A few years ago, digitization was the new frontier of business and it was identified with a generic renewal of IT systems. Over time, the buzzword “Digital” has become a reality and now refers to a real transformation of a company with new models in business and organization.

The insurance industry has also followed this trend, with the majority of insurers believing that digitization is a key driver for business development. The direction is clear, but there is still a considerable amount of work to be done, as only a few insurers have completed the transformation so far, only 5% in Italy according to a study conducted in 2015 by Celent, Oliver Wyman Group, in collaboration with RGI.

What is clear, however, is that insurance clients are ready to benefit from digital services in addition to traditional ones, and that they are willing to share with their insurers some specific information about their private life, with very high expectations for Smart Technologies. At the same time, however, according to research conducted less than a year ago, more than half of respondents felt that the insurance market still lags behind in comparison with other industries in the development and use of technology, while digital transformation is the top priority of all insurers.

So, digitalization and new technologies such as Big Data, IoT, machine learning and artificial intelligence offer insurers an extraordinary opportunity to close the gap, which is also relational, with policyholders and to change the image of the insurance industry.

Today insurers have the chance, thanks to so-called “appification”, to exploit the potential of omnichannel and mobile devices, increasing everyday contact with policyholders on devices that consumers have with them the whole day, their smartphones.