As a veteran of the insurance brokerage side of the business, QBE NA’s chief executive has heard the predictions that online distribution would replace traditional brokers, but he doesn’t see any broker-eating Pacmans actually emerging.

Todd Jones, who joined QBE NA as CEO in October last year, leaving his most recent broker executive position as head of Global Corporate Risk & Broking for Willis Towers Watson behind, reflected on questions about inroads of InsurTechs into the distribution and underwriting sides of the P/C insurance business posed by CM recently. While some prognosticators have forecast that advances in data and technology could have agents and brokers underwriting business with predictive analytics, endangering the underwriting function of carriers, others have talked about chatbots and technology platforms replacing the customer-facing sales tasks that agents/brokers perform, potentially making the distributors obsolete.