As a Swiss company, building a presence in the DACH region is very important to Virtual i Technologies. As the newest member of InsurLab Germany, Virtual i Technologies attended the insureNXt congress as a sponsor. insureNXT is an international congress and expo that brings the stakeholders of the insurance industry together. From traditional insurers to newest insurtech startups, many of the players of the insurance ecosystem were in Cologne during the event, on 18th and 19th of May. With its trend zone, worklabs and product discussions, the expo created an environment for discussion, idea sharing and lectures.
Trends Discussed in Cologne
As a gathering of newest startups in the DACH region, the topics discussed in the InsureNXT expo creates a unique foresight into what will be the focus in the insurance ecosystem in the upcoming years. The importance of Cloudification, Digitalization and their effects on the role of the insurance players were heavily discussed. Perspectives of traditional insurers and newly emerging startups were compared and discussed on different panels and startups offered solutions for the European market. On the panel “NXT|TRENDS: Digital Ecosystem & Plattform Economy – Buzzword oder Game Changer? “;
- Stefan Lemper – Venture Capital Investor @ Maschmeyer Group
- Udo Wilcsek – Board Member @ ALH Group
- Axel Kock – EVP and Head of Sales Insurance @ msg systems AG
- Fabian Weseman – CFO & Founder @ Bitkom & WeFox
- Patrick Schmid – Head of Fioneer Product Strategy & Digital and Core Insurance @ SAP
- Feras Alsamawi – Principal Innovation Business Dev. Mgmt @ AWS
shared their perspectives on digitalization of the insurance industry.
Global macroeconomic conditions also dominated the conversation in InsureNXT. Speakers and exhibitors shared their insights and opinions on inflation and its effect on capital markets as well as the industry. These conditions create a need for innovation, especially for raising profitability. Generic insurance offers and margins create a problem for underwriters especially with rising inflation. Data collection and digitalization becomes an urgent need for underwriters to raise their analysis capacity and profitability.
Sustainability and CO2 Emissions
During the panels and keynote speeches one of the main topics was sustainability. For the insurance industry climate challenge poses big risks and opportunities. Especially catastrophic losses pose risk for major insurers. Furthermore there is, it poses the regulatory pressure and related risks for investors in terms of catching up with the CO2 emission targets. These targets and related potential losses is a potential area the insurance industry can offer solutions and take action. Paul Dittrich, CEO of urban energy GmbH, explained how they are collecting energy consumption data of Berlin buildings to predict CO2 output. For Germany achieving its carbon target is a high priority. That is why Gothaer is also working on an SME solution for sustainability estimation and optimization. Oliver Schoeller, the CEO of Gothaer highlighted the importance of the role insurance companies have for a greener future. Protecting the future is becoming more urgent every day and Virtual i Technologies is also working on the CO2 emission topic with its Carbon Sequestration Insurance project Servus Terra.
Product Topics and Trends
Looking at the product-level trends in the industry, following topics and discussions were prevalent:
- Embedded Insurance
- Free Insurance Data (FRIDA)
- Process Intelligence
- Cyber Risk Insurance
- Behavioral Insurance
- Chat and Video Bot Solutions
Innovation in Underwriting Process
At the event, Virtual i welcomed all the participants that were interested in our unique solution: [VRS]™ Virtual Risk Space. With the pitch presentation “Explore The New Competitive Edge; 100% Risk & Claim Visibility in Insurance”, Duygu Akkor, Virtual i Technologies DACH Region Sales Manager, showed everyone how 100% Risk & Claim Visibility is possible, reachable and affordable. Our AI-Backed Risk Scoring systems streamlines the underwriting process and with %100 risk visibility empowers the underwriting making the decisions. On the topics prominent in the region, Virtual i Technologies is leading the solutions in most of the trends with its products [VRS]™, Hi My Eye and Servus Terra.
