Incumbent insurers have accelerated their use of mature AI deployments in the past year to meet changing customer expectations and better compete with insurtechs. They’ll now need to infuse the tech across their business segments to unlock the full potential—including enhanced personalization, cost cutting, and stronger risk management—of AI-driven digital transformation.

As Hurricane Ida and the Caldor and Dixie fires continue to haunt the US insurance industry, Amica Insurance is partnering with Zesty.ai to use its solution to better assess wildfire loss.

The Chinese insurance marketplace uses AI to match consumers with suitable coverage options—and its digital-first solution can help bridge China’s insurance gap, especially since the life and health insurance market is set to grow.

The insurtech raised $60 million to expand its AI damage appraisal solution to property claims, and its existing partner network gives it strong cross-selling opportunities.

Chat operators will have access to real-time translation, better customer data, and AI-driven recommendations leading to more personalized service with negligible lags. Apps can also track more data for seamless payment options. Lastly, computer vision could add services, such as damage assessment for insurance, document verification, or branch directions.

On today's episode, we discuss whether startups like Oscar Health can take on the major health insurers, how the consumerization of healthcare is changing expectations, and what digital tools are leading to healthcare's digitization. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Lisa Phillips.

The latest partnership is especially timely as the auto insurance industry in particular heats up with new entrants: French startup Ornikar raised $120 million earlier this week to move beyond driver education into car insurance, and Lemonade, which recently launched in France, announced its expansion into auto insurance.

Insurify’s mega-round came on the back of strong revenue growth—adding new insurance lines and embedded partnerships should power further growth.

UK-based Tractable has partnered with 20 auto insurers globally to enhance their claims management with AI. Looking ahead: Incumbents will seek to address their shortcomings by widening distribution through third-party platforms—albeit while surrendering direct customer relationships—and offering more preemptive insurance products. Embedded insurance.

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Lemonade uses AI to provide quotes, handle claims, and answer customer questions, and last year it became the first insurtech to outperform incumbents in J.D. Power’s renters insurance customer satisfaction ranking. The insurtech also offers easy-to-understand terms and conditions via its Policy 2.0, making it simpler for users to research policy information online.

Insurance incumbents struggle to introduce their own AI-powered tools—so they’ll be eyeing companies like Monogram with ready-to-deploy tools as potential partners or acquisition targets.

Some of their endeavors—like Amazon’s health insurance joint venture, Apple’s deep dive into medical research, and Microsoft/Google’s cloud-computing projects— have the potential to change healthcare at large.

John Hancock Life Insurance has taken things even further. In September 2018, it announced it would stop underwriting traditional life insurance and, over time, convert all its customers to “interactive” policies that incorporate fitness and health tracking via apps and wearables.