Google Cloud and Travelers’ are to work together on a ‘connected data ecosystem’ that the two say will enhance the commercial insurance underwriting process.
The partnership between the firms will, they said in a statement, will quickly synthesise vast amounts of information, helping Travelers’ underwriters more efficiently evaluate risks for large-and-middle-market businesses.
The data ecosystem, built on Google Cloud, will integrate millions of structured and unstructured data points from multiple sources – internal and external – and leverage artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to give underwriters a clearer picture of a prospective account’s risk profile.
Henna Karna, managing director for global insurance, reinsurance, and risk management industry solutions at Google Cloud, said: “Insurance companies are rich with proprietary data, but there’s an abundance of new and developing third-party data that’s becoming increasingly valuable to underwriters. Our ultimate goal is to empower the insurance industry with cloud-based capabilities that connect those dots and provide a complete view of risk. Travelers is an industry leader known for underwriting excellence and innovation, and together, we’re working to further scale its advanced analytics and unlock additional data-driven insights.”
Google Cloud has been encroaching on the insurance industry for some time. In March 2021, the data and software giant announced that it was teaming up with Munich Re and AGCS on a cyber insurance solution, that notice coming a week before the firm hired Nigel Walsh away from Deloitte to become its managing director for insurance. A partnership with CoreLogic was announced only a few weeks ago.
These moves have not gone unnoticed. In April, GlobalData said that Google was the biggest threat to incumbent insurers should it decide to offer end-to-end household insurance products.
To gauge consumer sentiment, GlobalData’s 2022 UK Insurance Consumer Survey questioned whether buyers in the country would consider purchasing their home insurance from a non-traditional provider.
More than 25% of survey respondents said they would be prepared to buy their home insurance from Google, while Amazon and energy suppliers also scored well.
“The accelerated rise of digitalisation since the pandemic and increased use of smart home devices means that technology companies and outside players pose a threat to insurers in the UK by utilising their skills in digitalisation and strong brand recognition to attract customers,” said GlobalData at the time.
