the tech trend radar · 2020. 9. 8. · conversational user interface (cui). enabled by other...

THE TECH TREND RADAR

27 August 2020

Tafadzwa Mugadza

The Tech Trend Radar 2020

38 September 2020Tech Trend Radar Tafadzwa Mugadza

Agenda

1. The Classic Insurance Model

2. The Tech Trend Radar

a) User Centricity

b) Connected World

c) Artificial Intelligence

d) Enabling Technologies

iStock-918855102

The Classic Insurance Model

8 September 2020 5Tech Trend Radar Tafadzwa Mugadza

The Classic Insurance Model

Regulatory Change Lingering Economic

Uncertainty

Intense Cost and

Competitive

pressures

Rising consumer

expectations

Climate change

The Classic Model - Revamped

8 September 2020 6Tech Trend Radar Tafadzwa Mugadza

Automated Systems Human

Computer

interaction

Neural Interface Big Data

The Whales▪ Google, Facebook, Amazon, …

▪ Purely digital, enormous capital

and capabilities for short-term

market entrance

▪ Unclear ambitions

The Sharks▪ Lemonade, Oscar, Trov, …

▪ Good access to capital

▪ Still comparably small, but scalable

▪ Clear vision and strategy and

aggressive

The Piranhas▪ Small InsurTechs, …

▪ Supposed to skin traditional

players

▪ Niche players and niche products,

but

▪ Very aggressive

The Early Adopters

8 September 2020Tech Trend Radar Tafadzwa Mugadza 7

8 September 2020

Change that is Certain

The way we engage with our customers

What we insure

How we understand and manage risk

Tech Trend Radar Tafadzwa Mugadza 8

iStock-918855102

The Tech Trend Radar

Tech Trend Radar 2020

Our approach

Result:

Total Trends

Analysis of trend developments

Compiling developments and new trends for 2020 with external analysts’

reports, internal market know-how following 4 Golden Rules:

Definition of trends

Aggregating data from screening processes and defining the most relevant

trends categorised in four primary fields – and screen for “outdated” trends

Further drill-down and v alidation with market data and identif ication of corresponding use cases

Disclaimer: References to companies do not constitute or imply endorsement of any company

or organisation.

Assessment of impact and relevance

Classifying trends according to their level of relevance for ERGO and Munich Re

Analy sing trend impact along the insurance v alue chain and deriv e opportunities and risks

Result:

4 Trend Fields with

52 Trends

(10 new trends)

(5 outdated trends)

Result:

Aggregated Trends

10

1. Technologies that potentially disrupt the insurance industry .

2. Technologies that potentially change the business model.

3. Technologies that improv e RUN trends and support GROW and TRANSFORM trends.

4. Technologies that potentially hav e a inf luence on RUN, GROW and TRANSFORM.

STEP 1: SCREENING

STEP 2: AGGREGATION

STEP 3: EVALUATION

Tech Trend Radar Tafadzwa Mugadza 8 September 2020



Images: Deloitte Digital Studios

8 September 2020



= new in 2020+

+

Digital Identity

Payment Models

Industrial IoT

Location-based Services

Behav ioural Analytics

Virtual Assistants

Deepfake Defence +

Mixed Reality

Haptic Technologies

Biometric Recognition +

Digital Ecosystems

Open Data

Autonomous Things

Deep Mapping

Data Fabric+

Human Enhancement

Smart Dust

Computer Vision

Augmented Decision Making

Natural Language Processing

Machine-Driv en Decisions

Cognitiv e Automation

Generativ e Adversarial Networks

Explainable Machine Learning

Cognitiv e Cyber SecurityKnowledge Graphs

Hardware-embedded AI

Artificial General Intelligence

5G

Cloud Edge

Microsatellites+

Swarm Intelligence

Personalised Medicine+

Distributed Ledger

3D Printing

Adv anced Batteries +

Neuromorphic Hardware

Volumetric Display

Programmable Materials

Cloud Enablement

AutoML

Conv ersational User Interfaces

Open API

Digital Twin

Smart Textiles

Robotic Health+

Digital Health Services

Smart Spaces

Quantum Computing

Brain-computer Interface

White Biotech+

Precision Farming +

+

8 September 2020

User Centricity


In an increasingly transparent world, companies must f ocus on their customers’ needs and expectations

to maintain their market position. Consumer habits are changing rapidly through unlimited streams of

inf ormation sent back and f orth v ia social media, smart dev ices and the Internet of Things. Today ’s

customers expect serv ices, not products, and inf ormation that speak to their indiv idual needs. Any thing

perceiv ed as irrelev ant will harm the customer experience. (Behav ioural) Analy tics prov ide companies

with inf ormation masses to f ulf il these demands. Smartphones play a central role in the customer

journey . Mixed realities and haptic technologies will extend the user experience in many industries.

Business leaders must show radical openness and agility to deliv er user-centric serv ices. They hav e to

be willing to question old belief s and structures in order to dev elop conv incing answers in times of rapid

technical dev elopment and change. A new change is v iability of inf ormation. In the age of deepf akes

and f ake news, users become more suspicious and question if what they see is what they get.


= new in 2020+

Adopt – Start initiativ es in y our unit Trial – Initiativ es in af fected units

Virtual Assistants

Virtual Assistants execute trained and

automated administrative tasks and

deliver results directly to its users

Assess – Ev aluation needed

Mixed Reality

Real, augmented and virtual

worlds increasingly merging and

changing people’s perception of

their environment

Deepfake Defence

Technological solutions to combat

the spread of manipulated

information

Hold – Watch list

Haptic Technologies

Technologies enabling users to

touch things inside a virtual world,

thus opening up a new dimension

in mixed realities

+

Biometric Recognition

Systems that identify and verify individuals by

detecting physiological and behavioural

characteristics

Behavioural Analytics

Monitor, analysing, measuring and

interpreting people’s actions, intentions and

characteristics from users’ digital footprint

Digital Ecosystems

A group of stakeholders that connect through

digital platforms for a shared purpose

Location-based Services

Real-time geodata from mobile devices to provide

information, entertainment or security

+

User-centricityUser-centricity

Digital Identity

A body of information about an individual or

organisation that exists online

Payment Models

Digital and mobile payment methods that are

on the verge of replacing hard cash

+

8 September 2020

Insurance Value Chain

15

Trend Evolution Related Trends

HoldWatch

list

TrialInitiatives in

affected units

AssessEvaluation

needed

AdoptStart initiatives

in your unit

Opportunities Risks


Tech Trend Radar Tafadzwa Mugadza

User-centricity

Biometric recognition systems can identify and

verify individuals by detecting physiological

and behavioural characteristics.

In 2020, recognition sy stems based on machine

learning are f ocusing on f acial recognition. Liv e

Facial Recognition (LFR) allows indiv iduals to be

recognised and located. Amazon is selling its f acial

recognition sy stem Rekognition to gov ernments.

Af ter f acing sev ere criticism by human rights

groups, Amazon def ined guidelines f or

policy makers to consider in terms of f acial

recognition, demanding human rev iew and

recommending a 99% conf idence score threshold.

Other phy siological characteristics f or recognition

sy stems are body constitution, f ingerprints,

handshape, ear shape or retina. Behav ioural

characteristics that can be detected are v ocal

imprint, body mov ement and gait, writing or ty ping

sty le on key boards.

Though being new as a dedicated

trend in 2020, the evolution of

Biometric Recognition has been

watched carefully, e.g. in relation to

NLP and Speech Recognition

• Reduction in fraud through advanced fraud detection and increased efficiency in

claims management as facial recognition reduces the amount of time it takes to

identify objects and people in images and videos.

• More accurate risk detection, e.g. body scanners used for personal health risk

assessment.

• Whereas the opportunities of voice recognition, prominently used as Amazon Alexa

Skills, lie in increasing customer convenience, object and face recognition systems

offer great opportunities in risk management.

• Reduction of claims caused by machine-related failures. Low-cost sensor solutions

originally applied in consumer electronics are making their way into industrial

applications where they optimise manual quality-control processes and provide

machine-based insights on failure rates.

• Severe civil risk of manipulation, ethical abuse and spread of fake identities.

Products such as Amazon Rekognition are heavily criticised by civil rights groups for

being sold for the purpose of law enforcement, delivering poor accuracy and thus,

encouraging discrimination.

• Public concerns about privacy are rising and civil rights movements are legally

fighting against the installation of facial recognition systems in public spaces.

Computer Vision

Deepfake Defence

Natural Language

Processing

AutoML

Adopt

Product Design & Pricing

Sales & Distribution

UnderwritingRisk

Management

Customer Engagement

& Services

Claims

2020

16




User-centricity

Metropol i tan Pol ice Service

Facial Recognition in public

MET Police rolling out facial recognition system in

London; Moscow follows

Pilot programmes of f acial recognition sy stems in public places

hav e been started across the globe. The Metropolitan Police

Serv ice is planning to roll out f acial recognition cameras in London

to help catch criminals and f ind missing persons. Public places

such as train stations, shopping malls and pubs are f irst in line

Ensuring public saf ety is the primary aim. A pilot programme at

King's Cross, London, raised public concern about data priv acy .

Recently , Moscow's gov ernment contracted NtechLab to roll out

FaceFind, a liv e f acial recognition sof tware. For this massiv e

surv eillance project, NtechLab reportedly receiv ed $3.2m. It's the

biggest liv e recoginition project to date.

Public SectorThe Times

Kia

Emotive Driving

Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving System

(R.E.A.D.)

Auto manuf acturer Kia debuted ist Real-time Adaptiv e Driv ing

Sy stem (R.E.A.D.) at CES in 2019 - it's a recognition Sy stem that

adapts v ehicle interiors to passengers' emotional state by using

sensors to monitor their f acial expressions, heart rate and

electrodermal activ ity .

VariousKia

Megvi i Face++

Faceprint Technology

Power Humanity with AI

Faceprint Technology is becoming more reliable, capable of

recognising people in numerous conditions. Chinese Startup

Megv ii Face++, supported

heav ily with Sov ereign Wealth f unds f rom both China and Russia,

is pioneering f aceprint technologies that are secure enough to be

used f or

f inancial transactions. Face++ is also being used by China's Police

f orce f or widerspread surv eillance. Unlike f ingerprinting or Iris

retinal scanning

which are dif f icult to do without someone's direct knowledge,

f aceprints can be taken surreptitiously , ev en f ar away .

VariousMegv ii Face++

Adopt

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/met-police-will-use-facial-recognition-cameras-across-london-h77nsfdbh

http://pr.kia.com/en/future/future/emotive-driving-ces.do

https://megvii.com/en/


17


HoldWatch

list

TrialInitiatives in

affected units

AssessEvaluation

needed


in your unit

Opportunities Risks

Virtual Assistants


User-centricity

Virtual Assistants execute trained and

automated administrative tasks and deliver

results directly to its users.

Progress made with Behav ioural Analy tics and

Machine Learning enables Virtual Assistants to

perf orm more complex tasks and ev olv e to more

collaborativ e task agents. Virtual Assistants can

organise a user's inbox by themselv es or ev en

trade stocks on behalf of their user.

In f inancial serv ices, robo-adv isors gained

popularity as they adv ise on inv estment allocations

at hand. These tools hav e been applied and

elaborated f or the usage of inv estment and wealth

management companies f or decades. In contrast

to these digital adv isors or ev en to smartbots or

Amazon Echo, Virtual Assistants do not need to be

asked explicitly by the user to perf orm a task. They

learn f rom user behav iour and act on behalf of its

user. Virtual Assistants do not ev en need a

Conv ersational User Interf ace (CUI).

Enabled by other trends lin the field

of Machine Learning, Virtual

Assistants catch up in relevance in

the field of User-centricity

• Virtual Assistants help users to focus on high-impact work by taking over time-

consuming administrative tasks.

• New service channel with boosted lead generation as Virtual Assistants know their

users best. In insurance, Virtual Assistants could greatly improve the customer

experience in on-boarding, underwriting and claims handling. They are available

around the clock and interact with the consumer in a familiar interface - an important

step toward invincible insurance.

• Virtual Assistants have to be able to provide just the right amount of information and

be transparent to serve as a trustworthy task agent.

• Insurance customers are becoming more aware of digital tools to help them plan

their financial future, and also more demanding of useful features. Adoption of

Virtual Assistants might differ from user to user depending on their digital habits and

trust in algorithms.

Open API

Natural Language

Processing

Digital Identity

AutoML

Trial



UnderwritingRisk

Management

Customer Engagement

& Services

Claims

2020

18



Virtual Assistants

User-centricity

Ais era

AI service desk

AI-driv en and cloud-nativ e serv ice management f or IT, HR, sales and customer serv ice, f acilities or operations departments

Aisera is improv ing serv ice management f or enterprises with AI f or

more self -serv ice resolutions by automating tasks. They build on

conv ersational Robotic Process Automation and NLP to deliv er

pre-built workf lows that aim to automate as much as possible and

reduce repetitiv e tasks in serv ice management f or IT, HR, f acilities,

sales and customer serv ice and operations. Aisera is compatible

with ERP sy stems and sof tware, e.g. SAP, SalesForce,

Serv iceNow, Microsof t or Splunk.

VariousAisera

Zirtual

Real virtual assistants

Outsourcing of time-consuming tasks to a real

person

Zirtual is a personal outsourcing serv ice f or people who want to get

rid of administration and time-consuming tasks. Zirtual of f ers email

management, scheduling meetings, expensing and inv oicing,

trav el booking or proof reading of social media

communications,e.g. Behind the Virtual Assistant is a real person

(based in the U.S.) that is connected to one or more clients v ia a

dedicated planning sof tware and with access to relev ant sy stems

and data bases. Zirtual's pricing is based on a monthly f ee starting

f rom $299 to $1500 that includes 50 working hours per week f or a

small team.

VariousZirtual

Autom ation Hero

Robin

Robin's "to do list" presents business processes to

be automatised to its user

"Robin" is a Virtual Assistant that complements Automation Hero's

RPA platf orm f or enterprises. Robin screens business processes

and suggests which ones can be automated. The user can read

and f ollow Robin's "to do list". Users then rev iew, add or delete

inf ormation, and giv e f inal approv al f or each task automation.

Robin can also pro-actv ely send deliv ered tasks f or human rev iew

and sign-of f , e.g. v ia e-mail.

Automation Hero prov ides a dedicated automation platf orm

combining Robotic Process Automation, AI and NLP f or

enterprises. The San Francisco based start-up raised $19m

f unding in 2018 and 2019.

VariousAutomation Hero

Trial

https://aisera.com/

https://www.zirtual.com/

https://automationhero.ai/robin/


19


HoldWatch

list

TrialInitiatives in

affected units

AssessEvaluation

needed


in your unit

Opportunities Risks

Deepfake Defence


User-centricity

Technological solutions to combat the spread

of manipulated information. Semantic

techniques help detect and remove highly

sophisticated and believable AI-manipulated

media known as deepfakes.

It is predicted that in 2020, the costs arising f rom

deepf ake scams will exceed $250m according to

Forrester ("Predictions 2020", 2019). The spread of

deepf ake tools and their adv anced capabilities to

produce f ake media based on GANs raises some

concerns ov er what is actually "real". Deepf akes

are of ten f ound on social media websites. With the

v iral spread of deepf akes, the need f or scalable

sy stems to recognise f ake inf ormation is rising.

Fraud cases hav e been reported in which thiev es

used f ake v oices to imitate humans, incl. tonality

and accents on interactiv e phone calls. A CEO of

an energy supplier in the UK has been tricked into

pay ing €200k to a f raudster as he believ ed a

company executiv e was calling and requesting him

to transf er the money .

Researchers pin hopes on semantic inconsistency

detectors as deepf akes of ten show inaccuracies in

v isual details such as mismatching earrings in a

f aked person’s portrait.

Enabled by “Truth identification” on the radar 2019 and enhanced by

advancing AI technologies,

deepfakes and how to tackle them is considered to be an own field for

action in 2020

• Increased accuracy in claims management using recognition systems.

• Better fraud detection.

• Emphasis on veracity safeguards can create a company culture where people are

more aware of threats and less likely to fall prey to false information.

• Statistical methods to validate a fact are overruled by deepfake manipulation

techniques. Even (untrained) human review is not reliable when it comes to

detecting deepfakes.

• Deepfakes have made their way from humorous fake news and a potential national

security concerns to faked corporate or client communication. Dedicated and regular

training not only for IT security staff but also for client, key account or demand

managers is essential.

• Training material and professional deepfake detection is still not widely available in

2020.

• The scalability of semantic deefake detection techniques for data-rich systems such

as social media are still in their infancy.

Biometric

Recognition

AutoML

Generative

Adversarial

Networks

Behavioural

Analytics

Assess



UnderwritingRisk

Management

Customer Engagement

& Services

Claims

2020

20



Deepfake Defence

User-centricity

BioID

Personal Identification

Face liveness detection

Identity thef t and online f raud propelled by technological adv ances

hav e made it necessary f or companies to up their truth

identif ication capabilities. BioID‘s algorithm is able to tell apart still

image mov ements, such as the mov ement of a picture, or v ideo

recordings, f rom a liv e person‘s mov ements in f ront of a camera.

Use cases f or this technology include, f or example, personal

identif ication f or car rental, f inancial contracts, or passport control.

BioID is a German company that puts emphasis on stringent

priv acy terms in ev ery step of their data driv en approach.

VariousBioid

MIT

Fake News Detection

Identifying fake news based on the source

MIT Scientists f rom the Computer Science and Artif icial

Intelligence Lab and the Qatar Computing Research Institute

(QCRI) are pioneering a new approach where f ake news detection

sy stems f ocus not only on the f aulty content, but on the outlet that

released it. Using machine learning they can determine if a source

is accurate or politically biased f aster than many currently

established methods. This is a clear response to an industry in

crisis. Faulty news spread extremely f ast, causing sy stems relying

on content lev el analy sis to identif y problematic content only af ter it

has reached its audience

VariousMIT

Nvid ia

Barrage of Random Transforms (BaRT)

Combination of random transformations as a

defense again adversarial attacks

A team of dev elopers and researchers at the Univ ersity of

Mary land hav e achiev ed success in combating adv ersarial attacks.

These attacks are caused by hackers intentionally giv ing f alse

input into a machine learning algorithm that generates optical

illusions f or the machine and results in f alse output. The most

known example is a picture showing a panda but the machine

identif ies it as a "gibbon". State-of -the-art to prev ent these attacks

is adv ersarial training, but this method is limited in scalability . The

research team at Nv idia dev eloped a method that randomly

combines single def ense image transf ormations called Barrage of

Random Transf orms (BaRT). Tests show that BaRT is 24x more

accurate and more ef f ective against strong attacks like Expectation

Ov er Transf orm (EOT).

VariousNVIDIA

Assess

https://www.bioid.com/liveness-detection

http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-csail-machine-learning-system-detects-fake-news-from-source-1004

https://devblogs.nvidia.com/combating-adversarial-attacks-barrage-random-transforms/

21Tech Trend Radar Tafadzwa Mugadza

Our Solutions

User-Centricity

Munich Re

Realytix

Next level automated underwriting solutions

Realy tix is a global, scalable technology platf orm f or primary

insurers, brokers and MGAs that want to digitalise and automate

the underwriting of single-risk business. It opens up whole new

opportunities in dev elopment and distribution of non-lif e insurance

products. Time-to-market is key : With Realy tix, insurers can take

product innov ations f rom initial idea to market readiness in just a

f ew weeks. Its unique self -conf iguration capabilities allow quick

implementation and adaptation of products. For reinsurance clients

it of f ers automated reinsurance capacity within minutes.

Benef its at a glance:

• Signif icantly reduced time to market

• Customisable, f lexibly implementable platf orm

• Digital distribution

• Increased (process) ef f iciency, cost and time sav ings

Realytix

Munich Re

Infrastructure Risk Profiler

Holistic risk assessment for infrastructure

investments

Proper analy sis of risks typically associated with inf rastructure

requires comprehensiv e expertise drawn f rom div erse f ields. The

extensiv e IRP-analy sis covers all risk f actors pertinent to

inf rastructure projects: Macroeconomics, technology , natural

hazards, project execution and operation, env ironmental impact as

well as microeconomics. The approach considers and weighs

relev ant risks indiv idually and holistically .


• Holistic, objectiv e and transparent perspectiv e

• Solid basis f or an inf ormed inv estment decision to better

secure the return on their inv estments

• Thorough analy sis within up to 4 weeks

• Comparability of dif ferent inf rastructure projects that match

their indiv idual appetite

IRP

Complex risk modelling with regard to natural perils

The NatCatSERVICE database enables ev aluations, analy ses and

applications of risk modelling with regard to natural hazards. Munich

Re prov ides comprehensiv e data on insured, economic and human

losses caused by any kind of natural peril. Data are receiv ed f rom

own sources as well as f rom insurance associations and f rom

sy stematic ev aluation of media reports. It is used f or dev eloping

customized insurance solutions, f or political decision-making

processes and also by researchers.


• Flexible, easy to use and f ast

• Reliable data on natural catastrophes back to y ear 1980

• Hazard-specif ic analy ses (e.g. tropical cy clones,

hurricanes/ty phoons, earthquakes)

• Charts can be shared directly (social media channels/download)

NatCatSERVICE

Munich Re

NatCatSERVICE

Source: iStock Source: Munich Re Source: plainpicture/Westend61/Martin Rietze

https://www.munichre.com/landingpages/corporate/en/realytix.html

https://www.munichre.com/irp

https://www.munichre.com/natcatservice


Our Solutions

User-Centricity

HDFC ERGO India

NLP based motor claims intimation

Cyber security information and guidance via virtual

assistants

HDFC ERGO has launched WhatsApp (NLP based) based claim

intimation f or motor claims, where customer can simply chat and

intimate claims. For example, customers can intimate motor claims

using Whatsapp. WhatsApp communication has been f ound to

hav e higher impact on customer experience as compared to

regular SMS, which of ten gets buried or lost underneath the

countless marketing spam messages. Moreov er, HDFC ERGO

communicates the claim registration on Whatsapp, the registration

message shared has a claim status tracker link, which all

customers need to stay updated on the claim progress.


• Reduction in turnaround time and less manual dependency in

claims intimation process.

DAS UK

Self-service legal hub

Cooperation with Farillio targeting SMEs and

personal lines clients

DAS UK is cooperating with Farillio to of f er a comprehensiv e self -

serv ice portal to its small- and medium-sized enterprise clients and

to its personal lines clients. The online legal hubs are branded

DASBusinessLaw and DASHouseholdLaw respectiv ely . They of fer

in-depth multi-media guides, smart letters and contract templates,

along with e-signature capabilities. The portal cov ers a wide v ariety

of topics, ranging f rom late pay ment and employ ment matters to

compliance with data protection rules.


• Clients self -serv e minor issues, which otherwise could hav e

resulted in a claim

• Increased client engagement and greater range of serv ices

• Improv ed claims perf ormance through clients’ legal risk

management

Farillio

© PantherMedia / Illia Uriadnikov Image: Farillio

https://www.farill.io/

Connected World


How we connect and communicate with each other has changed drastically . In today 's digital age,

communication takes place not only among people, but also between humans and machines. Wearable

dev ices are tracking body data thus supporting digital health serv ices. Owners of smart homes control

lighting, heating etc. IoT has ev olv ed f rom smart homes to smart buildings and smart spaces. Machines

are getting better at recognising their env ironment and responding to it. This enhances technologies

such as autonomous objects such as self -driv ing v ehicles, robots and

drones. Drones can already transport a def ibrillator to a patient at a speed of almost 100 kilometres per

hour. Commercial application of autonomous objects will become the norm in other industries, such as

construction, agriculture, transportation and of course claims management. On the data side of things,

open data, APIs and data f abric make data integration of multiple sources more ef f icient. Enhanced by

biotechnologies, today ’s connected world enables organisations to test geological and biological limits

and f ind new way s of creating and bringing v alue to people.


= new in 2020+

Adopt – Start initiativ es in y our unit

+

Industrial IoT

The integration of intelligent and connected systems in

industrial processes

Open API

A proprietary software or application programming interface

that is publicly available to developers

Precision Farming

Increasing efficiency and quality of agricultural products by

applying IoT- and AI-related technologies

Data Fabric

Fabric-like data management

infrastructure for distributed

networks

Autonomous Things

Machines that are designed to

work independently and without

active human supervision

Microsatellites

Miniaturised satellites for

communications, earth observation

and remote sensing

Human Enhancement

Science that enhances people’s

capabilities by developing

advances in genetic engineering

and machine technology

+

Open Data

Sharing data freely and allowing everyone to use data

without copyright or patent restrictions

+

Deep Mapping

The layering of multiple types of

geo-tagged data within a

geographic information system

W hite Biotech

Industrial biotechnology replacing

industrial goods, sources or

processes with sustainable

components

Digital Twin

A virtual counterpart of a real

object that enables IT systems to

interact with

Smart Dust

Tiny wireless systems with a wide

range of functions, e.g.

communication, computation and

sensing

Smart Textiles

Textiles with interwoven microfabrics

able to analyse the wearer's condition

and interact with other devices

+

+

Hold – Watch listAssess – Ev aluation neededTrial – Initiativ es in af fected units

Connected World

Digital Health Services

Advanced technologies enabling monitoring of health

indicators, anamnesis and initial diagnoses

Smart Spaces

A system of sensors, interconnected devices and services in

private homes, buildings and public spaces

8 September 2020


25


HoldWatch

list

TrialInitiatives in

affected units

AssessEvaluation

needed


in your unit

Opportunities Risks


Connected World

Previously, Agricultural Biotech has

been considered in IoT use cases. In

2020, Precision Farming has made it

into the radar as a discrete trend.

• Improved underwriting for agriculture insurances and lower claims rate thanks to

improved predictability of natural risks from extreme weather or natural catastrophes

and monitoring of natural assets.

• The technological solutions are still expensive for farmers in rural areas facing

industry-typical financial pressure. Insurers have the chance to build insurance

products that make the technology more affordable.

• Slow adoption by farmers, especially in European farming markets where

connectivity is still underdeveloped.

• The initial cost of implementation may discourage smaller farmers.

Autonomous

Things

5G

Machine-driven

Decisions

Computer Vision

Precision Farming

Increasing efficiency and quality of agricultural

products by applying IoT and AI-related

technologies.

Af ter crop breeding has reached peak ef f iciency

and there are ethical doubts to ov ercome with

f actory farming. Digital technologies in agriculture

promise a f uture with the best of both worlds –

high-y ield ecological f arming.

Technology has been applied to increase

production in agriculture since humans f irst began

f arming. Nowaday s, sensors make it easier to

capture relev ant data f rom optical, thermal and

biomolecular metrics such as soil and nutrient

status, process the data in long-range protocols

and deliv er more reliable inf ormation in

comprehensiv e f ormats directly to f armers in ev en

the most rural areas thanks to 5G and micro

satellites that prov ide broader connectiv ity .

The global precision agriculture market is expected

to double, reaching $14.09bn by 2026 (Stratistics,

"Precision Farming - Global Market Outlook",

2019). Faced with the challenges of ov erf arming,

exploitation and climate change, precision f arming

is an opportunity to rebalance the economic

agriculture sy stem, conserv e water resources and

f ight the global f ood crisis.



UnderwritingRisk

Management

Customer Engagement

& Services

Claims

2020

Adopt

26



Precision Farming

Connected World

In farm

Vertical Farming

Bringing (vertical) farming into grocery stores and

restaurants

Inf arm prov ides modular f arming equipment to grow herbs, lettuce

and ev en f ruits in customer-f acing urban selling points such as

grocery stores, restaurants or shopping malls. Inf arm’s sensor-

equipped modules and cloud-based control sy stems monitor the

breeding process remotely – “f arming-as-a-serv ice”.

The Berlin-based start-up was f ounded in 2013 and raised $100m

in a series B inv estment in June 2019. The biggest adv antage of

bringing f arming closer to the consumer is that the logistics chain

is minimised. The f ood industry makes up 17% of the total

global CO² emissions, Inf arm states.

Food IndustryTechCrunch

Nes ta

Agribot fleets

Reducing costs for labour, water and fertiliser

Nesta, a tech innov ation company based in UK, is dev eloping

smart f arming technologies such as a series of autonomous

robots. These f ield-robots are capable of apply ing micro-dosed of

f ertiliser or water directly to the plant. Fleets of agribots can

manage ev en oddly shaped f ields, they do not need hedgerows to

nav igate and manage their work. They are designed to assist small

f amily f arms. The Broccoli Bot is dev eloped f or harv esting broccoli

with 3D v ision to identif y which plant is harv est-ready .

Agricultural IndustryNesta

European Union

Smart Farming Research

Saving resources, raising production and supporting

animal welfare

The Péloponnèse region in the South of Greece is known f or its

traditional oliv e oil production. As part of a EU-f unded research

project, drones with multi-spectral cameras now allow f armers to

monitor health and growth stages of the trees remotely .

The project also f eatures precision liv estock f arming. In Sweden,

one of strictest countries when it comes to animal welf are in f ood

production, f arm pigs hav e been equipped with sensors measuring

their heart rate. Sensors in the pigsty also monitor temperature

and air quality . Electronic terminals on the f arm building pass the

data through to the f armer, who is alerted as soon as a sow starts

f arrowing or when they are stressed.

Agricultural IndustryEuronews

Adopt

https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/11/infarm-series-b/

https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/precision-agriculture/fleet-of-agribots/

https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/23/precision-farming-targeting-resources-to-save-on-cost-and-benefit-animal-welfare


27


HoldWatch

list

TrialInitiatives in

affected units

AssessEvaluation

needed


in your unit

Opportunities Risks


Connected World

Fostering a variety of trends reaching

from biochemistry to AI, we

summarise these developments with

the term “White Biotech” as of 2020.

• The purpose of White Biotech is to improve human health by replacing harmful

chemical components in food or medicine and thus, reduce long-term side-effects

that often result in cancer or other chronic diseases.

• Applying White Biotech solutions mitigates the epidemic or pandemic spread of

bacterial and viral diseases transmitted from animal to animal or animal to human

thanks to the resulting decrease in intensive animal husbandry.

• Reducing the demand for livestock farming, White Biotech reduces the carbon

footprint of the food industry, which is the number one source of CO² pollution.

• White Biotech solutions are often costly in production and therefore not scalable

enough to reach a mass market.

• A mindset change in behaviour in global markets is required to increase demand

and reach a critical mass of consumers.

Precision Farming

Hardware-

embedded AI

Machine-driven

Decisions

White Biotech

Industrial biotechnology is replacing industrial

goods, sources and processes with sustainable

components.

Many biological or biochemical processes such as

the production of insulin prev iously deriv ed f rom

animal products hav e been transf ormed. As with

other research and industry f ields, e.g. agriculture

or healthcare, biotech is now enhanced with

technologies such as AI, Computer v ision or IoT.

The latest f eat was the production of cellular meat

as an alternativ e to mass liv estock f arming.

The global market f or White Biotech is estimated to

reach $465bn by 2024 with a CAGR of 10.5% f rom

2019 ("Global White Biotech Market - Growth,

Trends And Forecast (2020 - 2025)", 2019).



UnderwritingRisk

Management

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& Services

Claims

2020

Trial

28



White Biotech

Connected World

Not Co

AI for vegans

Plant-based meat alternatives generated by AI-

platform

"Guiseppe", the AI platf orm with an algorith that analy zes animal-

based f ood and f inds alternativ e plant-based components to mimic

the f ood with a v egan v ersion.

The Chilenian start-up behind its three f ounders raised $30mio. in

2019 by sev eral inv estors, among them Jef f Bezos (Amazon). For

2020, Japanese Sof tBank Group announced an $1mio. inv estment

in South-American business, incl. plan-based f ood companies

apply ing AI.

Food IndustryNot Co

Shiok Meats

Lab-grown shrimp

Cruelty-free in-vitro meat, but still too expensive

By extracting stem cells f rom liv ing shrimp Singapore-based

startup Shiok Meats can produce shrimp in pedri dish.

The cost f actor comes up as the only hurdle in their story . The

nutrient solution used to f eed the tissue rises the price f or one kilo

of shrimp up to $5,000. To lower the costs down to $50 a kilo a

partnership with a pharmaceutical company has recently been

signed, as stated by Shiok.

Food IndustryShiok Meats

c16 Bios ciences

Synthetic palm oil

$20m investment from Bill Gates in sustainable

saving rainforest

Palm oil is used in 50% of all consumer products – ev en in

toothpaste. The production of palm oil is known to be a major

reason f or def orestation, wildf ires and the extinction of species in

the Earth’s rainf orest.

New York-based startup c16 Biosciences dev eloped technology -

enabled brewing procedure to produce lab-grown palm oil f rom

microbes. With a $20m inv estment f rom Bill Gates, the startup will

speed up capacities to reach a production of 1000kg per week.

Consumer GoodsGreen is the new Black

Trial

http://www.notco.com/notco_en

https://www.businessinsider.com/lab-grown-shrimp-clean-meat-stem-cells-cost-2020-3?r=US&IR=T

https://greenisthenewblack.com/bill-gates-invests-20-million/


29


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list

TrialInitiatives in

affected units

AssessEvaluation

needed


in your unit

Opportunities Risks


Connected World

Supported by related developments

like AI and sensor-based data, data

fabric is on the rise in 2020 to

connect data from real world and

legacy systems.

• Improve the value of data by providing seamless data access and sharing data in

one consistent distributed data network.

• Manage fast growing data generated by the rise of AI-platforms for insurers and

network ecosystems with a variety of applications.

• High implementation costs for bespoke data fabric forces to re-design static

infrastructure and enable a mesh network environment.

• Strong data security and access policies and technologies are needed to ensure the

proper sharing of data.

Mixed Reality

Cloud Edge

Open API

Machine-driven

Decisions

Data Fabric

Fabric-like data management infrastructure for

distributed networks that unify and enable

sharing of formerly disparate, inconsistent

data.

Data f abrics are designed to enable applications

and tools to access dif f erent types of data

regardless of their storage location using interf aces

such as NFS, Hadoop or ODBC and supporting

established data standards and sy stems. Data

f abrics create unif ied data env ironments in

distributed computing networks – ev en among

reinsurer, insurer, agents and third party networks.

They prov ide a solution to the ev er-growing data

quality problem ("garbage in - garbage out") which

is a key challenge f or the successf ul

implementation of AI technologies.



UnderwritingRisk

Management

Customer Engagement

& Services

Claims

2020

Trial

30



Data Fabric

Connected World

Dream Works

NetApp data fabric

A movie studio as a “digital manufacturer”

The only thing DreamWorks produces is data, states Senior Vice

President of technology , Kate Swanborg. DreamWorks is one of

the big play ers in the entertainment industry . It is known f or its f ully

digital productions such as “Madagascar” or “Shrek”. 500 million

digital f iles are created f or a single f ilm production. DreamWorks

hav e been storing their data in the cloud f or y ears. DreamWorks

contracted the cloud prov ider NetApp in partnership with HPE to

deploy a data f abric based on its cloud. The data f abric is a reliable

and more ef f icient data inf rastructure that enables production

processes with on-demand data access f or artists, data protection,

analy tics and automation.

EntertainmentCrn

UCB

360 customer view

Improve business agility and move away from

classical ETL

Driv en by a Dev Ops transf ormational programme, UCB

implemented a data f abric lay er by prov ider Denodo. Their major

challenges prompting them f or deploy ing a data f abric were to

prov ide easy data access to div erse data sources and to improv e

dev elopment speed, ef f iciency and business agility in their ongoing

data transf ormation away f rom classical ETL. UCB dev eloped six

use cases and implemented a prototy pe f or a 360 customer v iew

in the f irst y ear. The prototy pe prov ides an integrated v iew on data

f rom multiple sources such as data warehouses, CRMs or Google

Analy tics. UCB env isions their data f abric to ev olv e f urther towards

deliv ering data assets as a serv ice in the f uture.

HealthcareDenodo

Accolade

Digital health assistant

5-8% lower health benefits costs by chossing the

right care for every single patient

Accolade is a personal health and benef its solution prov ider f or

employ ers based in the US. Their serv ice is built around improv ing

healthcare processes, increasing employ ee engagement and

healthcare sav ings. Accolade decided to integrate Amazon Web

Serv ices along with talend data f abric. Master data such as an

employ ee’s medical history , prev ious employ ers and healthcare

benef its programmes is managed on a traditional database. The

talend data f abric integrates all the data in one platf orm and

transf orms it in real-time. As Accolade’s health assistant now get a

more holistic v iew of their customers, employ ees decide on the

best benef its f or their needs earlier. Costs of re-admissions and

other inef f iciencies are reduced by 5-8%.

HealthcareTalend

Trial

https://www.crn.com/news/storage/dreamworks-exec-when-data-is-your-product-technology-is-the-paintbrush-

https://www.denodo.com/en/video/case-study/customer-case-study-ucb

https://www.talend.com/customers/accolade/


31


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affected units

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needed


in your unit

Opportunities Risks


Connected World

Microsatellites are to be considered

for specific digital use cases as they

are geospatial enablers for new

technologies and applications.

• Improved claims and fraud detection for disaster insurances via accurate photos

from space.

• Continuous satellite monitoring allows for predictive analytics solutions to enhance

AI-based risk assessment tools with image data. Also, AI-empowered image

detection can detect abnormalities and report at early stage.

• The more accurate satellite images become, the more privacy concerns there are

• Increasing space debris. Though nano-sized, obsolete satellites contribute to the

amount of space waste in the Earth's orbit. Standards for mitigating space debris as

defined by the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space are expected to

become mandatory.

Hardware-

embedded AI

Computer Vision

Data Fabric

5G

Microsatellites

Satellites are becoming smaller and smaller.

Microsatellites and even nanosatellites are

enhancing the market for communications,

earth observation and remote sensing.

Adv anced satellites such as “Sky sat” achiev e a

0.8-metre per pixel image resolution.

Consequently , v ideo and images of the earth f rom

space are now cheaper and more accurate than

ev er bef ore.

Adv anced hy perspectral imaging sy stems (HIS) f or

remote sensing applied in agriculture monitoring,

mining and mineral mapping or env ironmental

monitoring support the increased application of

microsatellites.

The commercial interest in microsatellites has been

driv en by adv anced digital technologies and

continuous digitalisation as the need f or broader

internet communications is growing.

The total market f or nanosatellites and

microsatellites is expected to grow f rom $1.5bn. in

2019 to $3.6 bn. by 2024, as reported by

MarketsandMarkets ("Nanosatellites and

Microsatellites Market by Component", 2020).



UnderwritingRisk

Management

Customer Engagement

& Services

Claims

2020

Assess

32



Microsatellites

Connected World

BlackSky

Live Maps - Observe - Analyze - Act

Delivering Global Intelligence

In August 2019, BlackSky 's initial f lock of Commercial Earth-

Imaging microsatellites successf ully aboard a Rocket Lab Electron

rocket.

They combine satellite imagery , social media, news and other data

f eeds to create timely and relev ant insights.

VariousBlackSky

Planet

Daily satellite imagery and insights

Monitor Daily - Discover Trends - Deliver Insights

Nov ember 2019, 12 Superdov e satellites (Flock 4p) were

successf ully launched and deploy ed into a 500 kilometer Sun

Sy nchronous Orbit by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. This

marks 25 successf ul launches f or Planet and 407th launch

attempt.

VariousPlanet

Swarm

Satellite Tracking Map

Enabling global connectivity with the world's lowest-

cost satellite network

SWARM build up their business of building low-cost satellites to

bring connectiv ity to remote regions. Founded in 2016, the team

has dev eloped the world’s smallest communications satellite and

addresses clients in maritime shipping, agriculture, energy , and

ground transportation.

VariousSwarm

Assess

https://www.blacksky.com/

https://www.planet.com/

https://www.swarm.space/

▪ .


Our Solutions

Connected World

ERGO Germ any

Safe Home

ERGO Safe Home in cooperation with Deutsche

Telekom

ERGO is cooperating with Deutsche Telekom in prov iding a v irtual

product bundle consisting of insurance, serv ice and smart home

technology . In case of emergency (such as water leakage

detection, smoke alarm or burglary alert), an automatic alert chain

ensures someone is taking care of the customer’s home, ev en

when the homeowner is not able to react immediately . This f ully

automatic process is in place between ERGO’s customer serv ice

department and Telekom’s Magenta SmartHome backend.


• Home emergency are detected as quickly as possible

• Assistance is initiated if necessary

• ERGO Household Insurance prov ides f inancial security in

case of damages

Safe Home

ERGO China L i fe

Open API to facilitate deployment

Shaping an essential role in Package Business

Capability

ERGO China Lif e incorporates open API to f acilitate the

connection between the ERGO China Lif e core sy stem and third

party sales distribution platf orm. The sy stem connection time is

reduced f rom 2 weeks to 3 day s. Open API shapes an essential

role in ERGO China Lif e’s Packaged Business Capability , lay s a

f oundation f or ef f ective data interaction between all portals and

applications, improv es recourse mobility and achiev es sy stemic

serv ice standardisation.

Benef it at glance:

• Reduce time and manpower cost f or sy stem deploy ment.

• Enhance collaboration ef f iciency between two parties.

Digital health services manager

The app Quiero cuidarme+ giv es f ast and reliable answers to

medical needs of the user. Easy , saf e and conf idential. It of f ers a

sy mptom checker (mediktor algorithm): orientation on diagnostic

and urgency lev el. There are 1516 monthly users and 2.8 e-

consultation sessions per user on av erage. In March 2020, DKV

Spain opens up the e-consultation serv ices to the Spanish

population f or f ree to stop the expansion of the COVID-19. Since

then, more than 10,500 people hav e receiv ed clinical adv ice

through the app during the COVID-19 crisis.


• Digital doctor v isits (v ideo call, chat and call me back f unction)

• Digital health serv ices based on the user’s personal health

records (e.g. access to health diaries and documents, digital

doctor specialists, health indicators and health tips)

Doctors against COVID

DKV Spain

Digital Doctor

© PantherMedia / aa-w © PantherMedia / putilich © Bildagentur PantherMedia / apid

https://www.ergo.de/de/Produkte/Hausrat-und-Gebaeudeversicherung/SafeHome

https://medicosfrentealcovid.org/

Artificial Intelligence


Using AI means creating sy stems that learn, adapt and react autonomously . Computer v ision allows

machines to read and understand images or v ideos – a promising achiev ement in medical diagnosis.

Conv ersational User Interf aces create a new intelligent lay er between people and sy stems. Machine

learning is f ueled by the av ailability of massive amounts of data as well as adv anced hardware and

algorithms. More and more applications and serv ices hav e at least started to incorporate AI in their

serv ices, business processes and data intelligence.

Businesses hav e also started to unpack the black box of technology , making it understandable and

accessible to non-IT stakeholders to f oster v alue-creating use cases. Robotic Process Automation is

one of the f ast-f orward AI technologies that made it f rom trend to adoption in just a f ew y ears.

Companies are well adv ised to inv est in skills, processes and tools to exploit these techniques.

Nev ertheless, technological adv ancements in AI hav e not reached their f ull potential. Thus, Artif icial

General Intelligence remains elusiv e to businesses - ev en in 2020.


= new in 2020+

Adopt – Start initiativ es in y our unit Trial – Initiativ es in af fected units Assess – Ev aluation needed Hold – Watch list

Computer Vision

Computer vision enables computers to

gain high-level understanding from digital

images or videos

Augmented Decision-making

Driving insight-driven decision-making,

augmented analytics combine key

technologies of analytics and AI

Conversational User Interfaces

Conversational User Interfaces (CUI),

bring a paradigm shift in how humans

interact with the digital world

Machine-driven Decisions

Business decisions that are derived and

backed by verifiable, quantitative data

analysis


Natural language processing (NLP) can

ease human-computer interaction and

leads to machines understanding on text

Cognitive Automation

The application of technology to

automate of business processes with

human-like cognitive capabilities

AutoML

AutoML (Autonomous Machine

Learning) tries to emulate the functions

of the inner layers of the human brain

Hardware-embedded AI

The integration of AI into hardware

creates smart automation solutions

with benefits like cost efficiency and

the elimination of human error

Cognitive Cyber Security

Leveraging information retrieval

capabilities formerly limited to human

brains to prevent cyber attacks

Artificial General Intelligence

A machine built with human

cognitive capabilities

Explainable Machine Learning

The science of getting computers

to act without being explicitly programmed

made explainable to non-experts

Generative Adversarial Networks

A network architecture based on two

algorithms challenging each other

Knowledge Graphs

Knowledge Graphs are used in AI to

contextualise data by creating

relationships between data


8 September 2020


36


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AssessEvaluation

needed


in your unit

Opportunities Risks




Similar to last years, Natural

Language Processing is classified as

an ADOPT trend, implying the need

to integrate it in your business!

• Insurers can use this technology to develop services that help customers understand

their insurance contracts, i.e. explain wordings, technical terms, etc.

• NLP can be used by insurers to process claims and policy information, transforming

them into structured information.

• Data collected through speech recognition could potentially be applied for other

business purposes.

• NLP is likely to significantly accelerate claims handling since documentation can be

done much quicker, leading to higher efficiency.

• There are many high quality 3rd party or open source algorithms / approaches which

can assist with early gains.

• The results of NLP are statistical in nature which can lead to errors. There needs to

be a retraining process if the type of content being processed significantly changes.

• Unauthorised usage of NLP-enabled applications could lead to the conclusion of

contracts or products/services purchases without the necessary legal prerequisites

being fulfilled. For example, children or people who are not contractually capable

might be able to conduct transactions.

• The provider must ensure that user commands are not misinterpreted and therefore

result in erroneous transactions.

Hardware-

embedded AI

Behavioural

Analytics

Cognitive

Automation

Natural language processing (NLP) can ease

human-computer interaction and leads to

machines understanding and acting on text.

The quality of NLP has improv ed signif icantly ;

v isible accomplishments include technologies such

as Microsof t's Sky pe Translator, which translates in

real time f rom one spoken language to another, or

Google's inf ormation cards that of f er answers

instead of a list of page links. For most enterprises,

the simplest and most immediate use cases f or

NLP are ty pically related to improv ed customer

serv ice, employ ee support, and processing claims

and policy inf ormation.



UnderwritingRisk

Management

Customer Engagement

& Services

Claims

2020, 2019,

2018

Adopt

37


Natural Language ProcessingArtificial Intelligence

Voys is

artificial intelligence startup

Voysis developed a platform for digital voice assistants to

better understand people’s natural language.

Apple Inc. acquired Voy sis, an artif icial intelligence startup. Voy sis

is working with a platf orm f or digital v oice assistants to understand

people’s natural language.

Voy sis initially f ocused on improv ing digital assistants on online

shopping apps. Apple can use the experience f rom Voy sis to

improv e its own application, Siri, making the v oice assistant more

responsiv e.

VariousVoysis

Planck Re

AI & Open-Web Data Mining

Automating the underwriting process

The sy stem inv ented by Planck Re is able to f ill in an ACORD f orm

with inf ormation such as the sewage conditions, f lood zone

inf ormation, and crime rate, based on just the name of a business

and its phy sical address. The sy stem f urther processes data about

the construction date, as well as any details concerning

remodelling done on the building and permits associated with it.

This happens based on deep learning capabilities, pattern

classif ication, NLP and named-entity recognition and data mining

on big data that was gathered bef orehand.

InsurancePlanck Re

Open AI

Natural-Language Generation

Completing texts based on prompts

The machine-learning computer model of Open AI was trained on

about 8 million web pages and is subsequently able to generate

sy nthetic text-based on written prompts. Due to the long sequence

of training, the technology is able to predict the most probable next

word based on how the words on the website are read. The

underly ing algorithm is hence able to produce f ull paragraphs of

texts – so, it could write a chapter of a book, based on the

prev ious chapter.

VariousOpen AI


Adopt

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/voysis

http://www.planckre.com/

https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/14/18224704/ai-machine-learning-language-models-read-write-openai-gpt2


Our Solutions


Munich Re

FIVE

Rules-based investment strategies

Using modern technologies, FIVE dev elops rules-based

inv estment strategies f or insurance companies and institutional

inv estors globally . Insurance clients v alue the conv enience of a

one-stop-shop that combines inv estment strategies, guarantees

and insurance cov ers into a single product solution – lean and

tailored to indiv idual needs. Moreov er, they can access a suite of

highly div ersif ying return sources, benef it f rom cost-efficiencies,

and aim to improv e their balance sheet utilisation.


• Access to a selection of quantitativ e inv estment strategies

• Better risk transf er by sourcing complete inv estment solutions

directly f rom Munich Re

• Attractiv e pay outs of guarantees and insurance cov ers

FIVE

Source: Munich Re

Munich Re

Epidemic Risk Solutions

Holistic solutions saving lives, protecting economies

The coronav irus outbreak and its unparalleled consequences hav e

serv ed as a wake-up call f or risk managers not to underestimate

the potential impact of epidemics or pandemics on the balance

sheets of their companies. Based on Munich Re’s own proprietary

models f or the purpose of modelling pandemic and epidemic

exposure, supplemented with data sets prov ided by external

prov iders, Munich Re has created a range of innov ativ e tailor-

made risk transf er solutions f or all lines of business cov ering

epidemic risks.


• Rev enue stability

• Balance sheet protection

• Indemnif ication of lost rev enues or prof its

Epidemic Risk Solutions

© Tom Merton / Getty Images

Data analytics for life insurers

Munich Re

Data analytics for life insurers

© Science Photo Library - KTSDESIGN / Getty Images

Your company 's data, which of ten remains largely untapped, is a

key f actor f or the dev elopment of y our business. Munich Re

prov ides y ou with market-wide benchmark analy ses, concentrated

expertise, powerf ul inf rastructure and indiv idual serv ices, executing

data analy tics projects of any size along the entire v alue chain that

are tailored to y our needs.


• High-perf ormance inf rastructure meets all the requirements f or

extremely ef f icient and f ast analy ses on a grand scale

• Analy tical capability f rom a large pool of experts in all relev ant

disciplines

• Unparalleled international data bases (e.g. cov ering up to 80%

of the entire portf olio in the German lif e insurance sector)

Innovative approaches to data analysis

https://www.munichre.com/five

https://www.munichre.com/topics-online/en/business-risks/epidemic-risk-solutions.html

https://www.munichre.com/en/solutions/reinsurance-life-health/data-analytics-for-life-insurers.html


Our Solutions


ERGO Germ any

Robotics

Bots relieve workers from repetitive tasks

Repetitiv e and time-consuming tasks setting an high incentiv e f or

robotic assistance. The Robotics Competence Center at ERGO

dev elops new bots in close cooperation with relev ant departments.

On av erage there are two new bots “going aliv e” each month in

2020, resulting into 43 bots in Germany so f ar and they handle

more than 30,000 transactions per month.


• “Roberto”, a bot at Broker Sales, is assisting in creating policy

copies f or broker portals.

• The bot supports writing standard letters to sales partners

• In terms of occupational health insurance. The bots create the

company contracts in the sy stem and the indiv idual contract

creation f or the employ ees to be insured.

ERGO Germ any

Mailbox sorting and task assigning

Optimising and organising work processes

efficiently

As a cooperation between the Operations and Adv anced Analy tics

Departments, an AI application is used with text recognition

models, each word is translated into a number or multidimensional

v ector. Words with similar meaning are represented as v ectors in

proximity to each other. This method, the so-called word

embedding (Word2Vec), was applied to all e-mails ov er a span of

two y ears, generating a set of data to train an artif icial neuronal

network. This neuronal network is now able to recognise sy ntax

and semantics, as well as text patterns. It f orms the centerpiece of

our so-called AI classif ier.


• Incoming emails are automatically f iltered and f orwarded to

the responsible departments across ERGO in Germany .

• Work processes are optimised and organised ef f iciently

Improve automation rate in processing health care

benefits

When it comes to claims in health insurance, it is important to

check the liability v ery firmly before pay ing the bills. For this

purpose, comprehensiv e sets of rules hav e been dev eloped in

recent y ears and are prov ided to employ ees f or inv oice checking.

These sets of rules are enhanced by an AI model that v alidates the

results of manual check by employ ees. The AI model has been

trained and dev eloped based on experience with prev ious checks.

Test phase starts in March 2020.


• The f irst productiv e use will be the checking of outpatient

medical bills of the DKV. On av erage, about 5.7 million

inv oices will be submitted

• The automation rate is expected to increase by about 32%

DKV

Artificial intelligence model

© PantherMedia Stock Agency / Andriy Popov © PantherMedia / Olivier Le Moal © PantherMedia / fantazista

Enabling Technologies


Enabling technologies accelerate other technologies or industry disruptors which might replace

established products, change consumer behav iour and reshape market landscapes and play ers in the

f uture, e.g. adv anced batteries f or autonomous v ehicles and the mobility market. Some suf f er f rom high

or unrealistic expectations, e.g. blockchain unf olded as a distributed ledger. Others are in high demand

and are being adopted right now. 5G is the next-generation cellular standard being rolled out worldwide

– at dif f erent pace and with delay , e.g. the roll-out in Spain has stalled due to the Corona crisis.

Giants like AT&T and T-Mobile plan to prov ide 5G on a large scale, enabling companies to lev erage

serv ices such as IoT communications. These enabling technology has high impact on connectiv ity and

the distribution of IoT in agriculture and public spaces. 5G may inf luence or ev en change y our business

in the f uture, too. It is theref ore important that business leaders understand which f uture technologies

will be their business enablers.


= new in 2020+

Cloud Enablement

The future of enterprise IT is cloud

computing – from flexible IT

infrastructure to enterprise

applications Cloud Edge

Edge computing processes data as

close to its source as possible at the

edge of the network structure

5G

The 5G technology is 40 times

faster than the current standard of

LTE (4G)

Neuromorphic Hardware

Neuromorphic chips modelled after the neural brain

network of humans

3D Printing

An automated manufacturing processes based on

digital designs creating multi-dimensional objects with

tailored functions

Distributed Ledger

The technology is eliminating the

need for a trusted central authority. It

is further decentralised, safe and thus

a transparent data network

Personalised Medicine

A tailored medical therapy based

on an individual’s disease pattern,

body constitution or other

parameters

Robotic Health

Cognitive AI in robotics for robots in care,

rehabilitation, prosthetics and surgery

Swarm intelligence

The collective behaviour of self-organised systems,

whether natural or artificial

Volumetric Display

A volumetric display generates an image in three

physical dimensions allowing for depth perception

Quantum Computing

Area of study focused on computer

technology following the laws of

quantum physics and promising a new

era of computational performance

Brain-computer Interface

A brain-computer interface interprets the

user's brain patterns to control external

software and hardware

Programmable Materials

Programmable materials designed to

become dynamic in form and function

on-demand and able to respond to

external input

Adopt – Start initiativ es in y our unit Trial – Initiativ es in af fected units Assess – Ev aluation needed Hold – Watch list


+

Advanced Batteries

Providing autonomous things, smart and any other

sensor-equipped objects with electric power

+

+

8 September 2020


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Opportunities Risks




New Trend 2020 derived from Digital

Health Services (2019).

• Enable personalised therapies for critical and complex illnesses, thereby reducing

follow-up treatment costs.

• Costly treatments to be replaced by minimal invasive procedures.

• Costly and unethical animal testing can be avoided by imitating human tissue in

research and development.

• Risk mitigation to lower insurance premiums based on tailored treatments and

higher treatment success projected.

• Device failure and data breaches could have dangerous consequences for patients.

• Personal information could be used to the disadvantage of the insured person.

• The cost of treatment could be substantial and thus not available to everyone.

Human

Enhancement

Behavioural

Analytics

3D Printing

Digital Identity

A tailored medical therapy based on an

individual’s disease pattern, body constitution,

gender, etc. that is enabled by biotechnologies

like Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of DNA

strings, organ-on-a-chip (OOC) applications,

cell sorting or 3D-printed substitutional

materials.

Immunotherapy f or precise cancer treatment and

v accines to prev ent cancer are some better known

examples of personalised medicine. Nev ertheless,

generating indiv idual peptides on demand f or each

patient is still inef f icient, which is the biggest barrier

f or clinical implementation. Adv ancements in

biotechnologies now allow precise medical

treatments at the same cost or ev en cheaper, e.g.

risky and costly analy ses like biopsies can be

replaced by minimal inv asiv e f low cy tometers that

isolate tumour cells in a patient’s blood.

OOCs are 3-dimendional cell cultures dev eloped as

a more liv ing-being-like alternativ e to f lat cell

cultures in petri dishes. With v acuum technology

the tissue can ev en be set in motion and simulate

mov ing tissue as lungs or hearts and metabolic

processes. 3D printed porous bones or tissue can

carry and dose medication more precisely and

replace dev ices like insulin pumps. Personalised

medicine is a broad f ield in lif ecience and

healthcare. These are only a f ew examples.



UnderwritingRisk

Management

Customer Engagement

& Services

Claims

2020

Trial

43





UK governm ent

NHS hospitals

Bill empowering hospitals to develop personalised

treatment

In February 2020, the UK gov ernment introduced a “Medicines and

Medical Dev ices Bill” that would enable hospitals to use human

tissue to customise treatments and dev elop personalised

treatments. The bill is a promising step towards treatments of rare

cancers and brain tumors. The new bill aims to giv e researchers

the f reedom to innov ate whilst protecting patient saf ety .

HealthcareUK Gov

Biobank Es tonia

Large-scale genome database

Estonian researchers' ambition to bring large-scale

genomic research into clinical practice

With its innov ation programme Horizon 2020, the EU is f unding a

range of research programmes on personalised medicine. Large-

scale genome research with AI promises to gain deeper insights

on disease risk patterns such as breast cancer and enable

healthcare sy stems to prov ide more ef f ective indiv idual prev ention

and medical treatments.

The Estonian biobank is a leading example of gathering genome

data of a large portion of a population in one data base. Backed by

a law f or genome research and the protection of personal data that

has been in place since 2000, Estonia has started to build the

world’s largest human genome database with currently more than

200,000 participants and links to hospital databases.

HealthcareScienceBusiness

Swedis h governm ent

Healthcare data management

€1m funding from the Swedish Government on

improving healthcare data management

The gov ernment f unding plus an addional €1m f rom a partner

inv estment will be used to dev elop data inf rastructure including

tools f or data analy sis and v isualisation, data gov ernance and legal

standards f or data sharing. Adv anced analy sis tools are required

to v isualise data with greater detail, include genome data and run

health-economic models. In the f uture, data and tools will be

shared with univ ersities, industry , public authorities and other

international initiativ es.

HealthcareGMS

Trial

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-bill-gives-hospitals-power-to-develop-personalised-treatment

https://sciencebusiness.net/estonian-researchers-strive-personalise-healthcare

https://genomicmedicine.se/en/2019/12/09/swelife-supports-gms-to-develop-a-national-informatics-infrastructure-for-precision-medicine/


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Opportunities Risks

Advanced Batteries



The market for advanced batteries is

primarily driven by the chemical

industry, energy and resources and

manufacturing. Insurers must watch

for relevant use cases!

• Equipped with advanced batteries, electrified vehicles, autonomous and smart

objects will make their long predicted breakthrough in the mass consumer market.

Insurance products for smart spaces and e-mobility need to become more

sophisticated.

• Long-awaited sustainable solutions for the energy sector are an attractive

investment for insurers’ looking to improve climate change resilience.

• IoT devices will be able to last longer and as a consequence be stored less

accessible locations, thereby mitigating risk.

• Scalability and efficiency in battery production has to improve. High-cost production

with rare-earth metals is not a viable option.

• Battery technology takes longer to get to market than expected.

Autonomous

Things

Programmable

Materials

Human

Enhancement

Smart Textiles

Next-generation advanced batteries supply

autonomous gadgets, smart and any other

sensor-equipped object with the very thing that

has been limiting their performance to date –

electric power.

Research on alternativ e and adv ances energy

production has recently made some strides. The

global market f or adv anced batteries is reported to

reach $1.27bn by 2025 f rom $129.8m in 2019,

according to a Global Inf o Research study ("Global

Next-Generation Adv anced Batteries Market 2020).

Flow batteries are most suitable f or grid storage as

they can prov ide large energy storage by just

increasing the v olume of the battery tanks. To date

howev er, large-scale production of f low batteries is

too inef f icient for large scale production. Another

example of an adv anced battery are graphene

batteries, which are actually making their way to

market. These batteries allow f or greater power

storage, more recharge cy cles and are saf er than

lithium-ion batteries. This also makes the dev ices

they power more attractiv e as they can last longer

and are more reliable.



UnderwritingRisk

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& Services

Claims

2020

Assess

45



Advanced Batteries


Toyota Global

Prime Planet Energy and Solutions

Joint venture for building advanced prismatic lithium

batteries for electric vehicles

Toy ota and Panasonic f ounded "Prime Planet Energy and

Solutions", a dedicated company f or dev eloping automotiv e

prismatic lithium-ion and solid-state batteries in February 2020. A

y ear af ter the announcement of the partnership between Toy ota

and Panasonic, they decided that a joint v enture would be the best

way to bring high-capacity and cost-ef fective prismatic batteries to

the global mobility market. The client base will include on Toy ota,

howev er this is not the v enture's primary f ocus. As announced by

Toy ota, the joint v enture will begin dev eloping, manuf acturing and

selling adv anced batteries in April 2020 with 2,400 employ ees in

China and 2,700 in Japan.

Automotiv eToyota Global

Sam s ung

Silver-carbon all-solid batteries

Research on performance of all-solid state batteries

that enable electric vehicles to travel up to 800km

Researches at Samsung recently published a study of high-

perf ormance, long-lasting all-solid-state batteries. The team at

Samsung Adv anced Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the

Samsung R&D Institute Japan (SRJ) f ound an alternativ e to the

widespread usage of lithium metal anodes in all-solid-state

batteries that can reduce lif espan and saf ety of the battery . The

alternativ e is an ultrathin silv er-carbon nanocomposite lay er, which

recorded greater capacity and a longer battery lif e. A battery cell

prototy pe would enable an electric v ehicle to trav el 800km without

hav ing to recharge and an extended battery lif espan of more than

1.000 charges.

Automotiv eSamsung

Tes la

Cobalt-free batteries

Lowering vehicle costs by replacing cobalt in

batteries made in Tesla's China plant

Cobalt is a widely used battery in electric v ehicles. It is also on of

the most expensiv e metals. A tonne of cobalt costs $33,500. The

adv antage of cobalt is that it enables a longer driv e on a single

charge. Tesla is said to be partnering with a Chinese manuf acturer

(CATL) to supply lithium iron phosphate (LFP) as a low-cost

alternativ e to nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) or nickel-manganese-

cobalt (NMC) batteries. The partnership and new battery ty pe has

not y et been conf irmed by Tesla. Elon Musk stated that a new

battery strategy will be announced later in 2020.

Automotiv eReuters

Assess

https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/31477926.html

https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-presents-groundbreaking-all-solid-state-battery-technology-to-nature-energy

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-china-electric-exclusive/exclusive-tesla-in-talks-to-use-catls-cobalt-free-batteries-in-china-made-cars-sources-idUSKBN20C0RP


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Opportunities Risks

Robotic Health



Formerly subordinated to Digital

Health Services (2019), robotics in

health are recognised as trend

development of its own for 2020..

• Faced with an aging population, (elderly) care is one of the markets that needs

valuable digital solutions and workforce support the most. Insurers must adapt

insurance products and create offerings for robotic care.

• By monitoring vitals more rigorously and with increasing reach, robots can report

household accidents earlier and replace 24/7 home care. Health status data can be

leveraged for risk and claims management.

• Potential risk of liability were robots to start making medical decisions or providing

unsupervised assistance – Who is accountable for the robot's decisions and who

bears the risk? The doctor, the programmer or the AI itself?

• Strong co-dependence with enabling technologies including sensors, machine

learning and cognitive AI.

• Adaption by humans for robots is still diverse and strongly market dependent.

Design and interaction with real patients will decide. Humanoid robots have not

made their way out of Japan and China. Western cultures often perceive humanoids

as “weird” – a phenomenon known as “uncanny valley”.

Autonomous

Things

AutoML

Cognitive

Automation

Natural Language

Processing

Cognitive AI in robotics looks promising for the

use of robots in care, rehabilitation and

prosthetics and surgery.

To date, care robots f ail on accuracy in their

haptics and empathy in their response to the

patient. The reason why robotics in healthcare are

back in the spotlight is inv estment in improv ing

their abilities f or sof t grip and decision-making.

Machine learning and cognitiv e automation in

combination with hy draulic sy stems and Natural

Language Processing (NLP) are key technologies

in this f ield. Examples are exoskeleton robots that

assist paraly zed patients. With the help of

conv ersation interf aces and NLP, robots can

interact on an emotional lev el, e.g. making the

elderly f eel less lonely while taking care of

medication or monitoring their insulin lev el or blood

pressure.

Moreov er, robots continue to improv e surgery . As

robotic instruments become more accurate, and

reach more areas of the body , minimal inv asiv e

procedures in surgery (MIS) can be applied more

widely , thereby replacing risky surgeries.



UnderwritingRisk

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Claims

2020

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Robotic Health


U.S. Departm ent of Defens e

Trauma Care System

4 years and $7.2m investment for developing a

trauma care system fitting in soldiers' backpack

A research team at the Univ ersity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

and Carnegie Mellon Univ ersity were awarded gov ernment f unding

of $7.2m f or a 4-y ear project to dev elop a hard and sof t robotic suit

that f its in a backpack. It is supposed to prov ide trauma care to

injured soldiers in remote locations. The TRACIR (TRAuma Care

in a Rucksack) is able to carry a person, assess their injuries and

apply interv enious medication. Using a database containing

inf ormation on 5,000 trauma patients, the research team created

an algorithm that allows the sy stem to detect injuries and

administer treatments. TRACIR could also be applied in f uture to

civ ilian emergencies in remote locations, e.g. f or mountain

climbers.

Military, Health

Robotics Business

Rev iew

UK governm ent

Trustworthy Autonomous Systems

£34m government investment in developing user-

safe autonomous systems

The UK gov ernment started an ambitious research programme

aimed at prov iding saf e and trustworthy autonomous sy stems to

the public. The £34m inv estment includes designing robots f or

elderly care to detect f alls, sound alarms, meal deliv ery and

medication supply at home, in care homes and in hospitals. The

research programme addresses challenges such as personal data

and cy ber security . It also addresses the issue of how to make

robots more appealing to users by improv ing trust and nav igating

ethical roadblocks when it comes to machine-human interaction.

The prototy pe of a robot f or elderly assistance is one example of

gov ernment-f unded projects that preceded this inv estment. Bristol

Robotics Laboratory are dev eloping the care-at-home robot

CHIRON that prov ides phy sical mobility support.

HealthcareGov UK

MTR

Robotics help to stop Covid-19

Hong Kong’s subway is sending robots to disinfect

trains in the wake of the coronavirus

Public transport f acilities pose a high risk of inf ection of COVID-19,

y et people still hav e to use them during the pandemic. To combat

this risk, a gov ernment-owned railway operator in Hong Kong has

rolled out a robot to disinf ect those areas. About the size of a

f ridge, this robot rolls through public transport areas spray ing a

hy drogen peroxide solution. The robot was able to disinf ect hard-

to-reach places and helped reduce the spread of the disease.

VariousQuartz

Assess

https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/public-safety/military/carnegie-mellon-pitt-to-create-autonomous-robotic-trauma-care-system/

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/care-robots-could-revolutionise-uk-care-system-and-provide-staff-extra-support

https://qz.com/1816762/coronavirus-hong-kongs-mtr-subway-uses-robot-to-disinfect-trains/


Our Solutions


Munich Re

Remote Industries

Remote claims settling in real-time

During a natural disaster, insurers struggle to manage a large

inf lux of claims and need to triage these claims to f ocus on

complex losses. Policy holders can easily become f rustrated

because of long waiting times f or an appointment with an on-site

adjuster. The Remote Inspection v ideo tool of f ers the possibility to

settle claims v ia a smartphone. An app lets the policy holder record

in real-time the damage, enabling a claims adjuster to v iew the

v ideo, photo(s), and geocoordinates – as well as capture

inspection report notes – and ev en f ully settle a claim the same

day in many cases.


• Improv ed claims management

• Cost, time, and resource sav ings f or insurers

• Enhanced experience f or policy holders

Remote Industries

Munich Re

One Cat

Comprehensive and rapid response to natural

catastrophes

When a dev astating natural catastrophe strikes, companies and

organisations need their insurance claims to be settled quickly in

order to av oid cash f low problems. Traditional cov ers of ten only

respond af ter lengthy claims adjustments, and leav e gaps in costs

associated with restoring to the pre-ev ent lev el. To close these

gaps, Munich Re has designed “One Cat”, a tailor-made solution

concept with an unprecedented lev el of transparency and a v ery

simple pay out process.


• Parametric triggers ensure rapid recov ery

• Cov ers prev iously uninsurable risks f rom natural catastrophes

• Unprecedented lev el of transparency

• No deductibles

• Reduced claims-related expenses

One Cat

Source: Mark Downey / Radius Images

Source: millionhope / Getty Images

https://www.munichre.com/remote-industries

https://www.munichre.com/onecat

27.08.2020

Tafadzwa Mugadza

Technology drives future business opportunities

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