"The digital economy will make usage-based, on-demand and all-in-one insurance lifestyle products more relevant". Explain the role and impact of technology in insurance business.

Insurers today are negotiating a unique and complex environment. Competition is intensifying as non-industry entrants and fintech innovators provide increasing choice and raise consumer expectations of frictionless, personalised experience. The digital technologies that enable the experience continue to develop, bringing with them a data explosion. And for insurers that can derive deep insights from that data there are exceptional opportunities to enhance agility, grow profitable business and differentiate themselves from the competition." Yes, it's true that at present the digital economy will make usage-based, on-demand and 'all-in-one' insurance lifestyle products more relevant. Customers will prefer personalized insurance covers instead of the one-size-fits-all products currently available. Today, more than 80 percent of the premiums collected by insurers are lost to distribution costs. Digital models will make intermediaries in the insurance value chain - marked by their excessive dependence on human effort. Flexible coverage options, micro insurance and peer-to-peer insurance will become viable options in the long run. Reinsurers will provide risk capital directly to digital brands, and regulatory frameworks will accommodate shorter value chains. Lifestyle apps will re-imagine the insurer-insured relationships. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) will enable the creation of insights-driven offerings as they integrate data from multiple sources. Deeper understanding of customer behaviors will lead to more accurate risk assessments, personalized premiums and value on a sustainable basis for better customer experience and brand loyalty, plus reduced false claims. Nowadays, insurance policy is being issued in digitalized manner and kept with repository. Some of the areas where technology is going to impact in a big way include: AI & Automation for Faster Claims Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and AI will occupy center stage in insurance, driven by newer data channels, better data processing capabilities and advancements in AI algorithms. Advanced Analytics & Pro-activeness Premiums will become highly personalized, enabled by new sources of tech-enabled data such as internet of Things, mobile-enabled InsurTech apps and wearables. With the connected devices market poised to grow strongly in the next five years, Property and Casualty (P&C) insurers will be able to extract real-time and accurate data on the loss exposure of individual consumers This will help them proactively respond with timely and highly personalized interventions. InsurTech Partnerships InsurTech firms have been showing significant growth in the areas of auto, homeownership and cyber insurance. Such strong growth will stimulate traditional insurers to either acquire technology capabilities or partner with InsurTech companies. With an increasing demand for innovative products and services from millennials, such collaboration will become a critical imperative. Overall, it will be a win-win situation- traditional insurers will benefit from faster results in establishing a tech culture and InsurTech companies will get access to larger customer bases, funding and domain expertise. Mainstreaming Blockchain The need for huge volumes of customer data to be processed in real time by different insurance functions calls for easy and secure transfer of data across organizations and their diverse stakeholders. Blockchain technology provides the advantage of secure data management across multiple interfaces and stakeholders without loss of integrity. Thus, technology is going to drive the insurance business in future, however, the key is to understand how and when to tap into this potential leveraging existing and new technologies.