The event organised by Inese, which was celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, took place at IFEMA Madrid on 14, 15 and 16 February 2023. It started with the Senior Insurance Management Forum and over the course of these three days it was visited by 5,200 people.
The insurance is you was the motto of the conference. A phrase that emphasized that the insurance business is a service sector. The aim was to pay a small tribute to all the people who work in the sector. The most important issues of the insurance industry were discussed during 40 round tables and debates spanning more than 70 hours. During the three days, interviews were conducted with leading figures in the sector, which you can listen to here in podcast format.
Policrisis was another of the words that was heard the most in Insurance Week 2023, uncertainty (one of the most negative circumstances that the insurance industry can find) is an essential factor to understand the business decisions that are adopted in these moments Speakers highlighted the economic crisis, although fortunately indicators suggest that the situation is improving relatively quickly. The same could be said of the health crisis, which is now behind us. On the other hand, there is a security crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine, as well as demographic, climate and political crises (instability of democratic systems).
Inflation (and high interest rates) was another issue that, while easing, is negatively affecting the economy and certainly the industry, because of the impact it has on rising costs and how it has a negative impact on policyholder premiums. A circumstance that has had a direct impact on the way investments have been made in the insurance industry in recent times.
One of the recurring themes was the importance of customer service, to which absolute trust must be conveyed. The insurer must know the needs of people and for this it is necessary to listen to their demands. In this respect, much emphasis has been placed on the concept of Customer Experience and the different ways of approaching it in order to improve the relationship with policyholders.
Main ideas discussed during Insurance Week:
- The future will be marked by digitalisation and sustainability. In this digitalisation, all companies will have to address the simplification of their business processes.
- Polycrisis, the coincidence of several risks: economic, climatic, political and security.
- Artificial intelligence (AI), although sometimes overestimated, is going to change the way we work and interact with machines. The burden remains and will remain on people, but it will transform the way claims are handled, and help make decisions on complex issues. The company that does not incorporate AI tools will not be able to compete in the future. In this area, Delonia has put into practice different AI solutions applied to insurance, to improve the processing of claims, fraud identification, customer service and data normalization / standardization.
- The importance of the data and that it supports current business needs by investing in distributed architecture and the transformation of legacy or inherited data systems. Without this work, it will be impossible to improve management and join the artificial intelligence bandwagon. Data is of little use if it is not of good quality, poorly produced and not used as a source of information for decision-making.
- The effects of climate change are becoming more intense, frequent and bizarre. It must be understood as a global event, because what happens in some continents has an impact on others.
- Service, product and technology, these are the three axes on which the insurance sector must revolve.
- The industry approaches cyber insurance with some caution due to its special features Some factors that differentiate it from other claims are the difficulty of measuring risk and its intrinsic scalability on a global scale. Teleworking has meant a paradigm shift that has increased the vulnerability of companies.
