and will become even more prominent in 2022.

6. Throughout 2022, the cryptocurrency world will look completely different

We’re currently going through an evolution of tech ecosystems where insurance organisations are developing them and embedding into them more than ever. Already, we see Insurance players who are building payment mechanism leveraging crypto solutions.

As we move throughout 2022, we expect to see a growth in the alternative ways of making payments. We will start to see smaller players in InsurTech provide instant payments that perhaps are currently inexistant right now.

It will still take time for there to be a global crypto market, but blockchain will continue to provide new opportunities which will impact the insurance industry.