Blockchain started as a popular buzzword among techies but has since permeated across industries. In insurance, its potential is being realized as game changing. Truman Esmond, AAIS Vice President of Membership and Solutions, spoke at a recent webinar hosted by The Institutes Griffith Insurance Education Foundation on how AAIS is utilizing blockchain to support industry.

Design Thinking is a practical and creative approach to problem solving, used in industries and organizations searching for new, customer-centric ways to enhance the customer experience. Design Thinking aims to better understand consumers' needs and formulate an innovative solution for them. When utilized properly, this framework allows organizations to create faster, more profitable innovations at a more efficient rate. At AAIS, Design Thinking helps formulate innovative insurance solutions, such as the openIDL distributed ledger technology for regulatory reporting in 2018.

“Insurtech.” It’s a buzzword that’s ricocheting across the insurance industry. But what does it really mean, and how can regulators and carriers leverage insurtech to support their goals and objectives?

Insurance and technology have been linked together since the papyrus and quill.  While the technology has changed, from paper to electronic, from documents to apps to web-enabled experiences, the functionality provided by technology has always supported the business – and not the other way around.  While the latest technology is being marketed as “transformational” and “disruptive” to insurance, what is often lost is HOW that might take place. And without that, there’s little value in that transformational technology.