86% of Insurance CEOs Plan to Increase Tech Investment

Anticipating a more customer-centric strategy, insurers will look to new data sources and analytical techniques to sharpen risk understanding and customer profiling, according to a new report.

Insurance Networking News, February 12, 2013

Carrie Burns

While global insurance CEOs are optimistic about revenue growth over the next year, they anticipate new challenges and a shift in consumer spending on insurance products, according to a new report from PwC. To address these, insurers will increase investment

in customer service, new technology and talent.

The “Coming to Grips with Market Transformation” report, in which PwC surveyed 92 insurance CEOs in 39 countries, is part of a larger survey that includes 1,330 CEOs representing a number of industries in 68 countries.

With 86 percent of insurance industry leaders planning to increase investment in technology over the next 12 months, more than any of the other 19 commercial sectors in the PwC survey. Communications is the only other sector in which more than 80 percent of CEOs plan to increase funding for technology.

PwC says this increase reflects how crucial technology is in providing insurers with the necessary insight and operational agility to a customer-centric strategy, which includes competitive developments, sharpening risk understanding and customer profiling, while attracting new customers. “Surprisingly, however, most CEOs say they aren’t concerned about the speed of technological change or the threat from new entrants,” the report states. “Moreover, few insurers are comfortable with using new data sources and analytical techniques to shape decision making.”

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