Tatyana Puchkova, Alfa Insurance: “I personally promise to pay attention to each startup”
Our interview with AlfaStrakhovanie, Deputy General Director Tatyana Puchkova about the features of the insurance business, big data analysis, telematics, risk assessment, healthy lifestyle and the first Insurtech Lab'2017 insurance accelerator .
- If banks have long enough formed an “agenda” in financial technological innovations. How relevant are technological innovations for insurance companies?
Tatyana Puchkova:New technologies in insurance ("insurtech"), as one of the areas of fintech, have appeared recently - not even five years have passed. Insurance companies compete in the market not only among themselves - we are fighting for the client’s wallet with banks and a number of related industries. For example, if the technology of passenger insurance had not appeared in insurance companies, it would have appeared in airlines or travel agencies. Thus, if we do not offer the insurance product on time, it will most likely appear among manufacturers of insurance objects. That is why we cannot lag behind in digitalization from the financial market and retail. Otherwise, alas, we will be squeezed out, as banks were once ousted from car insurance. In terms of digitalization, we are behind them, but ahead of building partnerships,
- In banking, one of the drivers for the development of fintech was the explosive growth of data, fundamentally new opportunities for analytics appeared ...
Tatyana Puchkova:Big data analytics, databases, scoring models - insurance cannot live without all this. After all, insurers must first determine the probability of an insured event, which is why machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies are being used. But here insurtech is only at the very beginning of the journey. For example, we really need help in identifying fraud, fraud, which distorts the whole picture of insurance and does not give us the opportunity to offer good customers favorable rates, because we are forced to cover losses from fraud. We need help in clustering the fraud, perhaps this will be feasible with the help of additional information from social networks.
Analytics are also necessary for the analysis of the data that we accumulate online. About a million sessions take place on our site per month, and so far we are only learning to analyze customer behavior. Over the past year, we have accumulated a large database that could be analyzed using AI technologies. Website visitors are a targeted stream, and we, of course, would like to increase the conversion of these visits into sales.
Tatyana Puchkova, Member of the Management Board and Deputy General Director, Alfa
Insurance - What aspects of the insurance business will be most affected by digital transformation? Where is the place for startups?
Tatyana Puchkova: Insurance is based on three pillars: a service factory, sales and what can be called “social insurance”. Sales move to the objects of insurance, they occur where the object is located. And in the future, a person will be insured exactly where he buys a car, an apartment and so on.
“Service Factory” is the service that we provide when the insured event has already occurred. When a client has trouble, he wants to hear a living person on the other end of the wire and first calls his insurance company. No matter how travel agencies offer their services in such cases, customers still call insurers. Now we need to digitalize the work with incoming calls, so that it is convenient and fast, and at the same time, that the client is connected with the entire line of the service factory - clinics, service stations, gadget repair. And for all this we need modern technology.
In our service we deal with document management between many organizations. There are still a lot of paper documents that we have to enter into systems. For example, we manually check how clinics' accounts correspond to diseases. And in such situations, we, of course, would like to reduce the role of the human factor.
So far, much has been done manually and in the settlement of losses. We want to bring the loss determination automation up to 90%, for example, to determine the damage to a car by heat cards.
One of the fastest growing markets is gadget insurance. In the world there is technology that allows you to determine the nature of the breakdown of the gadget from a distance, but we are forced to require the owner of the gadget to come to the office and conduct an examination.
- A trend in digital technology is the Internet of Things (IoT). I heard a lot about telematics. How much can this affect the insurance business?
Tatyana Puchkova: Telematics is part of the Internet of things. Of course, we would like to see the risk from a distance. In Italy, there is a “mother care” product, when the nursing home is crammed with sensors, and if an elderly person, for example, forgets to turn off the tap or turn off the stove, he is called by the insurance company and talks about it.
There are great opportunities for using telematics in the corporate sector, because the main problem of corporate parks is that it is impossible to control what hired drivers do with cars.
- How does insurtech affect the behavior of clients of insurance companies?
Tatyana Puchkova: The third pillar of insurance is the prevention of a healthy lifestyle, safe driving and so on. This can be called "socially responsible insurance." This includes, for example, bracelets that control a person’s health. Another example is the use of telematics to encourage safe driving. We plan to accrue points for safe driving, which the client can spend on our products and on the products of our partners. In general, the installation on a healthy lifestyle greatly reduces our loss-making, and here we also need technology. There are ideas in this area, but, unfortunately, very few services are implemented.
- And yet, insurtech, innovation - is this your business? Or so far all this goes according to the category of R&D costs?
Tatyana Puchkova:Over the past three years, we have made great strides in the application of insurtech technologies. This has led to a large number of new products. So, 60% of policyholders today buy products online. A million of our customers already use their personal accounts. It is clear that online sales are developing easier than loss settlement, but we are growing in this direction: online, people register in clinics and settle insurance claims.
- Startups are rather skeptical about the readiness of large companies like yours to work with innovators. Now we are together launching the first specialized accelerator in the field of insurtech. Are there any guarantees that you will take startups seriously?
Tatyana Puchkova:As for our Insurtech Lab accelerator, I invite startups to submit applications and promise that I will personally see each project. I guarantee all interesting ideas my personal support. If we understand that we have a probability of at least 10% to take the project and combine it with our technology to make a real innovation, we will definitely try. As a member of the board and deputy general director of Alfa Insurance, I promise startups my personal support.
About the accelerator Insurtech Lab
Insurtech Lab'2017 is an accelerator for insurance fintech startups. The partners of the program are Alfa Insurance, VTB Insurance and Sberbank Insurance. Strategic Advisor - Accenture. Participation in the accelerator will give projects the opportunity to launch real pilots with leading insurance companies, undergo training and acceleration program with the best experts and mentors in the industry.
Applications are accepted until November 12, the program starts on November 22, and lasts three months.
- If banks have long enough formed an “agenda” in financial technological innovations. How relevant are technological innovations for insurance companies?
Tatyana Puchkova:New technologies in insurance ("insurtech"), as one of the areas of fintech, have appeared recently - not even five years have passed. Insurance companies compete in the market not only among themselves - we are fighting for the client’s wallet with banks and a number of related industries. For example, if the technology of passenger insurance had not appeared in insurance companies, it would have appeared in airlines or travel agencies. Thus, if we do not offer the insurance product on time, it will most likely appear among manufacturers of insurance objects. That is why we cannot lag behind in digitalization from the financial market and retail. Otherwise, alas, we will be squeezed out, as banks were once ousted from car insurance. In terms of digitalization, we are behind them, but ahead of building partnerships,
- In banking, one of the drivers for the development of fintech was the explosive growth of data, fundamentally new opportunities for analytics appeared ...
Tatyana Puchkova:Big data analytics, databases, scoring models - insurance cannot live without all this. After all, insurers must first determine the probability of an insured event, which is why machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies are being used. But here insurtech is only at the very beginning of the journey. For example, we really need help in identifying fraud, fraud, which distorts the whole picture of insurance and does not give us the opportunity to offer good customers favorable rates, because we are forced to cover losses from fraud. We need help in clustering the fraud, perhaps this will be feasible with the help of additional information from social networks.
Analytics are also necessary for the analysis of the data that we accumulate online. About a million sessions take place on our site per month, and so far we are only learning to analyze customer behavior. Over the past year, we have accumulated a large database that could be analyzed using AI technologies. Website visitors are a targeted stream, and we, of course, would like to increase the conversion of these visits into sales.
Insurance - What aspects of the insurance business will be most affected by digital transformation? Where is the place for startups?
Tatyana Puchkova: Insurance is based on three pillars: a service factory, sales and what can be called “social insurance”. Sales move to the objects of insurance, they occur where the object is located. And in the future, a person will be insured exactly where he buys a car, an apartment and so on.
“Service Factory” is the service that we provide when the insured event has already occurred. When a client has trouble, he wants to hear a living person on the other end of the wire and first calls his insurance company. No matter how travel agencies offer their services in such cases, customers still call insurers. Now we need to digitalize the work with incoming calls, so that it is convenient and fast, and at the same time, that the client is connected with the entire line of the service factory - clinics, service stations, gadget repair. And for all this we need modern technology.
In our service we deal with document management between many organizations. There are still a lot of paper documents that we have to enter into systems. For example, we manually check how clinics' accounts correspond to diseases. And in such situations, we, of course, would like to reduce the role of the human factor.
So far, much has been done manually and in the settlement of losses. We want to bring the loss determination automation up to 90%, for example, to determine the damage to a car by heat cards.
One of the fastest growing markets is gadget insurance. In the world there is technology that allows you to determine the nature of the breakdown of the gadget from a distance, but we are forced to require the owner of the gadget to come to the office and conduct an examination.
- A trend in digital technology is the Internet of Things (IoT). I heard a lot about telematics. How much can this affect the insurance business?
Tatyana Puchkova: Telematics is part of the Internet of things. Of course, we would like to see the risk from a distance. In Italy, there is a “mother care” product, when the nursing home is crammed with sensors, and if an elderly person, for example, forgets to turn off the tap or turn off the stove, he is called by the insurance company and talks about it.
There are great opportunities for using telematics in the corporate sector, because the main problem of corporate parks is that it is impossible to control what hired drivers do with cars.
- How does insurtech affect the behavior of clients of insurance companies?
Tatyana Puchkova: The third pillar of insurance is the prevention of a healthy lifestyle, safe driving and so on. This can be called "socially responsible insurance." This includes, for example, bracelets that control a person’s health. Another example is the use of telematics to encourage safe driving. We plan to accrue points for safe driving, which the client can spend on our products and on the products of our partners. In general, the installation on a healthy lifestyle greatly reduces our loss-making, and here we also need technology. There are ideas in this area, but, unfortunately, very few services are implemented.
- And yet, insurtech, innovation - is this your business? Or so far all this goes according to the category of R&D costs?
Tatyana Puchkova:Over the past three years, we have made great strides in the application of insurtech technologies. This has led to a large number of new products. So, 60% of policyholders today buy products online. A million of our customers already use their personal accounts. It is clear that online sales are developing easier than loss settlement, but we are growing in this direction: online, people register in clinics and settle insurance claims.
- Startups are rather skeptical about the readiness of large companies like yours to work with innovators. Now we are together launching the first specialized accelerator in the field of insurtech. Are there any guarantees that you will take startups seriously?
Tatyana Puchkova:As for our Insurtech Lab accelerator, I invite startups to submit applications and promise that I will personally see each project. I guarantee all interesting ideas my personal support. If we understand that we have a probability of at least 10% to take the project and combine it with our technology to make a real innovation, we will definitely try. As a member of the board and deputy general director of Alfa Insurance, I promise startups my personal support.
About the accelerator Insurtech Lab
Insurtech Lab'2017 is an accelerator for insurance fintech startups. The partners of the program are Alfa Insurance, VTB Insurance and Sberbank Insurance. Strategic Advisor - Accenture. Participation in the accelerator will give projects the opportunity to launch real pilots with leading insurance companies, undergo training and acceleration program with the best experts and mentors in the industry.
Applications are accepted until November 12, the program starts on November 22, and lasts three months.