Conversations on the Creek

Reimagining Claims Management Through Generative AI with Andrew Schwartz of Celent

In today’s episode, recorded following a panel discussion at the Insurtech NY 2024 Spring Conference, Andrew Schwartz, a Senior Analyst at Celent, joins host Rob Savitsky to explore the use of generative AI and advanced analytics in insurance claims management. They delve into various applications, from first notice of loss to claims triaging, highlighting the potential for generative AI to enhance adjusters’ efficiency and elevate the customer experience. Listen in for an analyst’s perspective on these topics, and gain insights into the latest regulatory developments, including expectations outlined in the NAIC Model Bulletin regarding AI utilization by insurance companies.

 

Learn more about Celent by visiting celent.com and connect with Andrew on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrew-schwartz-celent/

 

Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting duckcreek.com/podcasts.

Smart Conversations: The Impact of Chatbots in Insurance with Meredith Barnes-Cook of Resource Pro

In today’s episode, Meredith Barnes-Cook, Partner at Resource Pro joins host Rob Savitsky to discuss the state of chatbots in P&C insurance.

Given the rise of generative AI, how are today’s bots different from those of the prior generation? What are the biggest opportunities for insurers to leverage them across their operations? How will they impact the day-to-day life of the individual claim adjustor or underwriter?

Recorded during a networking break at the Insurtech NY 2024 Spring conference, listen in for a quick hitting discussion.

Learn more about Resource Pro by visiting resourcepro.com and connect with Meredith on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/meredithbarnes-cook  

Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting duckcreek.com/podcasts.

 

The Importance of Payments for Insurers with Bernhard Schneider of PwC

In today’s episode, Oliver Werneyer, VP of Product Strategy and Innovation at Duck Creek sits down with Bernhard Schneider of PwC to discuss the importance of payments for the insurance industry. Insurers are under immense pressure to reduce their costs, better meet customers’ expectations and innovate and grow their business. We explore how critical payments is to the overall insurance value chain, why insurers struggle to comprehend how much they are even spending on the payments capabilities they provide, and discuss the potential savings insurers can extract from a next generation payments setup. Finally, the discussion also covers what the major opportunities are for insurers in providing better customer experience and customer loyalty across several use cases.

 

As mentioned on the show, Duck Creek Payments is now available in the US. By providing a single connection to the entire payments ecosystem, Duck Creek Payments allows insurers to maximize the business value from payments with minimal heavy lifting, massively reduced cost and full compliance. Learn more about Duck Creek Payments by visiting duckcreek.com/product/payments.

 

Also, the Duck Creek and PWC joint payments white paper is available now: https://www.pwc.ch/en/insights/fs/insurance-payment-transformation.html.

 

Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

Insurance Accelerators, MGAs, and AI, with David Gritz of Insurtech NY

In today’s episode, Rob Savitsky sits down with David Gritz, Founder and Managing Director of Insurtech NY to discuss the role of insurance startup accelerators in facilitating innovation, the evolving role of the MGA and carrier relationship, and the impact that AI is having to drive better business outcomes.

 

What role do accelerator programs play in helping insurers extend their innovation programs? Given the proliferation of MGAs (some of which are coming out of accelerators), how should carriers be approaching and evaluating partnerships? What are some of the more prominent AI and advanced analytics use cases being implemented across the insurance value chain?

 

Listen to hear more about the next wave of innovation impacting the industry and how carriers can best position themselves to succeed in the future.  

 

Learn more about Insurtech NY and their 2024 Spring Conference on March 20-21: https://www.insurtechny.com/

 

Register now for Duck Creek’s Formation ’24 conference on May 21-23 in Dallas, TX. With a theme of “Simplifying Together,” collaborate with some of the greatest minds from across the industry to build, learn, and innovate together. To reserve your seat, visit https://events.duckcreek.com/formation/home?ref=eventcorpsite

 

Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

Millennial Perspectives: Forecasting the Insurance Landscape in '24 with Ema Roloff

In Duck Creek’s annual reflections and predictions on the Creek episode, hosts Rob Savitsky and Zach May sit down with fellow millennial, Ema Roloff of Roloff Consulting, to rewind the tape on 2023 and crystalize their visions for the evolving terrain of the insurance industry in 2024.

 

With older workers retiring in droves, what have carriers been doing to attract younger workers and what will they be doing in 2024? What impact have we seen thus far by generative AI and what impact will it have in the coming year? Will claims teams reinvent themselves in 2024 or will it be more of the status quo?

 

Listen to this special episode where the guest temporarily becomes the host and vice versa, and hear Ema, Rob, and Zach each provide their takes on key trends that will shape the industry in the year ahead.

 

Connect with Ema on LinkedIn or by visiting her website at https://www.roloffconsulting.com/. 

 

Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting https://www.duckcreek.com/podcasts/. 

 

Finally, Conversations on the Creek has been named the #1 Best Insurtech Podcast by FeedSpot. Check us out there: https://podcasts.feedspot.com/insurtech_podcasts/. 

 

Harnessing Data for Better Insurance Decisions with Sully McConnell of Snowflake

In today’s episode, Rob Savitsky sits down with special guest, Sully McConnell, Head of Insurance at Snowflake, as well as his colleague, Dan Katz, Senior Director of Product Management at Duck Creek to discuss the state of data strategy in insurance.

 

They kick off the conversation by having a lively discussion around why it is more important than ever for carriers to be thinking about their enterprise data strategy. From there, both Sully and Dan offer up their perspective on the components for fostering successful data governance. The conversation evolves into a discussion around the consequences of poor data quality, as well as the importance of data as insurers look to embrace incorporating generative AI into their operations.

 

As the episode wraps up, the guests provide their viewpoints on where they feel insurers level of data maturity stands across various insurance use cases, as well as make predictions around where they see the top performing carriers will be in the future with respect to how they’ve operationalized their data, invested in data governance and data availability, and adopted generative AI.

 

As mentioned during the episode, Duck Creek’s new data management, reporting and analytics platform, Duck Creek Clarity, which is built on top of the Snowflake Data Cloud and optimized for Microsoft PowerBI is now available. Learn more about Clarity and our partnership with Snowflake by visiting duckcreek.com/product/clarity and duckcreek.com/partner/snowflake.

 

Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

Live from ITC Vegas ’23 – The Innovators Part 2

In this episode of Conversations on the Creek, host Rob Savitsky continues the conversation from Part 1 and takes the show on the road to the InsureTech Connect (ITC) Vegas ’23 Conference to have quick hitting discussions with several P&C innovators around the most pressing industry trends. Guests include Sabine VanderLinden (Co-Founder & CEO; Alchemy Crew); Tara Kelly (President & CEO; SPLICE Software); Joshua R. Hollander (CEO, North America; Horton International; Host, Insurtech Leadership Podcast) Silvia Diaz-Roa (Co-Founder; ClaimDeck); Ryan Baillargeon (Senior Marketing Manager, Insurance; Glia).

 

If there was one trend that dominated ITC’23 this year, it was generative AI. Not surprisingly, the topic of AI came up at some point in nearly every micro podcast episode in today’s show.

 

See below for the time stamps of each segment to jump to a particular topic and/or guest:

 

[2:15] – Sabine VanderLinden of Alchemy Crew shares her take on investments in generative AI, and the use cases in insurance where she sees initial adoption.

 

[12:41] – Tara Kelly of SPLICE Software describes the role of utilizing surveys to better meet evolving customer expectations.

 

[16:01] - Joshua R. Hollander of Horton International weighs in on the evolving talent landscape, the importance of DE&I, and how carriers can position themselves to find and retain top talent.  

 

[23:56] - Silvia Diaz-Roa of ClaimDeck talks about the state of claims litigation and the role of AI impacting the workforce.  

 

[27:30] Ryan Baillargeon of Glia share his perspective on how to deploy AI in the context of customer communications.

 

Guests/companies link dump:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinevanderlinden/
• https://www.duckcreek.com/partner/splice/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuarhollander/
• https://www.claim-deck.com/
• https://www.duckcreek.com/partner/glia/

 

 

Check out Part 1, as well as all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

Live from ITC Vegas ’23 – The Innovators Part 1

In this episode of Conversations on the Creek, host Rob Savitsky takes the show on the road to the InsureTech Connect (ITC) Vegas ’23 Conference to have bite-sized discussions with several P&C innovators around the most pressing industry trends. Guests include Rose Hall (SVP, Head of Innovation, Americas; AXA XL); Ryan Lockwood (Senior Manager, Data Platform; Toyota - Connected Analytic Services); Stephanie Behnke (VP, Solutions and Consulting; Hi Marley); Tony Cañas (Co-Founder; Insurance Nerds; Senior Recruiting Partner; Goodwin Recruiting); Kurt Jackson (Global Head of Sales; ICEYE). From the role of AI in claims to the evolution of telematics to carrier DE&I initiatives, each micro-podcast segment stands on its own. See below for the time stamps of each segment to jump to a particular topic and/or guest:

 

[2:05] – Rose Hall of AXA XL shares how the company is providing more proactive preventative risk management services and additional value beyond the insurance policy to better meet the needs of their commercial lines clients. Between bringing more risk reducing technologies to businesses and having risk engineers now also leveraging aggregated market information, AXA XL is poised to help businesses mitigate their risk while building long-lasting insurance partnerships. 

 

[7:55] – Ryan Lockwood of Toyota - Connected Analytic Services describes how Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are transforming telematics insurance in their connected cars. Learn how Toyota is providing flexible options for Toyota customers to opt into sharing telematics data with the industry’s largest carriers, as well as offering an embedded insurance offering through their MGA, Toyota Insurance.  

 

[18:01] - Stephanie Behnke of Hi Marley defines what “lovable” customer experiences look like and provides her perspective on how and when to deploy AI when texting with claimants. Between advances in sentiment analysis, whereby bots can alert adjustors to customer frustration, to being able to pull in multiple parties like a body shop to grouping multiple text messaging chains together, there are lots of new tactics for carriers to consider for helping their customers when they need it most.

 

[25:06] - Tony Cañas of Insurance Nerds and Goodwin Recruiting provides his take on what carriers need to attract and retain Millennials and Generation Z workers. Tony also dives into what he’s seeing carriers do to improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I). “Millennials expect diversity. Gen Z will demand it.” Tony makes the point that DE&I cannot just be a check the box item, and that the carriers that truly embrace DE&I as a priority are the ones who will succeed in winning on talent.

 

[36:26] - Kurt Jackson of ICEYE discusses how advances in satellite imagery and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology is enabling unprecedented responses to changes on Earth. With access to accurate, high resolution SAR images across the Earth during day or night, insurers now can make better decisions when natural catastrophes occur, improving their claims reserving and knowing how to better disperse their claims adjustors to homes and businesses.

 

Guest companies and other references from today’s show:

• https://axaxl.com/
• https://connectedanalyticservices.com/
• https://toyotaims.com/
• https://insnerds.com/
• https://insureequality.org/
• https://www.himarley.com/
• https://www.iceye.com/

 

Be sure to look out for Part 2 of this episode dropping later in November 2023.

 

Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

ITC Vegas 2023 Preview with Caribou Honig

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky chats with Caribou Honig, Chairman and Co-founder at InsureTech Connect (ITC), and Partner at SemperVirens Venture Capital about why he started ITC, what attendees can expect at this year's event, as well as his predictions for what technologies will impact insurance in the future. 

As a VC back in 2016, Caribou had been investing in the broader fintech space and was looking to begin investing more specifically in insurtech. The problem: as Caribou was trying to learn more about the industry, he couldn’t find an event that met his needs that was insurance and technology specific. The solution: he started ITC!

This year’s conference will take place October 31 – November 2 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada and will feature 9000+ industry attendees and 400+ speakers. Register for ITC Vegas by going to www.insuretechconnect.com and follow Caribou on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caribou/. 

At Duck Creek we are thrilled to be attending ITC Las Vegas this year. Please stop by our booth #2231 on November 1 and 2nd, where we will be showcasing our partners from across the insurance ecosystem, and describing how they integrate with Duck Creek. We look forward to meeting you and discussing how you can reimagine the future of insurance.

Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.   

   
   
   
   

Digital Twins in Insurance with Sarat Varanasi of Cognizant

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky chats with Sarat Varanasi, P&C Practice Leader at Cognizant about the concept of “digital twins” and how insurers are leveraging them across the insurance lifecycle.

Digital twins are virtual representations of physical objects or processes. They are fed by real-time data leveraging technologies such as IoT sensors, telematics devices, and AI/ML solutions. 

Rob kicks off the show by asking Sarat for his own definition of digital twins. Sarat notes that while the term is overused and applied differently by different folks in the industry, one key point to keep in mind is that the concept of digital twins can be applied to multiple risks. For example, one of Sarat’s carrier clients has taken the concept of digital twins to create digital replicas of the 300,000 commercial properties that they insure. These properties are pulling in data sources such as aerial imagery about the building, flood zone, and neighborhood, as well as data from Yelp reviews and Google Maps. It’s these sort of data feeds that keep the carriers updated on the status of each risk, and enable them to make better decisions around which subset of properties to conduct physical visits during renewals. 

Throughout the conversation, we discuss other use cases for digital twins including distribution, as well as claims assignment during CAT events.

Learn more about our partnership with Cognizant by going to duckcreek.com/partner/cognizant/.  

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