Protection tech - a future we share

We’re a month on from the LifeSearch Awards, and I still find myself reflecting positively on our data and tech category. There’s such momentum in this space and it’s progress that needs a platform.

It’s clear to me that industry is testing the limits of tech to rewire our fundamentals. We’re injecting more speed, quality, relevance and ease into the customer experience and I sense we’re at the vanguard of change. 

Progress protection

At the LifeSearch Awards, in the Best use of data and technology to drive exceptional outcomes category, a dozen sharp and encouraging entries show the extent to which firms are accelerating for change. 

From text mining and AI augmented decision-making at Underwrite Me to data-led underwriting at Royal London; claims databases at Protection Guru and wearables at Vitality. There’s machine learning for predictive modelling at Scor Re and advanced data science in play at Montoux. 

We read a dozen heavyweight examples of tech-in-action ahead of the Awards, and ongoing progress in the space is perhaps more encouraging than we realise. 

A focus we share

At LifeSearch we’ve, too, harnessed advanced tech to rewrite the customer playbook.  Our industry’s north star (to coin a marketing cliché) is protecting families. That’s it. We’ve retired the dusty either/ or language of online versus off and human versus digital. Instead, we provide customers with the right journey for them: unique, distinct, seamless.

We have and favour a hybrid model, where customer paths are plotted in dynamic real-time. Need and taste dictates where expert advisers can support online, and where cutting-edge tech can support expert advisers. 

Because there’s no one way to do this. Tech gives us the opportunity to achieve our aims effectively and efficiently. And if we step back, we can see what mammoth progress has been made in a decade. We should marvel at how this stereotypically old and creaky industry – that’s synonymous with paperwork and inertia – is excelling in servicing new demand for a new day. That’s pursuing new and better ways to protect families. 

To the future

I believe we’re on the right path. Entries submitted to the LifeSearch Awards showed undiluted proof of industry’s desire to evolve in the name of customer service. Even more encouraging: the examples I’ve given represent a drop in the ocean of what’s ongoing… and what’s possible. 

We know the challenge and we are, all of us, using the sharpest tools in the box to meet it. It’s inspiring and I feel it’s time we created a focused forum to champion and embolden our shared aspirations in tech.

And why not? We share a mission. We share a history. If we’re to make a dent in our objectives we will share a future.

Time to unite? Watch this space.