Captives are positioned to adopt innovative technology, according to a panel at Airmic’s captive forum. “A challenge to tech adoption in insurance is the use of legacy systems. Captives are more nimble in this respect and therefore can make the best use of technology.” This comment was made by Shruhi Rao, CEO of Adapt Ready, a provider of risk intelligence platforms for insurers. Other challenges highlighted by the panel included data security and cyber breaches, as well as educating companies on how to use these technologies. On cyber, Ryan Dodd, CEO of Intangic, said: “When understanding a company’s cyber risk, it’s essential to ask the right questions. “The technology is only as good as the data supplied. In traditional cyber underwriting, the focus is on ‘if’ a hurricane occurs, whereas it’s more important to know whether it’s coming and the size of the event.” His company, Intangic, takes a new approach to cyber underwriting. Considering that large companies will not provide access to their datasets, it provides alternate datasets to ensure privacy and data protection. The panellists, which also included Peter Carter of WTW and Grace Miller of Previsco, came to the same conclusion that technology is changing the very nature of understanding risk. It enables companies to make risk management decisions based on more comprehensive assessments, hence why the industry is paying so much attention to it. “Without technology, a modern-day risk assessment is incomplete,” said Rao. Carter highlighted the significant ‘protection gap’ in insurance for natural catastrophes — the financial gap between the frequency of these events insured compared to those occurring. “The only way to close this gap is through innovative technology and new solutions.” If captives are well-positioned to adopt these technologies, then they could play a key role in closing the gap.
