Insurance Blog | Accenture

New and emerging technologies are helping insurers detect and fight fraud—but are also creating challenges around policy language, privacy and consumer rights, says Matthew Smith from The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.

In a few weeks we’ll be releasing season one of the Accenture Insurance Influencers podcast. It’s your opportunity to eavesdrop on conversations with some of the industry’s most profound thinkers. What are the trends shaping the industry? And how can insurers position themselves to take advantage of them?

For now, we’re excited to share clips from some of this season’s interviews. Each of our guests answered the same four quickfire questions. Today’s answers come from Matthew Smith, director of government affairs and general counsel for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.

What’s the biggest challenge facing insurers today?

The biggest challenge we face is updating our policy language, updating our internal procedures, and preparing ourselves to use this wealth of new data and information that we have. It’s especially important as we move from a traditional paper industry to high-tech industry that uses the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies.

Great. And what is the biggest opportunity facing insurers today?

Our biggest opportunity is the flip side of what we just talked about. We have all of these emerging technologies: the ability to use the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, device recognition, the ability to download information to track individuals––that emerging trend is an opportunity that is unlike any that we’ve ever had in anti-fraud efforts.

What trends should be on insurers’ radars?

The biggest trends we need to be watching right now are appropriate regulation and legislation that involves cybersecurity privacy and protecting consumers’ rights and interests. That’s important as we integrate these new technologies into insurance anti-fraud platforms.

And finally, what technology will have the greatest effect on the industry over the next 10 to 15 years?

The most honest answer to that is probably the technology that has not even been invented yet. We are literally moving at such a fast pace that I think anyone who tells you what’s going to be the breakthrough technology 15 years from now is guessing. But the Internet of Things, the ability to use artificial intelligence, predictive modeling, those are the three big issues right now that I think will be driving us for at least the next decade.

Stay tuned for the launch of Insurance Influencers, where Matthew will highlight how insurance fraud has evolved, how insurers are using technology to better detect and fight fraud—and how low-touch customer experiences might be leading to high-tech fraud.

What to do next:

Contact us if you’d like to be a guest on the Insurance Influencers podcast.

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *