InsTech - insurance & innovation with Matthew Grant InsTech

Is your insurance technology up to speed?
This week on the podcast, we have an insightful conversation with Joe O'Connor, Deputy CEO of RDT. RDT is a well-known software and services provider for the motor insurance industry, with plans to expand into the specialty market. Joe discusses how technology provision has changed over the last decade, what RDT has learned from providing services to general insurers, what the specialty market can learn from achievements in the retail sector, the launch of its new workflow and orchestration platform (ACE), and RDT’s future plans. Learn how RDT has identified a market need, worked with existing customers to build technology to meet those needs, and why they have great hopes for ACE, now that they are ready to "come out to play."
Key talking points include:
RDT’s transition from traditional software to managed service and SaaS.
Expanding scope beyond the traditional focus on motor and niche insurance sectors.
The impact of claims inflation and degradation of claims handling skills.
The launch of ACE (Agile Composition Engine) and its role in orchestrating insurance processes.
The importance of ecosystem integration and selective platform partnerships.
What specialty insurance can learn and leverage from prior investment in technology for the general insurance market. 
Future directions for RDT, including expansion into specialty insurance markets.
Useful links
RDT Whitepaper - This paper explores the impact of technological advancements and customer demands on insurance claims processing, highlighting RDT's ACE platform and various industry trends.
If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
To find out more about InsTech, our membership and offerings visit www.instech.co or contact us hello@instech.co
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
Understand the issues facing claims professionals and the role that technology and automation can play. 
Identify why data and platform ecosystems are so important and how to set about building them. 
Explain the power of orchestration in automating tasks and multi-platform composition
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 307 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

Is climate risk a part of your analysis?
On the podcast this week we are spotlighting an important collaboration between Mitiga, a climate risk intelligence provider, and insurer HDI Global. As climate change rises to become one of the most pertinent and defining risks of our generation, find out how the partnership is working to evolve the landscape of climate risk management for various industries. One such asset is Mitiga’s platform EarthScan.
Joining Matthew is Wiebke Cundill, Senior Risk Engineer at HDI Global SE and Jonathan Liddell, Customer Success Lead at Mitiga.
Key talking points include:
How EarthScan can help customers understand the risks posed by climate change
The transition from focusing just on natural hazards to climate risk
Downscaling data into an asset class
Business as usual, Emissions peak in 2040 or Paris-aligned future?
Mitiga helps HDI move into the future 
How HDI offers site specific assessment of climate risks - from site to consulting and adoption
Importance of trust and collaboration
Understanding EarthScanTM
You can listen to our past episode with Dr Verena Brenner from HDI TH!NX here and find out more about HDI’s climate risk reporting services here.
If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
To find out more about InsTech, our membership and offerings visit www.instech.co or contact us hello@instech.co
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
Specify why granularity of data is important when it comes to understanding and modelling future climate risks
Explain why insurers cannot simply rely on past data when considering resilience toward climate 
Identify what types of future has Mitiga modelled, what are their differences and why are all three of these scenarios important
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 306 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

In the first iteration of our upcoming parametric series with Raincoat, Matthew sat down with Jonathan Gonzalez to delve into how parametric insurance can be integrated with traditional indemnity insurance, the technical and regulatory challenges, and the importance of creating products that customers perceive as fair. 
Watch this space for some very exciting episodes coming up.
Key talking points:
Importance of iteration and scaling 
Parametric should be looked at as a tool
The connection to smart contracts and parametric
What is ‘truth’ in insurance?
What is ‘fair’ in insurance?
The key to successful integration
How much human intervention goes into running the model
Evolving role of brokers 
The openness of the insurance industry to new solutions
If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
To find out more about InsTech, our membership and offerings visit www.instech.co or contact us hello@instech.co
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
Describe the connection between smart contracts and parametric and why this is important
Explain the difference between ‘truth’ and ‘fair’ in insurance
Identify how the role of the broker can evolve when it comes to parametric insurance and its integration
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 305 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

Unstructured data - is this a challenge that will ever go away? Or can it be a challenge which insurers adapt to work in their favor…
At our last New York event in March, InsTech gathered three leading industry experts to candidly discuss what change in the industry looks like to them, specifically in the way unstructured data is handled and managed. 
We all know streamlining underwriting processes and optimizing data intake & routing will aid with precise risk pricing, but how are the US’s biggest carriers approaching the problem?
Hear from Patrick Gallic at Tokio Marine HCC, Georgeanna Munger at Allianz Commercial, and Brad Craner at Zurich North America about pocketed digitisation, implementing best practices, moving blame away from the brokers and how generative AI can serve to repurpose the underwriter’s time for the better.
Key talking points include:
What are the current challenges underwriters are facing 
How is technology addressing these issues
The dichotomy between late-career and early-career underwriters - what can be learnt from this
Technology adoption is an evolution
Is too much data the problem? 
The ‘art v science’ of underwriting 
If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
To find out more about InsTech, our membership and offerings visit www.instech.co or contact us hello@instech.co
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
Specify why implementing best practices for underwriting is important
Identify reasons why unstructured data is such a problem and can it be solved
Summarize what the ideal form of technological integration can look like for an underwriter and how it could possibly repurpose their time
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 304 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

Root provides platforms and API for insurers, MGAs, brokers to build, launch and manage digital insurance products and embedded experiences in South Africa and the UK.
Matthew Grant caught up with Louw Hopley on the opportunities and challenges in the insurance industry, focusing on the role of embedded insurance in adapting to changing customer demands. Discover all from the emerging areas Root is planning to tap into, to the company’s appointment of a new CEO and regional manager. 
Key talking points:
A year of progress and expansion
The development of insurance distribution
The future of embedded insurance
Root’s journey: leadership and company growth
Innovations in insurance: from digital assets to angry AI
If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
To find out more about InsTech, our membership and offerings visit www.instech.co or contact us hello@instech.co
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
Describe what is embedded insurance and how it can help insurance adapt to changing customer demands
Explain why customer demands have shifted and why insurance has not kept up with it
Identify the necessary steps and changes a company can make when expanding globally and entering new markets
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 303 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.

Swiss Re Reinsurance Solutions was launched two years ago to make Swiss Re’s unique knowledge and tools available across the insurance value chain.
Swiss Re’s strongest point of knowledge is property - around which we centre this podcast. Robin Merttens spoke to CEO of Reinsurance Solutions Russell Higginbotham on approaching climate-related risks in the insurance industry as well as managing the balance between data accuracy and inclusivity of insurance products for customers.
Key talking points:
The implication of climate change on property insurance
If you are running an insurer now - what should you be focusing on?
What should the whole ecosystem be doing with climate change? Planning the future
Understanding ‘uninsurability’ 
Partnerships with Google X, the moonshot factory and acquiring Fathom
If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.
To find out more about InsTech, our membership and offerings visit www.instech.co or contact us hello@instech.co
Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
Describe how better data can help tackle the insurance protection gap
Explain how acquisitions can help a company gain better data and why partnerships are important in the industry
Summarise why climate change is such an important risk and what insurers should focus on to tackle it best
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 302 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.