Insurers Face Challenges of Cognitive Computing, Big Data and Data Exchange Standards
Global IQX executive lays out insurtech hurdles and solutions for insurers in Best’s Review column
“The ability of cognitive technologies, including artificial intelligence, to handle structured and unstructured data in meaningful ways will create entirely new business processes and operations” for the insurance industry, Michael J. de Waal, president of Global IQX, writes in the February issue of Best’s Review.
Innovative ways to use data are transforming the industry.
One example is how blocks of group insurance business are rated. Normally, census data for each employee group must be imported by the insurer in order to rate and quote. Now, groups of clients can be blocked together based on shared business factors and then rated and quoted by the experience of the group for more accurate and flexible rating, he writes.
Wearables are providing health insurers with valuable data. Insurers need to adopt best practices to use data for quoting individual and group policies, setting premiums, reducing fraud and targeting key markets, de Waal writes.
Cognitive computing can also make big data manageable. Ensuring IT goals link back to business strategy will help keep projects focused.
Establishing effective data exchange standards also remains a key challenge.
“Data exchange standards should encompass data aggregation, format and translation, and frequency of delivery,” de Waal asserts. “It’s no longer a matter of when insurance carriers will begin to use cognitive computing, big data, and data standards, but how.”
The full article can be read here.
