Innovation Committee March Highlights

Author: Megan Nelson

The innovation committee meets once a month and each member is charged with bringing examples of innovation we see in the insurance industry to share with our colleagues.

This month, there was a lot of buzz around two hot topics: the Hippo/Reinvent Tech merger & innovation in construction.

1: Hippo to go public in a merger with Reinvent Technology

In recent years, insurtechs such as Lemonade, Metromile and Root have produced big headlines in the insurance industry. The latest of these to generate hype is Hippo, with a “modern” approach homeowners insurance. The recent buzz is around Hippo’s plan to go public through a merger with Reinvent Technology Partners Z.

Hippo’s technology allows it to quickly and easily provide “instant” homeowners quotes. Hippo has also announced partnerships to improve the processing and automation of its claims service aimed at improving the customer experience. The goal of the partnership with Claimatic is to reduce wait times and claim reassignments and the partnership with Five Sigma will seek to classify claim severity and support reserving decisions. 

However, some are skeptical about so much hype based on the limited data for these less mature companies. There has been lots of speculation about how Hippo will compare to other insurtechs. While only time will tell, we can be certain that Hippo will not be the last insurtech to disrupt the insurance industry.

2. Innovation in the construction space.

The construction space faces some of the greatest risks and has seen some of the worst claims, but technology is quickly changing this reality. Over the last decade, the construction industry has invested in new and innovative technology – from robot dogs to BIMs to Digital Twins – to improve safety and increase productivity.

Boston Dynamics recently showcased “Spot” the robot dog. This piece of technology can navigate the rough terrain of a construction site while using sensors and scanners to collect data about the job site. This would reduce the need for humans to enter the most dangerous areas of the worksite while simultaneously collecting detailed information about progress to inform project managers. 

Digital Twins take these concepts one step further. A Digital Twin is exactly what it sounds like – a digital copy of the physical counterpart. Originally used in aerospace, construction has adopted the Digital Twin technology to create digital twins of buildings and machines. For example, the manager of a construction site might use the Digital Twin to create a detailed 3D blueprint for the building, test the suitability of new materials and identify potential issues before they happen. Beyond the efficiencies generated during the building process, the Digital Twin can be leveraged to revolutionize maintenance by property managers. This technology has the ability to predict or recognize when something in the building fails and to identify the exact specs to the technician to expedite the repair process.

If you’ve enjoyed learning about these examples of innovation in the insurance industry, join the Innovation Committee to stay in the know!