Year 2020 - CAPITALIZING ON PROFESSIONALS AND INSURTECH TO REACH GREATER HEIGHTS 善用專才與科技 保險中介創高峰

28 2019 年刊與 2020 展望 YEARBOOK 2019 & PROSPECT 2020 The changing face of the Insurance professional in today’s tech-infused landscape Much has been written about the impact of Insurtech, with promising technologies covering, Robotic Process Automation, Chatbots, Wearables and the Internet of things (IoT), Blockchain, Mobile Apps & ecosystems, with excitement around big data and AI. Contrastingly, we see little written about its impact on the Insurance professional or those contemplating such a career. The ubiquitous influence of technology continues fuelling employee anxiety across many industries and professions, including insurance. With the Insurance segment facing its own ‘amazon’ moment, with obstinate internal costs, clunky processes, increasing regulatory and reporting burdens, outdated customer engagement models and the threat of newer leaner more specialised start- ups threatening hard-earned market shares. Industry professionals would do well to contemplate their contribution and skills needed to thrive in tomorrow's ‘Insurance organisation 2.0’. Those affected may resist an organisational level change, but ultimately the fact is, that some jobs will cease to support as a competitive differentiator for the organisation. How deep this will affect the Industry is unclear? Technological progress is nothing new, while complex algorithms and other new technologies are considered threats within the profession, the reality is altogether different. On balance, such advancements have increased both jobs and productivity, not destroyed them. Many insurance jobs continue to go unfilled, primarily from the lack of skills available due to technological advancements. With today’s industry-wide talent pool both vast as it is diverse, the industry can boast as being one of the more inclusive of the financial services both in terms of customer impact and the talent pool that supports it. While automation could place some job functions at risk, opportunities exist for Insurance practitioners to enhance their offerings via Insurtech. It’s not only the Insurance business model, the plethora of available Technology Solutions and complexity of the risk landscape that is changing, but also the people and skills needed to support it 專題探討 FEATURE