Of all the predictions about the future of Instech which were issued around the turn of the year, the one that resonated most with me was this one from Rick Huckstep of Daily FinTech Advisers.  His gaze into the crystal ball was limited to 2016 and was predicated on a detailed knowledge of what’s coming our way and personal insight into what’s likely to work and what’s not.

That got me into thinking what the world of insurance would be like if Rick’s predictions came true. What would the customer experience be like? Imagine if we could do this come December 2016:-

Download the “All in One Policy Prep App”, scan in the details your existing household, motor, travel, gadgets, pet, valuables and health insurance, add some additional information, and end up with a complete data set from which you can buy an “All in One Policy” from one of a growing panel of insurers offering an All in One Policy option  (RH Prediction # 4)

Download your personal “Concierge App” which takes your complete data set and shops with several insurers now providing an All in One Policy. It comes back with prices, gap analysis and a recommendation - in future years it’ll do this for you automatically a couple of weeks before each renewal. You accept the recommendation and an e-policy is issued and a standing order for the agreed monthly premium is set up. (RH Prediction #5)

You select your insurers Use Based insurance option and therefore also install their connected home, lifestyle and telematics devices all linked to your phone and agree to provide that data to insurers who use it to monitor your motor usage, lifestyle, location while travelling and behaviour patterns. (RH Predictions #1 and # 3)

That data is collected by the insurer and transformed into data from which they can price the true cost of risk provision using a new generation of cloud based, highly sophisticated data gathering and modelling technologies to price the risk. The monthly premium is based on assumptions as to mileage, behaviour, exercise, and security arrangements with a loading for usage patterns or behaviour which vary from the agreed assumptions. (RH Predictions # 6 and #7)

When you claim you notify off your Concierge App providing photos or video of the damage and details of how loss/damage occurred and where. Insurers will pay claims within hours on the back of video evidence, GPS and realistic estimate of loss. To assist you with this your Concierge App asset register already has details of your assets, value, invoice, serial number which is automatically included with the relevant claims notification. In time, Concierge App will also have the ability to buy you a replacement and if it does will automatically download the new details to your asset register. (RH Prediction # 9)

A cheaper and less sophisticated subset of this technology will get rolled out in developing countries with modern mobile networks. As with banking in countries like Kenya, the combination of ubiquity of the mobile and the geographic spread drives adoption as it is so transformative. This allows some developing countries to leapfrog others and to move to a purely digital model relatively free of legacy. (RH Prediction # 8)

It’ll be 2017 before Blockchain underpins this model, but by then it will have found uses in asset registers, payments and in the execution of event based contingency insurance. (RH Prediction #10)

To see how close we are to this as reality, you should come to Instech’s Insurance Innovation Show and Tell at WeWorks, Moorgate on 24th February 2016 – www.meetup.com/instech/.

Several of the technologies which will be delivering the services which Rick has predicted will be exhibiting there and you can see them in action – end of shameless plug.

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