The Hartford’s CEO Swift on the Future of Insurance

This article is part of Carrier Management’s series on the Future of Insurance.

Christopher Swift, CEO, The Hartford

Q: What major changes do you see on the horizon for the property/casualty insurance industry in the next 10 years? What will insurance companies, insurance leaders, the industry and its workforce look like in the next decade? What risks will they insure?

Swift (The Hartford): Technology is transforming our industry in ways we are only beginning to appreciate, impacting the nature of risk, operations, how we engage with customers and the way we work. Data, for example, is making us smarter and changing the way we underwrite and price risk, deliver better claim outcomes, and transform the customer experience.

Automation in the form of robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning presents a unique opportunity to increase speed, accuracy and cost-effectiveness, making it easier to do business. Automation could impact up to 25 percent of insurance positions over the next decade—the jobs that today involve routine, rules-based transactions. The future workforce will instead focus on more impactful, high-value, customer-facing activities.

We believe that for carriers open to partnership, many of these new firms bring the talent, energy and fresh perspective necessary to accelerate the industry’s adoption of emerging technologies and data sources.

Not surprisingly, having made waves in other industries, Silicon Valley is turning its sights on insurance. There are a growing number of new companies looking to transform the insurance industry in areas such as risk mitigation, analytics and distribution. We believe that for carriers open to partnership, many of these new firms bring the talent, energy and fresh perspective necessary to accelerate the industry’s adoption of emerging technologies and data sources.

Q: How will insurance products and services be distributed?

Swift (The Hartford): We believe the new entrants looking to disintermediate brokers and agents often underestimate the difficulty of customer acquisition and the value of advice. Most business customers—all but the very small—will continue to look to their agent or broker to counsel them through risk management, purchase and renewal processes.

We absolutely see technology having an enormous impact over the next decade on how we do business, but we do not see fundamental changes in the value that carriers, brokers and agents bring to our customers.

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