5 predictions for digital media in insurance in 2022
From self-service experiences to deepfakes, these trends will shape the P&C industry in the year ahead.
As the insurance world accelerates toward nearly universal adoption of digital technology for claims, underwriting and other important transactions, it places an increasing emphasis on digital media: photos, videos and even documents to process those transactions.
With little relief from the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2021 and threats of another new variant potentially spilling into 2022, there is a slim chance of regressing to traditional in-person inspections that were once the hallmark of insurance transactions. Even putting the pandemic aside, which we truly hope to see dissipate, it would be hard for carriers to turn their backs on the efficiencies afforded by their new digital experiences.
From a pragmatic perspective, what this suggests is that more insurance transactions in 2022 will be based entirely on assessing digital media as opposed to assessing physical assets. While the difference between the 2 processes may sound subtle at first glance, it is analogous to attending a virtual conference versus a physical meeting, meaning the virtual is a lot more convenient and efficient, but somehow you are left wondering if there is anything you are missing.
With this context, I wanted to share five trends and bold predictions that will affect digital media in insurance in 2022:
1. Continued rise of self-service and touchless claims using customer-supplied media. While COVID has shifted claims to a self-service and touchless process by necessity, inspector visits are not as common as they used to be. In fact, in 2020, double the number of auto claims were settled on the basis of photos alone and it would be difficult to anticipate a scenario where this rolls back to older more manual processes. Mobile cameras are incrementally improving to the point where they can make insured customers the most efficient and effective photographers.
2. More straight-through claims processing. The carrier side equivalent of making claims touchless for the insured is making claims touchless for the insurer — in other words, processing claims without any human intervention. Reducing the cost of claims has always been a meaningful goal for insurance carriers, and with AI stepping in to automate a large portion of simpler claims, that goal is getting closer to reality. Deloitte predicts 70% of claims can be no-touch processed via STP. The driving forces are clear as both insurance carriers and insured customers stand to benefit greatly.
3. Broader use of self-service photos in underwriting. Thought self-service photos only made sense for claims/? Consider the value of a few photos during underwriting. Underwriting is largely fueled by a sales process — and in sales, friction is rarely welcome — TV commercials make it clear carriers need less than 15 minutes of your time to insure a new asset. Whether it’s having a vehicle inspected or verifying the condition of an insured asset, added friction during the underwriting process is largely frowned upon. But what if that friction were reduced to a couple of clicks of your mobile phone as part of an online quoting process? In turn, carriers gain a better understanding of the asset being insured — that an automobile is free from dents and pre-existing damage, that receipt or appraisal belongs to a diamond ring whose condition and location can be verified. With better validation of insured assets, everybody wins.
4. Growing Deepfake and synthetic media risks. The darker side of using digital photos and videos to settle insurance claims has already reared its unwelcome head in other circles such as social media. In the world of questionable or fake news, hardly a day goes by where people don’t question the authenticity of photos and videos and for good reason. Synthetic media such as Deepfakes are not only getting more and more realistic, but they also lack the forensic traces found in typical edited digital media. Earlier this year, I an article wrote on deepfakes and their growing threat to the insurance industry. Imagine being able to fabricate insurance photos that are nearly impossible to discern from real photos. That reality is here, and in an industry already encumbered by $80B in fraud in the US alone, it poses a grave concern.
5. Tamper-proof digital media. Just in time to counteract the threat of fake digital media, tamper-proof media can play a major role in ensuring that photos and videos used for insurance transactions are free from synthetically generated or altered media that is becoming more difficult to detect. Using technology at the point of capture for images, videos and documents, leveraging new scalable and immutable constructs, such as blockchain technology (as a bonus prediction, perhaps the first large-scale rollout of blockchain technology) the insurance world will continue to rock on with digital advancements. Expect to see widespread adoption of tamper-proof media, especially in self-service processes, across customers and various principles in the insurance ecosystem to ensure that advances in technology to counter fraud are keeping up with advances in technology that create new fraud.
Overall, don’t expect 2022 to be a year of reverting to older pre-pandemic insurance processes, but instead, anticipate a year of legitimizing, enhancing and protecting investments in digital processes that will benefit insurance carriers and customers for years to come.
Nicos Vekiarides (nicos@attestiv.com) is the CEO & co-founder of Attestiv. He has spent the past 20+ years in enterprise IT and cloud, as a CEO & entrepreneur, bringing innovative technologies to market.
Opinions expressed here are the author’s own.
Related: