When I spoke at Enservio's Property Innovation Summit last week in St. Petersburg, FL, I followed an astronaut who flew two space shuttle missions and makes guest appearances on "The Big Bang Theory" and a former FBI agent who played the key role in catching Robert Hanssen, the most notorious spy in U.S. history. I was followed by a former Marine sniper who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and who co-founded Team Rubicon, which has organized some 80,000 volunteers who are former members of the military and who use their skills to help immediately following natural disasters around the world, such as the recent Hurricane Harvey. One of my daughters said, "'Dad, I'll put this as kindly as I can: Why did they want you there?'"
Fortunately, my self-worth is not fragile, and the topic I covered is an important one for the industry. I thought I'd cherry pick some details here (as long as I can't present you with the astronaut, spy catcher or ex-sniper).
Drawing on the information in our Innovator's Edge platform about tens of thousands of insurtechs and early-stage technology companies that might have a major impact on insurance, I described for the audience of senior claims executives the companies that I think have the best chance of radically improving the claims process. They are:
- Pypestream, which produces chatbots and provides secure communications links with customers. Everybody has a chatbot these days, but I'm a fan of Pypestream, partly because the company has done so much work in insurance that it has great domain expertise.
- WeGoLook, whose thousands of gig workers around the country (called "Lookers") can efficiently supplement insurers' claims operations.
- Infinilytics, whose predictive analytics can, among other things, help spot fraud.
- RightIndem, which offers a white label claims process that speeds handling and improves the customer's experience.
- Casentric, whose technology helps evaluate personal injury claims.
- ViewSpection, which allows for self-service inspections using customers' phone cameras.
- MotionsCloud, which offers a mobile app that uses AI to greatly speed the claims process.
- Care Bridge International, which offers solutions for future medical valuations, medical reserve setting, underwriting, claim settlements and more.
I also shared this chart, which uses data from Innovator's Edge to show where the funding in claims management tech, alongside some related areas, has been going for the past three years:
I think we can all agree that the claims process has a long way to go. A massive amount of cost can be taken out, and everyone's experience can be improved. Nobody—not those on the carrier side, not the agents and certainly not the customers—enjoy the days and weeks of back-and-forth that are required now, often focused on small details and generating so very much paper.
Following insurtechs such as the seven I've listed can be a great way to broaden our horizons about what's possible, and finding the one or two right partners can be a great step on the road to profitable innovation.
Have a great week.
Paul Carroll
Editor-in-Chief
