InsureTech Connect, the annual gathering of thousands of leaders from insurance carriers, insurtechs, and venture capital firms, provides a great opportunity to explore the industry’s most pivotal topics, such as how new technologies and capabilities are transforming all aspects of the industry.

In the first few years of ITC, attendees tried to determine if the industry was making significant progress on the technology front. And in the past couple of years it has been seen a great amount of investment from carriers to build foundational technology capabilities. Some major topics are invested:

1. Cybersecurity: Insurers are targets for cybersecurity incidents because they store large amounts of sensitive data. Carriers need to be fanatical in developing and executing a strategy that protects their data from attacks. Doing so will be a key element in developing and maintaining trusted relationships with consumers. Insurtechs have increasingly focused on this pressing issue.

2. Artificial intelligence: AI is certainly not a new area of discussion, but now that carriers are beginning to look at themselves as data companies, many are exploring how AI can have an impact on key areas within the value stream, such as productivity, compliance, and decision making. 

3. Analytics: Making sense of big data and pulling actionable insights from it will advance the industry—or at least some of the players. Insurtechs have helped accelerate our understanding of the business value analytics can offer insurance, as well as the positive impact analytics can offer for agents and on the customer experience. 

According to mckinsey.com