The insurance industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by growing demand for digitalisation and personalisation. With growing importance of technologies such as cloud innovations, telematics, machine learning, big data, deep learning, and data science, insurers are overcoming demographic challenges, low penetration rates, cybercrimes and fraudulent claims. In the last three years alone, there have been over 11,000 patents filed and granted in the insurance industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial intelligence in Insurance: Risk analysis models. Buy the report here.
Smarter leaders trust GlobalData
However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.
Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.
90 innovations will shape the insurance industry
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the insurance industry using innovation intensity models built on over 65,000 patents, there are 90 innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Within the emerging innovation stage, AI-assisted underwriting and treatment expense prediction are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Vehicle motion estimation, vehicle forensic analysis, and AV insurance risk analysis are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas is driving skill evaluation, which is now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for Artificial Intelligence in the insurance industry
Risk analysis models is a key innovation area in Artificial Intelligence
To evaluate cost and schedule the probability distributions from user-input data on costs, timeframes, risks, and uncertainties, a risk analysis model frequently uses Monte Carlo simulation. It produces quantitative risk analysis reports that give teams and project managers helpful data.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 70+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of risk analysis models.
Key players in risk analysis models – a disruptive innovation in the insurance industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to risk analysis models
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2022) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| SoftBank Group | 233 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China | 177 | Unlock Company Profile |
| State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance | 116 | Unlock Company Profile |
| INRIX | 83 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Allstate | 68 | Unlock Company Profile |
| J Fitness | 60 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Expanse Bioinformatics | 52 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Flex | 49 | Unlock Company Profile |
| International Business Machines | 47 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Accenture | 32 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hartford Financial Services Group | 30 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Tractable | 24 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Taikang Insurance Group | 24 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Swiss Re Asia Pacific | 24 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Global Payments | 24 | Unlock Company Profile |
| KBC Group | 23 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Mitchell International | 22 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Qomplx | 20 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Equifax | 20 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Johnson Controls International | 17 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Lear | 16 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Ant Group | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Aon | 14 | Unlock Company Profile |
| SomaLogic | 14 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Zendrive | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Capital One Financial | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Didi Global | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Visa | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Samsung Group | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Travelers Companies | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Swiss Reinsurance | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Leonard Green & Partners | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Yembo | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Baidu | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Verisk Analytics | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Koninklijke Philips | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| CVS Health | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Mastercard | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Terumo | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| SAP | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Vista Equity Partners | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| LyondellBasell Industries | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| American International Group (AIG) | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Munchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft (Munich Re) | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| LunaPBC | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Leidos Holdings | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Integratto | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Samsung Life Insurance | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Beijing Qiyu Technology | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| USAA | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Ping An Insurance Group is one of the leading patent filers in car damage picture angle correction method. Their approach evaluates if a primary mobile computing device has detected a car crash. It is also possible to determine if a second mobile computing device has spotted the crash. Such sensor data may be used to generate car crash data, which may include indications of the severity of the impact, the number of passengers in the vehicle, or whether the crash occurred. Some other key patent filers in the industry include SoftBank Group, State Farm Mutual, INRIX, Allstate and J Fitness.
In terms of application diversity, Flex heads the list, followed by SomaLogic and INRIX in the second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Swiss Re holds the top position, followed by Vista Equity Partners and Munich Re.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the insurance industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Insurance.
Data Insights
From
The gold standard of business intelligence.
Blending expert knowledge with cutting-edge technology, GlobalData’s unrivalled proprietary data will enable you to decode what’s happening in your market. You can make better informed decisions and gain a future-proof advantage over your competitors.
GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
