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Data scientist, AI engineer, technology ethicist, drone operator, data miner, Uber driver—what do these jobs all have in common? You’ve guessed it. They are but a handful of the myriad professions that didn’t exist in a pre-digital era.

The world today: technology = reality

In a short space of time, we have seen how the emergence of digital technology has completely transformed our world. We are now living in a post-digital era where technology is woven into the fabric of reality.

Today, as revealed in the Accenture Technology Vision for Insurance 2019, ‘digital’ is no longer the differentiating factor it once was—digital-era technology is expected of every business, including insurers and other financial services providers.

As digital becomes a prerequisite for business and evens the playing field, insurers will need to acknowledge the shift in their reality—which includes rising expectations from digitally mature customers, employees and business partners.

But with great change comes greater responsibility

As technology becomes more intertwined with reality, businesses also face a transformation challenge. How do you unleash your people’s potential in a post-digital world?

First, you need to make a strategic investment in the kind of technology that you want to use. Investing in technology for its own sake is not the answer: the digital tools you employ must enhance the work of your employees and make their jobs easier, not more difficult.

Second, you need to train your employees on how to use these new technologies and to adapt to the new normal.

And third, you need to realize that change doesn’t come easily. Humans are naturally averse to change. Workplace culture transformation requires an effective change management program to ensure that employees are happy and able to adopt new technologies and, most importantly, are empowered by it.

What’s next in insurance? Five trends:

This year’s Accenture Technology Vision highlights five emerging trends that will shape insurance, financial services and most other industries over the next three years. In each trend, we can see how digital saturation is raising expectations, abilities and risks for insurers.

 

Each one of these trends holds great implications for Talent and Organization:

DARQ Power

In the post-digital era, insurers need to approach hiring, training, and employee retention with DARQ Power in mind. Insurance executives must ask themselves: How am I adding DARQ—distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), and quantum computing—skills to my current workforce? As recruiting DARQ talent becomes more competitive, consider training programs to reskill your current employees and incentivize them to stay.

Get to Know Me

Insurers need to know their customers as well as their employees at a granular, personalized level, in order to better manage them and to deliver individualized, experience-based relationships.

Secure Us to Secure Me

This trend is very important for talent and organization. Employees are your first line of defense, so it is vital to foster a culture of cyber security among your workforce.

MyMarkets

This trend is about finding the opportunities or “momentary markets” that will be welcomed by consumers, and creating customized products and services to deliver on demand. Your employees will need to be trained to identify and act on those moments. At the same time, employees—just like customers—also expect on-demand, customized experiences at work.

Each of these trends will have an important impact on how insurers go to market. But it’s crucial to understand how their influence will be felt both externally and internally, and how vital it is that the workforce be reskilled and elevated to take full advantage of them.

For the purpose of this three-part miniseries, I will focus on the evolving expectations of employees, as set out in the Technology Vision’s third emerging trend: the Human+ Worker. For more insight, read the Accenture Technology Vision for Insurance 2019 or get in touch with me here.