Today, there is a lot of buzz surrounding generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and its potentially significant implications for the insurance industry. The use of GenAI in insurance is taking a large step forward, leading the paradigm shift in AI and machine learning (ML) due to its efficient and innovative features. In the dynamic realm of insurance, burdened by cumbersome manual processes, traditional AI solutions are limited. GenAI transcends these limitations, offering transformative solutions to streamline insurance workflows and propel the industry forward.

Inflation, fluctuations in building costs, and hardening reinsurance markets demand new approaches to portfolio management for commercial insurers. As part of our AAIS Webinar Series, AAIS hosted a virtual presentation on March 16, 2023, featuring AAIS Partner OneShield, the cloud-based, core systems platform providing business solutions for MGAs and P&C insurers. The session was hosted by Stephanie Vasey, Product Manager of Commercial Lines and Inland Marine at AAIS, and moderated by John Dunn, Vice President of OneShield. Their discussion explained how to reduce risk overall and addressed the inflationary economic conditions with a greater understanding of insuring commercial properties. Industry panelists Jeff Heine, Chief Revenue Officer of Betterview, and Skip Coan, Vice President of e2Value, Inc., showed attendees how aerial imagery, data analytics, and property estimation tools bring a new level of accuracy and transparency to the commercial property policy lifecycle.

The Economy/Inflation, Talent Acquisition and Litigation Top Concerns; Integrity, Security and Accuracy Lead Priorities for Data/Technology

Throughout 2022, AAIS conducted several surveys from a cross-section of insurance professionals, many associated with insurance industry events. What emerged from these various surveys was a view of the top issues and concerns facing the industry as well as the priorities placed on data and technology initiatives. This summary presents the aggregated results of those surveys. We trust this information is useful for AAIS Members and other industry stakeholders as a catalyst for discussions surrounding the development of solutions for the most pressing issues that lie ahead.

Phil Klotzbach, Research Scientist at the Colorado State University, stopped by The AAIS Executive Roundtable with a preview of the upcoming hurricane season in The Florida Report.

Litigation Tops Capital and Nat CAT Concerns

AAIS, a sponsor of the 2022 Florida Insurance Market Summit held March 21st to 23rd, polled attendees pre-event to understand what they perceive as the most pressing issues affecting the Florida market and the overall insurance industry.

Personal lines insurance is more diverse than ever before. During a Personal Lines Product Council in 2022 hosted by AAIS, Member carriers and other key stakeholders discussed several key issues affecting the market, from cryptocurrency and solar panels to container homes, “swimply”, and e-bikes and scooters.

AAIS established Product Advisory Councils to bring Member carriers and other industry stakeholders together to identify the burgeoning issues concerning insurers and the broader insurance industry today. While not all issues raised can be solved through product or program developments, we believe discussing emerging issues as well as working together within the AAIS Community can spawn new ideas and usher resources to meet today’s challenges. A general overview of several emerging issues is discussed below.

Dr. Phil Klotzbach, Ph. D., from the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, says climate change is real. In a recent interview he explained that “if you go back to the late 1800s, parts-per-million of carbon dioxide was about 280; now we're sitting at about 420. We've gone up by about 50 percent of what we were about 140 years ago. With that, we've seen a global temperature rise of about eight- or nine-tenths of a degree Celsius … about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Regulation plays an outsized role in the development of the auto insurance sector. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen an even higher than usual impact from wild fluctuations in rates, claims, premiums, and consumer reimbursements, to activities impacting the industry itself.

The AAIS Pulse newsmagazine recently featured an in-depth discussion with Woody Bradford, CEO and Chair of Conning, one of the leading global investment management firms serving the insurance industry. He chatted with AAIS CEO Ed Kelly on the investment environment for insurance companies, inflation, cryptocurrency, investment strategies, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), and much more.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid and can target both individuals and businesses. The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform shared that “in 2020, ransomware attacks on both public and private institutions in the U.S cost an estimated $19.5 billion. … in the first six months of 2021, financial institutions reported $590 million in ransomware-related transactions. Current trends indicate that ransomware transactions in 2021 alone will exceed the previous 10 years combined.”