Reshuffling the Deck

If we think about all the established facts about our lives, one that we can easily reach upon is its unpredictability. We as humans do plan our lives, project our company’s sales, put-together our retirement plans, but at the end of the day, the truth is we have no clue what’s in store for us. While this unpredictability adds an interesting dynamic to who we are, it becomes a major concern in terms of few certain things. For instance, an unforeseen health concern can sometimes trigger expenses that are beyond your reach, a car/bike accident can result in the loss of an asset, a fire in the workplace can have unaffordable financial implications etc. To offset any damage that might come our way in future, we turn to insurance companies.

Insurance companies have been around for a good deal of time now. Over the years, they have diversified their services to accommodate various things that their clients value, and hence, want insured. Nevertheless, the change hasn’t been just about portfolio diversification. There were other wheels that were moving in sync to bring the insurance sector to a level where it’s now one of the most important sectors in the country, and one such wheel has been technology.

Insurance sector has enjoyed the emergence of technology more than many other sectors. The industry leaders have encouraged continuous integration of advanced models, thus reinventing the way how everyone views the concept of insurance. Their latest tool for achieving this objective looks to be IoT.

Internet of Things is transforming the core operations of insurance companies. For years, the focus within this sphere has been on risk transfer. However, a new dawn lurks on the horizon as the providers gear up to focus on something bigger and better i.e. risk prevention. With all the data available at our disposal these days, it becomes almost obvious to use it for separating patterns that are right from the ones that are not. In addition, the growing popularity of wearable devices and seamless control system makes it a feasible business model for the insurance providers.

The experts are touting two main approaches for making optimal use of IoT in insurance. First approach would see automated actions being taken by IoT actuators following isolated risk detection. The second approach, however, would rely on human intervention to act upon the provided warning of risk.