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Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};

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The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Latest

\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

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\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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\n
\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

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\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n

Executives from TNT, one of the most experienced agribusiness tour operators in Brazil, hear from Ceres Imaging, a data as a service field imaging company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT, one of the most experienced agribusiness tour operators in Brazil, hear from Ceres Imaging, a data as a service field imaging company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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\n

Key takeaway from TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging: <\/strong>technological innovations pave the way for new services like aerial imaging and new business models like DaaS to enter the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT, one of the most experienced agribusiness tour operators in Brazil, hear from Ceres Imaging, a data as a service field imaging company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n

And Ceres\u2019 business model is as innovative as their tech: pay by the acre, or as they call it, Data as a Service (DaaS). Their scalable subscription model includes access to a team of on-demand scientists, agronomists, and hydrologists who can use the maps to help farmers improve crop management, efficiently apply fertilizer, optimize irrigation schedules, and more. This type of subscription access to technology has proved a killer business model for companies like streaming networks and car sharing services. That it\u2019s already making its way into agriculture is another sign of the industry\u2019s rapid shift to new technologies. The TNT groups were keen on exploring this new business model by partnering with Ceres once the company comes to Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging: <\/strong>technological innovations pave the way for new services like aerial imaging and new business models like DaaS to enter the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT, one of the most experienced agribusiness tour operators in Brazil, hear from Ceres Imaging, a data as a service field imaging company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n

Ceres Imaging takes remote sensing technology a step further. Like TerrAvion, they specialize in aerial spectral imagery via low-flying planes. Where Ceres shines, explained their Vice President of Product to the TNT groups, is in the specialized software they\u2019ve developed to make sense of their multispectral images. Using proprietary image processing and crop modeling techniques, Ceres weaves together hundreds of overlapping frames into a seamless mosaic of field data. Their software can count every individual tree in an acre and has even pioneered a new technique for spectrally measuring plant transpiration \u2014 as verified by the University of California Cooperative Extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Ceres\u2019 business model is as innovative as their tech: pay by the acre, or as they call it, Data as a Service (DaaS). Their scalable subscription model includes access to a team of on-demand scientists, agronomists, and hydrologists who can use the maps to help farmers improve crop management, efficiently apply fertilizer, optimize irrigation schedules, and more. This type of subscription access to technology has proved a killer business model for companies like streaming networks and car sharing services. That it\u2019s already making its way into agriculture is another sign of the industry\u2019s rapid shift to new technologies. The TNT groups were keen on exploring this new business model by partnering with Ceres once the company comes to Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging: <\/strong>technological innovations pave the way for new services like aerial imaging and new business models like DaaS to enter the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT, one of the most experienced agribusiness tour operators in Brazil, hear from Ceres Imaging, a data as a service field imaging company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
Search

Latest

\n

The largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery-as-a-service for agriculture is TerrAvion. TNT heard from their National Director of Sales and Business Development on how the company\u2019s core service, OverView, is managing and processing millions of acres of agricultural land every day. In short: 13-15 times each season, a TerrAvion fixed winged manned aircraft flies over a field and produces high resolution maps showing natural color, infrared, thermal, vegetation index, and more. These images are processed and delivered to farmers overnight, resulting in up-to-date maps that reflect attributes such as soil quality, plant growth variability, and vegetative area. Farmers can integrate this data into farm management or analytics software for an up-to-the-minute understanding of their crops and yield. And as TNT was happy to learn, TerrAvion is already operating successfully in Brazil and is just as excited about forging new partnerships as TNT themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceres Imaging takes remote sensing technology a step further. Like TerrAvion, they specialize in aerial spectral imagery via low-flying planes. Where Ceres shines, explained their Vice President of Product to the TNT groups, is in the specialized software they\u2019ve developed to make sense of their multispectral images. Using proprietary image processing and crop modeling techniques, Ceres weaves together hundreds of overlapping frames into a seamless mosaic of field data. Their software can count every individual tree in an acre and has even pioneered a new technique for spectrally measuring plant transpiration \u2014 as verified by the University of California Cooperative Extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Ceres\u2019 business model is as innovative as their tech: pay by the acre, or as they call it, Data as a Service (DaaS). Their scalable subscription model includes access to a team of on-demand scientists, agronomists, and hydrologists who can use the maps to help farmers improve crop management, efficiently apply fertilizer, optimize irrigation schedules, and more. This type of subscription access to technology has proved a killer business model for companies like streaming networks and car sharing services. That it\u2019s already making its way into agriculture is another sign of the industry\u2019s rapid shift to new technologies. The TNT groups were keen on exploring this new business model by partnering with Ceres once the company comes to Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging: <\/strong>technological innovations pave the way for new services like aerial imaging and new business models like DaaS to enter the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT, one of the most experienced agribusiness tour operators in Brazil, hear from Ceres Imaging, a data as a service field imaging company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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Latest

\n

The most immediate technological innovations in agriculture are those that address the immense labor required to bring a crop from seed to shelves \u2014 tilling, planting, watering, plucking, washing, and the like. Farming is, after all, a physical business. We\u2019ve written before about how companies like John Deere, Blue River, and Naio Technologies are bringing automation and cloud computing to the hulking machinery plowing modern fields. And while the TNT groups visited companies like Tesla that are helping to drive innovations in autonomous vehicles, the delegates were most interested to learn about a loftier technology: aerial imaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery-as-a-service for agriculture is TerrAvion. TNT heard from their National Director of Sales and Business Development on how the company\u2019s core service, OverView, is managing and processing millions of acres of agricultural land every day. In short: 13-15 times each season, a TerrAvion fixed winged manned aircraft flies over a field and produces high resolution maps showing natural color, infrared, thermal, vegetation index, and more. These images are processed and delivered to farmers overnight, resulting in up-to-date maps that reflect attributes such as soil quality, plant growth variability, and vegetative area. Farmers can integrate this data into farm management or analytics software for an up-to-the-minute understanding of their crops and yield. And as TNT was happy to learn, TerrAvion is already operating successfully in Brazil and is just as excited about forging new partnerships as TNT themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceres Imaging takes remote sensing technology a step further. Like TerrAvion, they specialize in aerial spectral imagery via low-flying planes. Where Ceres shines, explained their Vice President of Product to the TNT groups, is in the specialized software they\u2019ve developed to make sense of their multispectral images. Using proprietary image processing and crop modeling techniques, Ceres weaves together hundreds of overlapping frames into a seamless mosaic of field data. Their software can count every individual tree in an acre and has even pioneered a new technique for spectrally measuring plant transpiration \u2014 as verified by the University of California Cooperative Extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Ceres\u2019 business model is as innovative as their tech: pay by the acre, or as they call it, Data as a Service (DaaS). Their scalable subscription model includes access to a team of on-demand scientists, agronomists, and hydrologists who can use the maps to help farmers improve crop management, efficiently apply fertilizer, optimize irrigation schedules, and more. This type of subscription access to technology has proved a killer business model for companies like streaming networks and car sharing services. That it\u2019s already making its way into agriculture is another sign of the industry\u2019s rapid shift to new technologies. The TNT groups were keen on exploring this new business model by partnering with Ceres once the company comes to Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging: <\/strong>technological innovations pave the way for new services like aerial imaging and new business models like DaaS to enter the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT, one of the most experienced agribusiness tour operators in Brazil, hear from Ceres Imaging, a data as a service field imaging company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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High Tech Sees the World Through New Eyes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most immediate technological innovations in agriculture are those that address the immense labor required to bring a crop from seed to shelves \u2014 tilling, planting, watering, plucking, washing, and the like. Farming is, after all, a physical business. We\u2019ve written before about how companies like John Deere, Blue River, and Naio Technologies are bringing automation and cloud computing to the hulking machinery plowing modern fields. And while the TNT groups visited companies like Tesla that are helping to drive innovations in autonomous vehicles, the delegates were most interested to learn about a loftier technology: aerial imaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery-as-a-service for agriculture is TerrAvion. TNT heard from their National Director of Sales and Business Development on how the company\u2019s core service, OverView, is managing and processing millions of acres of agricultural land every day. In short: 13-15 times each season, a TerrAvion fixed winged manned aircraft flies over a field and produces high resolution maps showing natural color, infrared, thermal, vegetation index, and more. These images are processed and delivered to farmers overnight, resulting in up-to-date maps that reflect attributes such as soil quality, plant growth variability, and vegetative area. Farmers can integrate this data into farm management or analytics software for an up-to-the-minute understanding of their crops and yield. And as TNT was happy to learn, TerrAvion is already operating successfully in Brazil and is just as excited about forging new partnerships as TNT themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceres Imaging takes remote sensing technology a step further. Like TerrAvion, they specialize in aerial spectral imagery via low-flying planes. Where Ceres shines, explained their Vice President of Product to the TNT groups, is in the specialized software they\u2019ve developed to make sense of their multispectral images. Using proprietary image processing and crop modeling techniques, Ceres weaves together hundreds of overlapping frames into a seamless mosaic of field data. Their software can count every individual tree in an acre and has even pioneered a new technique for spectrally measuring plant transpiration \u2014 as verified by the University of California Cooperative Extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Ceres\u2019 business model is as innovative as their tech: pay by the acre, or as they call it, Data as a Service (DaaS). Their scalable subscription model includes access to a team of on-demand scientists, agronomists, and hydrologists who can use the maps to help farmers improve crop management, efficiently apply fertilizer, optimize irrigation schedules, and more. This type of subscription access to technology has proved a killer business model for companies like streaming networks and car sharing services. That it\u2019s already making its way into agriculture is another sign of the industry\u2019s rapid shift to new technologies. The TNT groups were keen on exploring this new business model by partnering with Ceres once the company comes to Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging: <\/strong>technological innovations pave the way for new services like aerial imaging and new business models like DaaS to enter the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT, one of the most experienced agribusiness tour operators in Brazil, hear from Ceres Imaging, a data as a service field imaging company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digger Deeper Into Data to Change the Way We Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting vast swaths of data is only as good as the actionable analysis that data can lead to. Enter general-purpose software: artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that synthesize the terabytes of data produced by farming machines, remote sensors, and imaging services into meaningful insights. The TNT representatives visited companies like Trimble, Figure Eight, Granular, and the Farmers Business Network to better understand how agricultural data is being leveraged \u2014 both in specific cases and in aggregate \u2014 to yield better, stronger, faster-growing crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNT representatives saw this in action at Figure Eight, an enterprise-ready general purpose Machine Learning platform. An Account Executive at Figure Eight shared with the TNT groups the company\u2019s Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) model, which allows their employees to take any set of data \u2014 for example, months of aerial field imagery \u2014 and train a custom AI algorithm to process that data in a targeted way. That could mean automatically recognizing subtle problems in vegetation or almost anything else: tracking objects in videos, predicting maintenance for industrial machinery, categorizing products in eshops, creating intelligent chatbots, and so on ad infinitum. As the set of data grows \u2014 Figure Eight has already generated over 10 billion training labels \u2014 the power of machine learning for all their clients, in any context, grows with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT saw the power of aggregated data firsthand at the headquarters of Farmers Business Network (FBN). FBN is an independent network of thousands of farmers who, by anonymously sharing their agronomic precision data, can unlock the analytical insight provided by over 8 million acres of American farmland. FBN\u2019s platform utilizes data science, machine learning, and billions of data points to democratically share objective, unbiased information throughout its network. This aggregated data helps farmers better understand their seed quality, soil fertility, crop values, and more. Though FBN hasn\u2019t yet extended to Brazil, its democratic aggregation model knows no geographical boundaries \u2014 and the TNT groups were curious about setting up similar programs and services in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaway from Figure Eight and Farmers Business Network:<\/strong> in AgriTech as in other technologically disrupted industries, the aggregation and machine analysis of data is key to unlocking operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Companies<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Executives from TNT listen in during a presentation from TerrAvion, the largest provider in the United States of aerial imagery as a service for agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny Skies and Fertile Soils for TNT and AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emerging field of AgriTech is only the latest in a long line of traditional industries being disrupted by new technologies. As computer processing power continues to increase alongside the capability of artificial intelligence, it\u2019s inevitable that the resulting technologies \u2014 autonomous machinery, remote sensor subscription services, general-purpose data aggregation and analysis platforms \u2014 begin to take root in businesses everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNT, sensing these changes on the horizon of the agriculture industry, came to SVIC thrice over to understand the new technologies redefining their business. By meeting with the startups and technology companies leading the way in AgriTech, TNT took home valuable insight into how to grow their business for the future \u2014 as well as potential partnerships in TerrAvion and Ceres Imaging. For TNT, the field of AgriTech is ripe for the picking. They\u2019re ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to take a deep dive into the technological disruption sweeping through your own industry? SVIC has custom immersion programs tailored to every level of management and sector of the economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"TNT Reaps AgriTech Innovations from Silicon Valley Companies","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/tnt-reaps-agritech-innovations-from-silicon-valley-companies\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":626,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2018-10-19 15:25:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-19 22:25:00","post_content":"\n

The insurance industry has been doing the same things for the last 100 years and has still managed to remain one of the most free-cash-flow-rich industries in the world. Having emerged unscathed from multiple economic cycles, the industry is now facing perhaps one of the most formidable economic tectonic shifts yet. With the rise of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, on-demand thin-client-type technologies, among others, insurance industry giants must awaken from their slumber if they are to avoid disruption by nimble and highly innovative insurtech startups. This is a discussion we had with Dr. Robin Kiera, founder of DigitalScouting.de<\/a>. He has studied the insurance industry in Germany and wider Europe and sees three areas insurance companies can begin to experiment with on their journey to digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer-Centric Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new way is to think every day; how could I provide the customer as many services, as much convenience as possible?\u201d Dr. Kiera is referring to the need for insurance companies to adopt a digitally-enabled customer-centric approach to handling customers. He feels the current status quo does not support customer-centricity as most insurance companies only care to interact with customers when renewing policies. Dr. Kiera sees this as a missed opportunity. The question he thinks insurance companies should be asking is, \u201cHow can I conquer the algorithm (habits) of the person and become a partner of the customer in everyday life?\u201d This integrated approach mirrors apps from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have become essential aspects of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurers collect tons of customer data and this data could be used to empower customers to make better choices in life. Consider the insurtech startup Embroker<\/a> based in San Francisco, California. The company uses data analytics to help crunch policy numbers for businesses to help them see if they are overpaying for insurance. This contrasts with traditional brokers who provide little to no insight into the policies they sell to businesses. This level of data-driven transparency is one that customers have come to expect, especially as the world moves towards digital-first experiences. Dr. Kiera sums this up, \u201cI\u2019m so passionate because I think the potential is gigantic if insurers and banks would really share their knowledge, what they have about risk, about financial planning, retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Model Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An EY paper<\/a> on digital transformation in insurance notes that insurers today must offer a wider portfolio of products for them to stay relevant to consumers who are looking for high degrees of personalization. Such a level of personalization can only be made possible through digital transformation-fueled business model innovation. Dr. Kiera delves into this issue. \u201cInsurers know a lot about major life events (like having a child). Insurers are baby experts. They have accident insurance\u2026 they have health insurance records to give tips on how to increase the health of a child. There are a million things that they could provide to customers. They don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as no market can exist as a vacuum, there are startups that are rising to fill in these gaps left by traditional insurance companies. One example is Trov<\/a>, another insurtech startup based in San Francisco, California. The company, through business model innovation, provides on-demand insurance for just the important things customers want to insure and just for the times they want them insured. For instance, a customer can choose to switch on insurance for a camera when they are out on the beach. Once they get back home, they can switch the insurance off. This allows the users to pay less than traditional insurance, which provides a blanket rate with no options for personalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Insurance process optimization is an area Dr. Kiera sees as ripe for disruption. He provides context by explaining that current actuarial matrices see insurance companies working with combined ratios of 98-95%. What this means is that when a customer pays $100, the insurance company is happy to spend $95-$98 on the costs of doing business and keep $2-$5 as revenues. Through process optimization including risk calculation, customer empowerment, and predictive maintenance and interventions, Dr. Kiera sees a situation where combined ratios can fall to 20%, allowing insurance companies to significantly lower their rates while still making more money than the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metromile<\/a> is pioneering such process optimization in auto insurance using smart sensors to calculate cost-per-mile policy rates. By attaching a smart device to vehicles of customers purchasing policies, the company bills each customer based on the number of miles they drive daily. This approach allows the company to charge less but also allows it to collect data that goes towards lowering combined ratios. \u201cIf an insurance risk carrier is able to calculate risk better than somebody else, he can give the product away cheaper and make the same money,\u201d says Dr. Kiera. Metromile, by collecting data other insurance companies do not have, is building a competitive advantage that will soon allow it to beat other insurance companies through data-driven risk calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether advances in technologies such as self-driving cars and improved health care will reduce the need for insurance, Dr. Kiera was adamant that insurance will still be needed. Emerging technologies present a new set of threats, he explains, threats to digital goods and personas, threats to shared resources like Ubers and Airbnbs, threats to digital currencies, among others. These threats will be insured against by the tech-enabled insurance companies of the future. Current insurance companies must, therefore, embrace a future of not only new threats but also one of ever more demanding digital-native customers. If such companies are wondering how to achieve this, Dr. Kiera has one simple formula, \u201cFall in love with your customer, and not with your product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIDEO: Interview with Dr. Robin Kiera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/e0AAA17Lols\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","post_title":"How Insurance Companies Stay Relevant by Falling In Love With Their Customers","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-27 20:45:15","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-28 04:45:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/siliconvalley.center\/blog\/how-insurance-companies-stay-relevant-by-falling-in-love-with-their-customers\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":2},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_5"};
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