The insurance industry finds itself at the forefront of a transformative wave, leveraging the power of big data to revolutionize traditional practices. Big data, characterized by its vast volume, velocity, and variety, has emerged as a game-changer, reshaping how insurers understand risk, personalize policies, and enhance customer experiences.
One-size-fits-all insurance policies are becoming a thing of the past. Big data empowers insurers to tailor policies to individual needs. By analyzing customer data and behavior, insurers can create personalized offerings that better match specific lifestyles, preferences, and risk profiles.In a data-fueled age, the insurance industry stands at a transformative crossroads. Whilst the industry has been traditionally dependent on historical data and straightforward calculations, data analytics is now revolutionizing it, ushering the insurance vertical into a new age characterized by remarkable accuracy and customization.
The Effects Of Big Data On the Development Of The Insurance Industry
As is always the case in technological models, success in technological innovations closely follows the spread of technology, as the world is filled with internet and mobile phone connections in a short and quick period. The result has been the removal of spatio-temporal constraints in global communications and
accumulated vast amounts of stored data, known as “big data”. Scientists had estimated that the year 2002 was the beginning of the “Digital revolution when humanity could stock additional digital information in technological gadgets more than ever before. In the late1980s, less than 1% of data were in digital form,
while in 2012, 99% of world information was in digital form when world technology for communication and storage of information increased from 25% to 35% annually.
On the other hand, advances in Artificial Intelligence have been spectacular. Not only has artificial intelligence replaced humans in many intellectual works, such as cancer diagnosis and speech recognition,
but also become a necessary component of today’s society’s most important building blocks. Artificial intelligence has become imperative to address a range of distribution, product development, business process and decision-making problems, with big data seen as a game-changing tool that could revolutionize
the way businesses operate in various sectors, including the insurance sector, where big data represents a new technical model for data generated at high speed and in large volumes. For this, every company must have capabilities for using big data to stay competitive in the face of intense competition to attract new customers and expand its business.
▪︎ Nature of Big Data. Data is aggregated information, facts, or statistics, which may be organized or unstructured, self-provided information, that are published reports, or that all internet search results. Much of what we do in the modern world has a digital impact, which can be analyzed and used to provide insights, and the volume of this data is growing exponentially by the day, as more data has been created in the last two years than in the history of the entire human race. However, at the moment, less than half a percent of all data are being analyzed and used (Regalado, 2013). Big data is currently being used in a lot of industries, including the insurance industry. This concept has emerged as a result of the tremendous development intechnology and its uses. This development in data is apparent through the various traits referred to as the Vs of Data − Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity, Visualization, and Value. Volume refers to the massive amount of data being generated, while velocity is the rate at which this data is produced, transmitted, and processed. Variety encompasses the diverse and heterogeneous nature of these data flows, and veracity refers to the accuracy and reliability of the data. Visualization and value are also key aspects of this data. As for insurance issues, these ever-increasing volumes are explored, and disaggregated data are used to reveal trends, styles and linkages, particularly between human behavior and co-occurring events. Data has become a strong contributor to the effectiveness of the major global economies as the improvement in reliable data and tools for its use leads to the creation of new opportunities in the economy. For example, increased data availability can facilitate the development of new
products and services and greater efficiency and innovation in the economy.
▪︎ Nature of the Insurance Industry. Insurance is a traditional way for society to protect against risk. Risks
are the foundation of insurance and must be unplanned, future events, legal, beyond the control of the policyholder, and common enough to calculate probability (Berthelé, 2018). By collecting numerous alternatives, insurance allows policyholders to share the impact of unexpected events. Such incidents
include expenses for medical treatment in hospitals, expensive medical procedures, or property spoilage
(cars and houses), or death or unemployment of policyholders. However, insurance is mainly a means of protecting against the undesirable financial effects of risks. Insurance, therefore, works by spreading the costs among a group of insurance policyholders (insurers) so that the minority’s claims can be paid from premiums paid by the many others, i.e., the cost of claims arising from risk is divided among members of a group who have insurance to protect themselves (Berthelé, 2018), it should be noted here that the amount of the premium paid by each individual depends on the potential financial value of danger that policyholder pays to the insurance group as a whole .
Uses of data analytics in healthcare
The day-to-day operations of the healthcare insurance industry generate an ever-increasing amount of data that can be analyzed and leveraged. This includes patient data, such as demographics, income, health history, insurance claims and records of costs paid by all parties. Risk-scoring algorithms calculate the healthcare claims costs an individual is likely to incur relative to the average.Additionally, predictive analytics can identify members at high risk for developing health problems, including chronic diseases and suggest additional screenings or lifestyle adjustments, resulting in improved health outcomes for the member and reduced costs for the insurer.Models that use real-time data can continuously be updated with details about claims and benefit utilization and provide members with the latest advice. For example, users can ask a model whether they are eligible for a service and instantly receive the answer.
How Big Data is Used in Healthcare
▪︎ Predicting Outbreaks and Disease Patterns: Big data analytics enables real-time monitoring of health data from various sources, including social media, electronic health records, and wearable devices. By analyzing this vast amount of data, healthcare professionals can identify patterns, predict disease outbreaks, and take proactive measures to prevent the spread of diseases.
▪︎ Personalizing Treatment: By leveraging data from millions of patients, big data analytics allows healthcare providers to develop personalized treatment plans. Analyzing patient data, including medical history, genetic information, and treatment outcomes, helps identify optimal treatments for individuals based on their unique characteristics, improving treatment efficacy and patient satisfaction.
▪︎ Reducing Costs and Improving Efficiency: Big data analytics plays a crucial role in cost reduction and process optimization within healthcare organizations. By analyzing operational data, such as supply chain management and resource utilization, healthcare providers can identify areas of waste, streamline processes, and make data-driven decisions to improve efficiency and reduce costs.