The insurance industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by growing demand for digitalisation and personalisation. With growing importance of technologies such as cloud innovations, telematics, machine learning, big data, deep learning, and data science, insurers are overcoming demographic challenges, low penetration rates, cybercrimes and fraudulent claims. In the last three years alone, there have been over 11,000 patents filed and granted in the insurance industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial intelligence in Insurance: Risk analysis models. Buy the report here.

However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.

Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.

90 innovations will shape the insurance industry

According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the insurance industry using innovation intensity models built on over 65,000 patents, there are 90 innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.

Within the emerging innovation stage, AI-assisted underwriting and treatment expense prediction are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Vehicle motion estimation, vehicle forensic analysis, and AV insurance risk analysis are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas is driving skill evaluation, which is now well established in the industry.

Innovation S-curve for Artificial Intelligence in the insurance industry

Risk analysis models is a key innovation area in Artificial Intelligence

To evaluate cost and schedule the probability distributions from user-input data on costs, timeframes, risks, and uncertainties, a risk analysis model frequently uses Monte Carlo simulation. It produces quantitative risk analysis reports that give teams and project managers helpful data.

GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 70+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of risk analysis models.

Key players in risk analysis models – a disruptive innovation in the insurance industry

‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.

‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.

Patent volumes related to risk analysis models

Company Total patents (2010 - 2022) Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies
SoftBank Group 233 Unlock Company Profile
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China 177 Unlock Company Profile
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance 116 Unlock Company Profile
INRIX 83 Unlock Company Profile
Allstate 68 Unlock Company Profile
J Fitness 60 Unlock Company Profile
Expanse Bioinformatics 52 Unlock Company Profile
Flex 49 Unlock Company Profile
International Business Machines 47 Unlock Company Profile
Accenture 32 Unlock Company Profile
Hartford Financial Services Group 30 Unlock Company Profile
Tractable 24 Unlock Company Profile
Taikang Insurance Group 24 Unlock Company Profile
Swiss Re Asia Pacific 24 Unlock Company Profile
Global Payments 24 Unlock Company Profile
KBC Group 23 Unlock Company Profile
Mitchell International 22 Unlock Company Profile
Qomplx 20 Unlock Company Profile
Equifax 20 Unlock Company Profile
Johnson Controls International 17 Unlock Company Profile
Lear 16 Unlock Company Profile
Ant Group 15 Unlock Company Profile
Aon 14 Unlock Company Profile
SomaLogic 14 Unlock Company Profile
Zendrive 13 Unlock Company Profile
Capital One Financial 12 Unlock Company Profile
Didi Global 11 Unlock Company Profile
Visa 11 Unlock Company Profile
Samsung Group 10 Unlock Company Profile
Travelers Companies 10 Unlock Company Profile
Swiss Reinsurance 10 Unlock Company Profile
Leonard Green & Partners 9 Unlock Company Profile
Yembo 9 Unlock Company Profile
Baidu 9 Unlock Company Profile
Verisk Analytics 9 Unlock Company Profile
Koninklijke Philips 9 Unlock Company Profile
CVS Health 9 Unlock Company Profile
Mastercard 9 Unlock Company Profile
Terumo 9 Unlock Company Profile
SAP 9 Unlock Company Profile
Vista Equity Partners 8 Unlock Company Profile
LyondellBasell Industries 8 Unlock Company Profile
American International Group (AIG) 8 Unlock Company Profile
Munchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft (Munich Re) 8 Unlock Company Profile
LunaPBC 8 Unlock Company Profile
Leidos Holdings 8 Unlock Company Profile
Integratto 7 Unlock Company Profile
Samsung Life Insurance 7 Unlock Company Profile
Beijing Qiyu Technology 7 Unlock Company Profile
USAA 7 Unlock Company Profile

Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics

Ping An Insurance Group is one of the leading patent filers in car damage picture angle correction method. Their approach evaluates if a primary mobile computing device has detected a car crash. It is also possible to determine if a second mobile computing device has spotted the crash. Such sensor data may be used to generate car crash data, which may include indications of the severity of the impact, the number of passengers in the vehicle, or whether the crash occurred. Some other key patent filers in the industry include SoftBank Group, State Farm Mutual, INRIX, Allstate and J Fitness.

In terms of application diversity, Flex heads the list, followed by SomaLogic and INRIX in the second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Swiss Re holds the top position, followed by Vista Equity Partners and Munich Re.

To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the insurance industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Insurance.

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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.

GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.