Challenge of InsurTech in USAUtilization of IoT devices in the housing

This article is written by Mr.Koichiro Ohira, Chief Fellow, Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies（NEC Group）

Protection from fire and other incidents
In the previous issue the report was made on the utilization of InsurTech in the field of car insurance

Lately the similar challenge is getting popular in the housing sector to make positive utilization of IoT devices such as detection sensor of water leakage and freeze, smoke detection sensor and surveillance camera in order to maintain protection against fire, water leakage and theft which are leading to the insurance claim and payment.

In most cases start-ups are responsible for installing and maintaining the operation of IoT devices, and, insurance companies are responsible for introducing customers and for covering the part of the cost of installing sensor devices.

With this arrangement policy holders are benefited with discount of insurance premium and with the provision of necessary information on the incident vis smart phone.

Utilization of drone
In the area of damage investigation of roof caused by storm or hail flying robot (drone) are getting popularly utilized. The damage investigation used to be made by investigation staff actually mounting on the roof which was time-taking and involved risk of injuries due to falling. The utilization drone for this investigation make it possible that a large volume of photos and movies are easily taken, and, such place of damage as not visible by investigation staff due to the difficult building structure can be spotted and confirmed. Lately such arrangement is also getting introduced as employing AI technique to analyze photos taken and to diagnose the status of the damage automatically.

In such large scale of disasters as flood, earthquake, forest fire the entry to the scene could not be allowed with the concern of secondary disaster , but, drone can fly and monitor the damage from the sky.  Because of this advantage some insurance companies recruit a large number of drone pilots in the unit of several hundreds who are authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The challenge of InsurTech for life insurance is not so popular in comparison with the challenge of property insurance. They, however, positively promote the health promotion program with wearable devices where policy holders measure and monitor daily number of steps,  and can get reward if they achieve the target.

Insurance company John Hancock of USA in collaboration with Discover of South Africa provide such insurance program where policy holders are entitled to obtain points in the agreed items such as medical checkup, vaccination, physical practice measured by wearable devices, and can exchange the points accumulated with the discount of insurance premium or discount purchase of collaborative articles.

Several insurance companies start to provide simple process for term life insurance which young applicants can apply easily as a matter of 10 minutes for the insurance via smart phone and personal computers.

Appreciation of insurance 
In our daily life we seldom appreciate the insurance and InsurTech is yet to be acknowledged more.

It is, however, to be noted that the utilization of InsurTech is getting started slow but steady and it is expected that the challenge of InsurTech is getting positive and popular in Japan.

The challenge and trend of InsurTech in the advanced market of USA should, therefore, be closely watched and monitored.