Insurers operate in an increasingly complex world of disparate state regulations, evolving customer preferences, heightened competition and continually expanding, multifaceted data.

While these industry trends challenge traditional carriers, they also create opportunities to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Here are five industry trends to watch:

1. Agent Experience

Insurers are pursuing ways to unlock growth and enable agents to be more productive, including tech investments that increase policy quotes, application throughput and data capture. Others are taking a different approach by offering sales- and technology-focused product education programs that help agents grapple with selling products in different regulatory environments.

2. Usage-based insurance

A recent EY report says that global UBI market penetration is still less than 1%, but is expected to expand to 15% in America, Europe and Asia by 2020. This growth applies across lines and sectors, with questions remaining around payment structures and technologies.

3. Digital Investments

Carriers can design and deploy highly relevant messages via online ads and e-mail campaigns to attractive customer segments with a high propensity to buy.

4. Smarter claims handling

Insurers are investing in call center enhancements, as well as technologies that expedite the claims handling process. Products such as Allstate's Fast Mobile e-Payment and MasterCard Send enable carriers to send claim payments directly to customers in a single day.

5. Learning from start-ups

Tech start-ups such as Oscar, Lemonade, Metromile and SimplyInsured, are addressing key pain points in the industry. What problems can you solve?

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