During Celent’s annual Innovation and Insight Week, held in March 2022, we hosted a roundtable discussion of eight digital leaders in the insurance industry about their views on emerging channels and their predictions for the future. In advance of the discussion, Celent administered a survey to roundtable participants to identify themes and frame questions for the discussion. The survey and the discussion revealed insights into the challenges and opportunities insurers face as they consider digital distribution.

Carriers believe independent agents need to make improvements in a variety of areas to remain successful. This is especially true when it comes to providing a more digital experience to customers during the quoting process and throughout the policy lifecycle. It is also critical for agents to stay on top of customers’ changing coverage needs.

In this report, we provide the results and share our analysis of the survey and roundtable discussion. A section is devoted to each of four major topics discussed:

·Traditional agents going digital.

·Embedded insurance.

·Digital insurance exchanges.

·Barriers to digital distribution.

The report concludes with Celent’s recommendations on how to improve the odds of success in digital distribution, based on themes that emerged from the discussion.