Remember all the way back to 2015 when insurtech was beginning to gain traction? It was all about disruption. How many conference presentations and blog posts predicted doom for the industry and included examples of Uber, Blockbuster, and Kodak? In order to explore this, in 2016, Celent surveyed insurance companies and technology startups to gather data about what was actually going on. Turns out that most of the efforts involved a very small degree of business model change. Partnering between insurers and insurtechs looked to be the most sustainable source of value. That is when we began to frame insurtech as “a new way to develop insurance products”. (See the Celent report Insurer-Startup Partnerships: How to Maximize Insurtech Investments.)

At the beginning of 2018, insurers are still struggling to implement digital, design from a customer point of view, and implement at speed. However, recent developments signal a change.