AI Innovation, Healthtech and Sparring With ChatGPT as Europe’s Largest Insurtech Conference Opens in London

Thousands of insurance industry delegates poured through the doors of Europe’s largest insurtech conference, Insurtech Insights, as it opened its doors in London yesterday.

The two-day event, which is taking place at the InterContinental London – The O2, continues today and has attracted more than 6000 visitors and 400+ speakers, all of whom are experts in their sectors.

According to stats from Brella, the official event app, 20,000 meetings will take place over the conference period before it closes this afternoon. Now in its fifth year, organisers say 2024 has been the busiest yet for Insurtech Insights Europe.

The event opened with a keynote address by Ericson Chan, Group Chief Information & Digital Officer at Zurich Insurance. He delivered the speech, entitled: The neXt for Insurance, in the Age of Hyperinnovation, to a standing room only audience on the conference main stage.

Speaking about the change AI will drive in the insurance industry over the coming months, he said: “It’s a real pleasure to share the Zurich journey with a room filled with 6,000 fellow insuretech enthusiasts. This is both a fascinating and fast moving industry so it’s crucial we share insights and most importantly learnings across our sector. This will be a huge catalyst for progress, which in turn enables us to provide the best service for all of our customers.

This was followed just an hour later by Zurich’s Group Head of AI, Dr. Christian Westermann, who took to the Blue stage to explore the latest opportunities for the insurance industry in a session entitled: Unlocking the Power of (Gen.) AI: How The Insurance Industry Can Stay Ahead of the Curve

Known for his charismatic approach, Westerman is a technology enthusiast and physicist who worked on technologies for space missions for the ESA and NASA during the 90s. His expertise includes building satellite-based instruments, signal detection, and exploring the origins of our solar system through physics, data, and modelling.

Commenting on the AI revolution – and why the industry must stay abreast of change. He said: “Ai is for the greater good of the industry and our customers. This journey is filled with trial and error, what’s important is that we all learn from this. We don’t all want to make the same mistakes, it will slow us down.”

An evolving world
Ash Jokhoo, CIO for Direct Line Group, took part in a leading panel session, entitled: Reaching Customers Where They Are: Entering the Digital End-to-End Claims Era. He was joined by David Thronton, Head of UK for InRule, and Tjerrie Smit, Chief Analytics Officer for NN Group.

In a recent interview with Insurtech Insights, Jokhoo expressed his passion for technological innovation, saying: “The fact that the industry is reinventing itself and re-imagining the art is what is inspiring me because competition breeds performance and performance is better for customers.

Exploring innovation
David Ovenden, AXA Commerial’s Chief Underwriting Officer, took part in a live on stage discussion with John Cummins of Axiome Partners, entitled: Making Computable Contracts happen. He said: “Insurtech Insights is an event that always attracts a diverse and engaged audience and yesterday was no exception. It was encouraging to see so much interest in the emerging area of modular computable contracting, with strong attendance at the session and some interesting audience questions.

“Reimagining the contract is important for the whole insurance sector so this was a powerful opportunity to help people understand that computable contracting isn’t just a tech issue, it has the potential to completely revolutionise how we work as an industry.”

Connecting the industry
Insurtech Queen and Founder of Alchemy, Sabine Vanderlinden will be live on stage today(day two of the conference) in two sessions entitled How AI Is the Answer to Underwriting Emerging Risks and Is Parametric Insurance the Silver Bullet for the Insurance Industry.

She said: “Insurtech insights is the premier insurance technology conference of the year. It’s an important stop for anyone in the industry to experience. I’m excited to be moderating two panels, one of which will be connecting underwriting and AI and emerging risk. The second panel discussing parametrics in a data driven world”.

Sparring with Chatgpt
Lightening the technical mood after lunch, insurance leader Lisa Wardlaw refereed a sparring session between AI’s ChatGPT and Artur Niemczewski, Insurance NED’s CEO. The event made its debut during 2023’s conference, shortly after ChatGPT was launched.

This year, following a year of swift learning, the odds were stacked against Niemezewski winning the Q&A session, as he did last year. But, he rallied well and resulted in proving that humans still have the edge over AI when it comes to insurance genius.

Wardlaw said: “Our world is changing; the economy is shifting. There’s a new landscape where traditional roles and patterns don’t apply. This new economy is often not served well by existing products.”

Ready for Day 2
Insurtech Insights Global Content Manager, Emil Hannesbo, said: “It’s been a fantastic first day. The calibre of speakers we’ve seen is a sign that Insurtech Insights is moving from strength to strength. We have so much more to look forward to as the day unfolds today.”

Insurtech Insights CEO, Kristoffer Lundberg added: “It’s such a privilege to bring together so many industry leaders in one place. The atmosphere yesterday was incredible – and the record numbers of meetings that are happening is proof that we are doing our job in supporting this great industry.”