Better Tomorrow
Motor Claims
EXCLUSIVE CONFERENCE
ILC
www.iloveclaims.com
Motor Claims
EXCLUSIVE CONFERENCE Headline Sponsor
Gold Sponsors
Reception Sponsor
ILC
ILC
Motor Claims
5 October 2023
EXCLUSIVE CONFERENCE
Landing Forty Two, London
141 Attendees
41 Key insurer decision makers
24 Insurance brands
2 Trade associations
15 C-suite attendees
43
19 Corporate Partners
Director level attendees Connecting the industry TM
24 ‘Head of’ attendees
www.iloveclaims.com www.iloveclaims.com
Contents Exclusive Motor Claims Conference proves
04
major success Mark Hadaway Ticker beating strongly
06
Richard King
Inflationary Insights
08
Stuart Sandell, Dave Sargeant, Donna Scully & Tom Rumboll The Credit Hire Conundrum
12
James Driscoll, Simon Gallimore, Anthony Hughes & Michael King LexisNexis delivers Precision in claims control
14
Kajal Vakas
Managing and mitigating claims inflation
16
Charmaine Pattenden, Dave Thompson & Sarah Lang Tech and people not an either/or debate
18
Crescens George & Manjit Rana
Tech and people not an either/or debate
20
Nigel Walsh
Poll Results
22
Slido
16
Charmaine Pattenden, Dave Thompson & Sarah Lang
ILC 2
Motor Claims
06
Richard King
12 James Driscoll, Simon Gallimore, Anthony Hughes & Michael King
08 Stuart Sandell, Dave Sargeant, Donna Scully & Tom Rumboll
14 Kajal Vakas
18 Crescens George & Manjit Rana
3
20 Nigel Walsh
E xclusive Conference 2023
Exclusive Motor Claims Conference proves major success M A R K H A DAWAY ILC
Welcome to the latest issue of Better Tomorrow which on this occasion provides all the latest insights revealed during the Exclusive Motor Claims Conference 2023. The event was held, once again, at the impressive Landing Forty-Two, London – the highest event space in the UK – and supported by ILC’s Motor Corporate Partners: Activate Group, AkzoNobel, Autoglass, BHR Assist, CAPS, Carpenters Group, Copart, DAC Beachcroft, e2e, Entegral, Enterprise, Gemini ARC, GT Motive, Innovation Group, Kennedys, S&G Response, Solera Audatex, Synetiq and Thingco, and sponsored by headline partner Enterprise along with sponsors BHR Assist, Clearspeed, EDAM Group, LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Wiser Academy.
This invite only event is ILC’s premier motor conference and this year saw 150 of the leading influencers from across the UK’s motor claims insurance sector join ILC for discussion, insights, and networking.
Thank you, once again, to all our partners and event sponsors, as well as all those who joined us to make this event one of our highest rated to date – we look forward to doing it all again, at the same venue, on 3 October in 2024.
Keynote interviews, a look into the underlying influences of claims inflation, a credit hire update, product reveals, insurer insights, and a people plus technology debate provided a fascinating overview of how the sector continues to reshape. Valuable insight was also provided throughout the day from all present courtesy of various audience interactions – see the back of this publication for all the results.
Enjoy the issue...
Mark
With networking a key theme throughout the day, the conference was rounded out with a networking reception courtesy of Whichrate.
A huge thank you to all those organisations for helping to make the event such a success.
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Motor Claims
ILC
www.iloveclaims.com
Insurer Partners
Industry Body Partners
Insights Partners
Ticker beating strongly
RICHARD KING CEO Ticker
CEO of Ticker, Richard King, explained how in just four years his company has established itself as a key disrupter of the motor insurance industry with its telematics-based business model. Speaking to Chris Ashworth, Founder of ILC, Richard said that the success of Ticker is based on three key elements: technology, a sharp focus on the customer, and good people. He explained, “We’ve combined technology with a deep understanding of insurance and that combination gives us a winning formula. “Everything we do is about telematics. The entire business is built on data science and machine learning tools. We’re a connected insurer and our aim is to bring connected motor insurance to the masses. We do that by segmenting the market, with a proposition for novice drivers, van drivers, low-mileage drivers, and drivers new to the UK. We’re also planning to launch a product for older drivers. “We want to understand our customer and deliver products that are suited to them, so rather than a oneproduct-fits-all proposition, our approach is a very focused on segments.”
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Motor Claims
Growth
Outsourced
Since its launch, the business has grown rapidly. This year it will write £100m and the target next year is to double that to £200m. Part of this success is its laserfocus on loss ratio. It set itself an aggressive goal to get below 56% loss ratio in its first four years, which is unmatched in the industry, and also keeps complete control of its own pricing.
All fault and non-fault claims are outsourced to Carpenters Group – “Their scale, size and leadership make them a very easy choice for someone like us,” Richard said – while the use of telematics provides the company with an unrivalled level of insight.
Richard said, “Our business is growing rapidly, and it’s the right type of growth.” Of course, business success is founded on the people within it and Richard acknowledged the invaluable role of the experience and talent within Ticker. He said, “At Ticker, it was about getting the right people into the right roles and my job now is as the conductor of a very talented orchestra.”
Challenges Ticker is operating in a very competitive and challenging sector. Parts supply is still disrupted, energy costs have gone up, and recruitment and retention remain an issue every business is faced with. On top of that, customer expectations have risen sharply, with people now expecting immediate access and delivery.
Richard said, “For us, the key role of telematics is that is provides us with a forensic level of data at a key time in really expensive claims, particularly those involving personal injury. It also plays a key role in defending insurers on the third-party claims side”. “Telematics is also helping us fight fraud. As an industry, we’re seeing a high level of fraud and misrepresentation, but in a lot of cases the data and our machine learning tools are detecting them. This is helping us keep control of loss ratio, too.”
Future Going forward, Richard believes that, as important as it is to focus on processes and people, the priority must always be the customer. He concluded, “We understand the pressure the market is under. The last few years have been very difficult for the industry, but customers are shopping around a lot more these days, so my final point would be to manage customer expectations.”
While this puts claims under stress, Ticker tackles this through a combination of partnerships and technology.
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Inflationary Insights
S T UA RT S A N D E LL
DAV E S A RG E A NT
D O N N A S C U LLY
TO M RU M B O LL
Assistant Vice President – Sales – UK and Ireland Enterprise
Managing Director Gemini Accident Repair Centres
Director/Owner Carpenters Group
Managing Director IAA CEO Synetiq
Inflation is not a sector-specific challenge; businesses throughout the supply chain have all been facing steepling costs for months. However, the consequences and coping mechanisms put in place have varied widely. This was addressed during two sessions, Inflationary Insights Parts One and Two, that were held during the Exclusive Motor Claims Conference at Landing Forty-Two, London. Taking part in the first of these were Stuart Sandell, Assistant Vice President – Sales – UK and Ireland, Enterprise and Donna Scully, Director and Owner, Carpenters Group; before Dave Sargeant, Managing Director, Gemini Accident Repair Centres and Tom Rumboll, Managing Director, IAA / CEO, Synetiq, provided insights from the front line of repair and recycle.
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Motor Claims
Scale
Strategies
Stuart began by explaining that despite the size of the Enterprise organisation – a UK workforce of 7,000, more than 150,000 vehicles and a repair network that completes 170,000 jobs a year – scale alone does not soften the effects of inflation.
“Manufacturers were sending cars straight to forecourts where they get the biggest margins,” Stuart said. “So we’ve had to put in place some fleet preservation strategies. That includes halting or slowing down the sale of vehicles, increasing our total loss threshold so we repair more cars, and actually going to buy used cars from the forecourts to sustain our fleet.”
He said, “Operating a business of this scale does bring some economies, but often it’s just a big multiplier effect of inflation. Our personnel costs have gone up a third, fuel costs have gone up 15% and operational costs have gone up by a third.” The Enterprise business in founded on vehicles. As such disruption to supply of both new vehicles and parts has had a substantial impact. Stuart revealed that fleet acquisition costs have escalated by 40% in the last two years and, at the lowest ebb, sales to car rental organisations such as Enterprise were down by 80%.
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Exacerbating the challenge, longer repair times meant Enterprise needed access to an even larger fleet than before in order to meet customer demand. Stuart said that Enterprise had seen vehicle off-road times increase by 50%, while vehicle maintenance costs have risen 128%. He said, “Pre-pandemic, we had never MOT’ed a single car. No cars in our fleet got to three years. But in the last 12 months we’ve carried out 22,000 MOTs.”
He concluded, “It sounds bleak, but on a brighter note we are seeing a greater supply of vehicles from manufacturers and we’re working hard with our supply chain to ensure we’ve got capacity. Individually and collectively we’ll get through these challenges and we’ll do this while making sure we have great outcomes for customers.”
Claims Meanwhile, Donna provided a broader view of inflation from the personal injury side. She said that the whiplash reforms and launch of the new OIC portal had gone some way to mitigating the effects, with a 39% fall in the total number of claims and lower legal costs. She said, “There has definitely been a good side to the OIC. Claims volumes are at their lowest level since 2004, which in terms of inflation is a help, there has been a reduction in damages and there are no legal costs up to £5,000,
E xclusive Conference 2023
“It has also squeezed the market. Claims management companies in the UK are down to about 100, with more than 300 claimant law firms leaving the sector. A squeezed market and getting rid of people who weren’t doing things properly is a great thing but if we become too squeezed you could have massive consolidation.”
Portal However, counting against this are the massive delays since the OIC portal went live. The new OIC portal was meant to deliver a more efficient, streamlined and simple claims service, but claims are now taking double the time to be processed compared to the previous portal – although Donna admitted there have been improvements – while there is now an average of 78 weeks between the issue of a case and the time it goes to hearing. She said, “That’s not good for anyone, particularly customers. It’s a huge problem for the whole industry and it’s just getting worse every day.” Looking ahead, she predicted that a number of factors will have an effect on the inflation within claims in the coming months. The OIC Tariff review will take place next year, while the Supreme Court will announce a decision on mixed injuries in the first quarter of the year. Furthermore, the Discount Rate will be reviewed next August.
Repairs From a repair perspective, rising costs have been well publicised over recent months with labour rates, parts supply, longer key-to-key times, vehicle technology, higher energy prices and mobility challenges all having a negative effect. Gemini, which operates 34 sites with 700 staff and completes 45,000 repairs a year, has witnessed this first-hand. Dave said, “Parts have become a major challenge to us, more so in supply, so it’s good to see green parts being used more. That’s a big help to us and I hope it becomes even more widespread.
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Motor Claims
“Meanwhile, labour rates for technicians are at an alltime high, I’ve never seen anything like it, and new vehicle technology has also increased a lot of cost for us because we’ve got to invest in a lot of technology to repair cars safely, and also the technicians who are capable of doing it. On top of that, new technology has changed the percentage of non-driveable vehicles that come to us. It’s at 40% now.”
Convoluted While many of these challenges are uncontrollable, Dave argued that there is still a lot of wastage in the vehicle repair supply chain, which is too convoluted with too many parties involved all adding cost and inefficiency. He said, “We need to do something to reduce costs. One example, why have we got an engineer and an estimator butting heads? Let’s remove one of them. Or both of them.” However, Dave believes one of the most pressing challenges facing the industry will actually provide the solution. A lack of skills has been amplified by the pandemic. Gemini is ahead of the curve here as it committed wholeheartedly to apprentices in 2017 and is now reaping the rewards, both in terms of numbers and new ideas. Dave explained, “We decided to go down the apprenticeship route in 2017 and we’ve got more than 100 in our business. That is 14% of our workforce. They are not just technicians but front of house too, and I’ve had more success in meetings listening to what they’ve said than I have for years of sitting around the table with the same people who have been in this business forever. Their approach is refreshing and it makes you think you can change things.”
An industry leader in this sector, Synetiq has responded to this by increasing the number of parts it stocks to more than 300,000, which represents a 21% rise, while delivery times since January to September have come down by 24%. Tom said, “We’re using data to create an improved on-shelf inventory, which means the most indemand parts are available for same-day despatch. We hope this encourages even more demand.” Green parts are not immune to inflationary pressures though, and have experienced double-digit prices rises, although Tom says there will still be a ‘clear differential’ in the price between green and OEM parts.
Total loss Equally as significant in the recycling and salvage sector now is the growing number of total loss EVs. As EV sales continue to surge, their numbers are only going to increase. Tom said that while EVs represent just two per cent of Synetiq’s business today, and hybrids only four per cent, the company is already gearing up for change. He said, “In the vehicle salvage industry our job is to maximise the economic and environmental value of every vehicle we receive. We are working with partners to ensure that when an EV comes to the end of its life there are economic and environmentally sound channels for that vehicle to go down. While this is a challenge it’s also an opportunity and we’re seeking to collaborate more on projects to maximise the economic and environmental value of every vehicle we receive.”
Recycling If rising costs can ever be a good thing, there are perhaps positives to be found in the growing demand for recycled parts, which are both cheaper than OEM parts and often quicker to source.
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The Credit Hire Conundrum
JA M E S D R I S CO LL
S I M O N G A LLI M O R E
A NTH O N Y H U G H E S
MICHAEL KING
Senior Claims Manager – Motor Damage & Credit Hire Aviva
CEO EDAM Group
CEO CHO
National Third Party Claims Strategy Manager LV=
Compromise and trust are fundamental if the industry is going to create a revised and relevant General Terms Agreement (GTA) that meets the needs of today and ends the long-running friction that exists between insurers and credit hire companies. That was the verdict of a panel discussion, ‘The Credit Hire Conundrum,’ which took place during ILC’s Exclusive Motor Claims Conference. Taking part were James Driscoll, Senior Claims Manager, Motor Damage and Credit Hire, Aviva;
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Simon Gallimore, CEO, EDAM Group; Michael King, National Third Party Claims Strategy Manager, LV=; and Anthony Hughes, CEO, CHO. The session was moderated by ILC Founder, Chris Ashworth. The GTA was established 24 years ago. The industry has moved on since then and in the last year the GTA Technical Committee has been working to establish an updated GTA. As a voluntary agreement, the end goal is to create a trading environment that is attractive to the industry, with claims handled quicker, with less operational cost and less likelihood of dispute. James said, “When I heard about GTA 2 I thought we’d rip GTA up and completely change the rules around the settlement of claims. But over time we’ve moved
to a more revised GTA and are working on the larger areas that are causing friction.”
Rates The most significant of these is daily rates, which has long been an area of dispute between insurers and CHOs. The committee provided a temporary solution by establishing an interim rate review last year, and has since been working on a data-driven mechanism to decide rates going forward. James continued, “We’ve been discussing rate reviews since 2018 but in the last three or four months there’s been the greatest shift in movement with collaboration from both sides working together to
Motor Claims
resolve it. But it will take some compromise. The GTA rate is never going to be right on a single claim. What you’re trying to find is a national rate that leaves both sides unhappy equal amounts of the time. It’s a difficult balance, but I think the way we’re moving forward now will resolve it.” To make it stick though, trust between both sides is critical. In what has often been an adversarial relationship, this is not easy to achieve. Simon said, “It’s evident there has been a complete breakdown of trust between credit hire organisations and insurers. Insurers use credit hire organisations more than anyone else and are happy to put their customers there, but then there is this mistrust when it comes to the claims side. That is the biggest roadblock we need to remove. We need trust on both sides, but it is starting to happen. We’ve made more progress than I expected.” Michael agreed: “Last year’s interim rate review was a positive and now we need to convince people that the mechanism we’re trying to move towards will be a simpler and more effective way of managing the rate.
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From the insurer’s perspective, they need to understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Trust has been an issue in the past so we need to give confidence that this will be a sensible and pragmatic way forward. Agreeing that rate methodology mechanism will be the first big step. We shouldn’t underestimate the size of this task, but we feel we’ve got a better chance of agreeing that than we’ve ever had in the past.”
New role To build on this momentum the committee is hoping to appoint a Chairperson by the end of the year. This could be a decisionmaking role and their remit will be to provide further direction going forward. Michael said, “I see the Chairperson as someone who will be there to assist and guide in decision-making rather being in a formalised CEO-type role. But if we do appoint an independent chair, get a mechanism for rate, and move away from clogging up the technical committee with these conversations, that would be the way forward.”
Anthony concluded, “The GTA Technical Committee has made real progress in the last 12 months and collaboration between the CHO and insurer community has been really encouraging. We have agreed an interim rate review, which is the perfect definition of compromise, and have begun conversations about how else we can evolve an agreement that is 24 years old. We’re trying to move forward specific issues now and those discussions are very constructive. “If we can get to a point by the turn of the year where we’ve appointed a chair and in principle got an agreement for what the rate will be for the period between now and the next review, and a mechanism for that to be reviewed in a simpler way, that will be a huge step in the right direction.”
Looking ahead, there are hopeful signs of a positive outcome.
E xclusive Conference 2023
LexisNexis delivers Precision in claims control
K A JA L VA K A S Senior Vertical Market Manager – Claims LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis Risk Solutions announced that it will launch a new claims tool that will provide insurers with a comprehensive and granular insight into both the policyholder and the product. Precision Claims will become the industry’s first cross-book claims database, collecting the relevant histories of the customer and the asset in a single place. It will include disparate claims records, enabling insurers to gain a deep understanding of the risks associated with individual policies. Kajal Vakas, Senior Vertical Market Manager, Claims, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said, “With Precision Claims, you will know exactly who you are looking at. It includes a claims history of the subject and the asset even prior to them owning it.”
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Motor Claims
This, she said, is critical as research has revealed that 41% of consumers under-report previous claims, while those who do have a 34% higher claims cost. “Precision Claims will tell insurers if the person is a serial claimant, while also providing details of previous claims. So, for example, you will know if they have reported multiple vehicle thefts with the same circumstances.”
Kajal concluded, “Customers want everything to be about them. Precision Claims recognises the individual and their individual circumstances without them having to feed in that information over and over again. “It also helps us personalise our service for our customers, while at the same time keeping an eye on leakage and fraud.”
Meanwhile, when a claim is made Precision Claims will also provide an up-to-date status of the claim throughout the journey so insurers can follow the process from FNOL to settlement. Information will include fault status, detailed injury data, as well as reserves and payments made against the injury. Kajal said, “This will help insurers understand if there is an overlap in areas of injury.” But while Precision Claims has clear benefits for the industry, it will also deliver a more streamlined and convenient service for honest customers. By sharing data across multiple business lines, customers will not have to repeat their claims histories to multiple insurers, while the level of information provided will create the opportunity for more personalised products.
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Managing and mitigating claims inflation
C H A R M A I N E PAT TE N D E N
DAV E TH O M P S O N
SAR AH L ANG
Head of UK Claims INSHUR
Claims Director Tesco Underwriting
Head of Claims Solutions Admiral
The challenge of understanding and managing claims inflation while at the same time continuing to deliver excellent customer value was the topic of a far-reaching discussion.
times, while rising mobility costs add even more expense.” However, INSHUR’s tech-centric approach is going some way to mitigating this by adding efficiency to the claims process and providing a more streamlined service for customers.
Taking part in the debate were Charmaine Pattenden, Head of UK Claims, INSHUR; Dave Thompson, Claims Director, Tesco Underwriting; and Sarah Lang, Head of Claims Solutions, Admiral.
She said, “We’re all about technology at INSHUR and it plays a critical role in helping us to treat our customers fairly.”
Commercial
Growth
Charmaine said that at INSHUR, serving a commercial customer base means that key-to-key times are paramount, with livelihoods depending on damaged vehicles being repaired safely and returned to the road quicky.
Providing some optimism, Dave and Sarah both agreed that the rate of inflation is slowing and even flattening in some sectors – although this is happening from a high base and the factors that have driven up costs still remain.
While inflation adds extra burden, the priority for INSHUR customers remains the same.
Dave said, “In the last 12 months we’ve been dealing with incredible claims inflationary challenges, but we try not to lose focus on our goal of putting the customer at the heart of everything we do, whether it’s a strategic decision about what product we’re going to launch or a day-to-day decision in operational claims management.”
She explained, “Our customers want to keep their vehicles on the road. They want their cars fixed and they want them back as soon as possible. But challenges around parts supply mean longer repair
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Motor Claims
That means understanding what is driving claims inflation, whether they are short or long-term, and then developing appropriate coping strategies. “Claims inflation is our day job,” he continued. “You can’t tackle it alone and we’ve never worked as closely with our supply chain as we do today. We are now absolutely integrated with our supply chain and consider that crucial in dealing with the very significant challenges we face today.” He explained that Tesco now sends colleagues into the businesses of their supply chain partners and encourages them to send colleagues back the other way to gain a better appreciation for each other’s objectives, restrictions and difficulties. This, he said, creates a far more transparent working environment and delivers a deeper level of support for colleagues who are dealing with unprecedented challengers. “Our industry relies on its people and it’s never been more important to support them. There is a huge challenge around recruitment and retention, so we’ve had to take a lot of steps to improve things for them and one thing I’m convinced of is a fantastic colleague experience drives a fantastic customer experience.”
Technology Sarah agreed, and said that developing closer working relationships between departments was another way to help soften the inflationary burden. She believes that a better understanding of claims can improve underwriting and help a business reduce loss ratios. She said, “One big area of development is the closer alignment of claims with product. Traditionally your underwriting and pricing determines what comes through the door in terms of claims. But we’re really working on changing the relationship so claims is also dictating what gets underwritten.”
Planning Going forward, she agreed with Dave that it was not straightforward understanding which factors will continue to push up inflation going forward and which are only a result of today’s market challenges. “There has been a lot of change so it’s hard to work out what is a trend and what is a symptom of the times. It’s difficult to know if claims inflation is genuine inflation or if it’s because we’re not able to close claims quickly. I don’t think the problems causing inflation will go away in the next 12 months, but perhaps it won’t be at the same level as now.” But even with such uncertainty in the market, businesses need to still deliver a consistent level of service. Consumer Duty has put that into sharp focus, and while forward-looking strategies are important, the here and now demands constant attention. Dave concluded, “While it’s important to keep an eye on what’s coming next, I would say that at the moment it is more important to focus on the immediate challenges in front of us. You have to focus on the things you know will challenge you in the next three years rather than worry about what might challenge you in the next five to 10 years.”
This is where better use of technology and data plays a part, providing Admiral with granular claims data and enabling it to assess the loss ratios in each specific segment. She explained, “Automation, new technology and data can bring down inflation. There is a lot of beauty in doing the simple things really well and a lot of the simple things can be automated. There is definitely more we can do in this space.”
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Tech and people not an either/or debate
C R E S C E N S G E O RG E
M A NJ IT R A N A
CEO Wiser Academy
GM Insurance - UK, EMEA & APAC Clearspeed
Far from replacing people, new technologies shine an even sharper spotlight on the importance of people within insurance and turn up the emphasis on continuous training and development. That was the message of a ‘people versus technology’ debate which took place at the Exclusive Motor Claims Conference. ‘The Human Machine Interface’ saw Crescens George, CEO of Wiser Academy and Manjit Rana, GM Insurance, UK, EMEA & APAC, Clearspeed discuss the future of people and technology in the insurance sector, and both agreed that it was not an either/or debate. “You can’t have one without the other,” said Crescens, who founded Wiser Academy as a dedicated training provider for the insurance sector. “Technology is good at the mundane processes that humans don’t want to do, but insurance is often an emotional experience and technology won’t in our lifetime be able to provide that level of interaction. It works best when it augments what humans do, but it can’t do everything. There will always be times when humans add more value so you have to continue to invest in people.”
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Manjit agreed. He said, “Technology can replace so many jobs, but the jobs it can’t replace are those that require human to human interaction and human empathy. Insurance relies on those roles, so investment in technology and people should go hand in hand. We need to equip the right people with the right knowledge, skills and behaviours.”
Evolution However, as technology evolves, those skills and behaviours are changing too and Manjit urged the sector to get a better understanding of what insurers might want in their workforce in the coming years. He said, “In the future, do we want to attract someone with actuarial skills or cyber psychology? People wouldn’t even have thought you can study cyber psychology five years ago, but that is a massive skill this industry could benefit from. We need to start engaging with these graduates and influencing what students are learning or we won’t have the skills we need to bring into our industry in the future.”
Potential AI is another technology that, while not new, has not come close to realising its potential. Its influence on all businesses and business processes will continue to evolve, and Crescens agreed that managers need to urgently address how roles will be affected in the near future. He said, “We tend to focus on skills that we need now. But just as there are new emerging risks, there are also emerging skills and attitudes that we need to develop to cater to future demands. AI will require a whole range of new skills, like prompt writing, and we need to spend a bit more time thinking about skills that are ‘in progress’ and ‘in anticipation’. “We don’t need to think about transactional jobs. They will be automated. But the jobs that remain will be complex, they will require problem solving and critical thinking, so we’ll need people who are highly educated to do them.”
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Revolution to evolution to change claims
N I G E L WA L S H Managing Director, Insurance Google
A leading expert from Google has challenged the claims industry to forget about evolution and focus on revolution to change the customer experience for the better. Nigel Walsh, Managing Director, Google Insurance, said that breakthroughs in technology and the potential of AI has created the opportunity for real disruption to the status quo. He said the only thing standing in our way is an inability to imagine a different future. Speaking during a compelling discussion with Jonny Valentine, ClaimsTech Lead, ILC and CTO of ThingCo, Nigel said that the explosion of insurtech created the momentum for change and now it is up to traditional insurers to maintain that.
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He said, “Insurtech burst onto the scene and immediately created a phenomenal mindset shift for every insurer because it showed that there is another way to do things. Insurtechs have had a tough time over the last few months, but there are still great ones out there changing the way we interact and engage with consumers.” He said that while many insurtechs originally planned to go it alone, there has been a change in dynamic recently with more and more opting instead to partner with traditional insurers. This has meant their innovations are now accessible to the wider market. “Things have evolved and there is a lot of tech available now delivering all sorts of services. But one thing I’d say is if it doesn’t add a competitive advantage to your business, don’t use it.”
Generative AI One technology creating massive opportunity for the industry is AI, particularly generative AI. ChatGTP, for example, apart from the standard functions of a chatbot, has the ability to process reams of information in a split second and then provide advice on appropriate courses of action. For insurers, this means it can almost instantaneously read an insurance policy and check what cover is provided, or summarise long insurance documents, claims or underwriting manuals into succinct bullet points.
Nigel said, “The industry is built on process after process, but generative AI will allow you to do things very differently. It is a phenomenal area of opportunity and offers a huge amount of freedom to every organisation. If you’re not using it every day, I’d go back and challenge the areas where it you could be.”
Change Another area of change, Nigel predicted, will be embedded insurance. Embedded insurance brings all a customer’s insurance needs into a much broader package of services, ending the need to arrange multiple policies through multiple carriers. Contact between policyholder and insurer will be reduced to virtually zero, without the customer even needing to even submit all claim; it will happen automatically, without the need for any customer action at all. Nigel concluded, “If our kids buy insurance the same way we did, then we’ve probably failed. We talk about evolution, but where is the revolution? We need to stop evolving, we need to stop trying simply to digitalise old processes. We have to rethink this from the outside in rather than the inside out because we have the opportunity now to do things completely differently. The possibilities are endless. The only thing stopping us are our imaginations.”
It can provide similar interpretative services for speech and images, while Google has taken the technology a stop further by releasing the first watermarking solution for images created by generated technology. This can provide insurers with the provenance of an image and tell them whether it has been manipulated, and when.
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ILC
Slido Poll Results
Motor Claims
EXCLUSIVE CONFERENCE
Wordcloud poll
One word to describe your journey here today?
0 6 1
One word to describe your journey here today? Hellish
Chaotic
Irritating
Slick Cosy Short Early Quiet Standing Sardines Great Sardine Long Crowded Late Fun
Normalish
On time
Wonderful Disrupted
Hot
Busy Easy
Delayed Productive Animals
Smooth
Super
Hungover Efficient
Exciting
Uneventful Good
Do you believe the industry has now settled into a ‘new normal’? Do you believe the industry has now settled into 0 7 6 Multiple-choice poll
a ‘new normal’?
Yes 47 % No 47 % Not sure 5%
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Multiple-choice poll
What is having the greatest impact on the motor claims sector currently?
0 7 2
(1/2)
What is having the greatest impact on the motor claims sector currently?
Capacity 8% Claims Inflation 53 % Economy 6%
Multiple-choice poll
ESG
3% What is having the greatest impact on the motor claims sector currently? Skills (2/2)
0 7 2
14 %
Supply 6% Regulatory 3% Technology 8% Other 0%
Wordcloud poll
0 3 9 do you think is going to have the greatest WhatWhat do you think is going to have the impact on the sector in the near future (12-18 months)? greatest impact on the sector in the near future (12-18 months)? Courtesy car provision Interest rates Talent
Consolidation
Ogden
Who is going to survive
Consumer Duty Inflation Data Parts
Automation
Claims inflation Fraud Supply Sunak
Technology
Economic bounce back
Profitability Customer service
24
VAR Lack of skill EMCC23
Capacity
Motor Claims
To circumnavigate the Multiple-choice poll challenges we currently know, do you envisage an To circumnavigate the challenges we currently know, do you envisage an uptick in… uptick in… (1/2)
0 4 7
Cash settlements 4% Changes in mobility provision 15 % Customer engagement 6% Multiple-choice poll
Repair over replace
To circumnavigate the challenges we currently know, dofocus you on envisage an uptick in… Increased efficiencies (2/2)
19 % 0 4 7 17 %
Supply chain integration 19 % Technology deployment 19 %
25
E xclusive Conference 2023
What does the industry need to be more sustainable…
What does the industry need to be more sustainable…
Attractive career paths Empowerment
0 3 7
Develop Trust Connectivity
DataRepair more Innovation Investment Sell labour not materials
Reduce those involved
Efficiency Colabaration
Collaboration
Accountability Premium Honesty
Green parts
Data sharing Repair vs replace
Quicker decisions Technology Compensate for investment Lithium alternative
What area of motor claims do you feel most likely experience the evolution 0 5 0 What areato of motor claims do you feel most greatest likely to experience the greatest evolution in the coming years? in the coming years? Multiple-choice poll
(1/2)
Claims resolution 4% Customer engagement 22 % Repair / Mobility Multiple-choice poll
12 %
Settlements
What area of motor claims do you feel most 2% likely to experience the greatest evolution in Supply chains /years? Operational efficiencies the coming (2/2)
0 5 0
6%
Technology integration 42 % Underwriting (relationship with...) 2% Vehicle parc 10 %
26
Motor Claims
You have a budget to invest in overall Multiple-choice poll business improvement – where do you 0 5 2 You have a budget to invest in overall business invest? improvement – where do you invest? People 65 % Technology 35 %
27
E xclusive Conference 2023
Motor Claims
EXCLUSIVE CONFERENCE
“Such a great event with some excellent content and as always so nice to catch up with so many industry friends… well done ILC smashed it again” “The ILC Exclusive Motor Claims Conference is without doubt one of my favourite events of the year.” “Great content and networking opportunities” “Sets a very high bar – well done” 28
Motor Claims
“Absolutely brilliant day at the ILC Exclusive Motor Claims Conference. Amazing venue, great insights, content and fantastic speakers.”
“Nobody does conferences quite like ILC and their unbelievable team. Here’s to many more!”
29
“Great guest speakers, good array of topics covered.” “Well organised, interesting and relevant content”
E xclusive Conference 2023
Motor Claims
EXCLUSIVE CONFERENCE
Headline Sponsor
Gold Sponsors
Reception Sponsor
Corporate Partners
Connecting the industry TM
ILC
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