Robert Clark is the founder and CEO of Cloverleaf Analytics, a leading provider of insurance intelligence solutions.
One of the greatest things about the insurance industry is our ability to build high-quality relationships that last for decades. The downside of this will come in 2029, when the youngest of the “Boomers” turns 65. This milestone will transform our industry perhaps more than any AI advancement will in the near future, as the insurance industry’s greatest asset is its people.
In 2022, a PropertyCasualty360 survey (registration required to view) noted that 23% of all claim adjusters anticipated retiring within the next five years. That’s 2027, now only a little over a year away. Further, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce indicated in 2021 that 50% of the current insurance workforce will retire over the following 15 years. For claims and underwriters, both roles that require a trained eye, it will take a few years before they are fully effective in their jobs. This is a crucial knowledge gap that cannot be filled overnight through employee training.
With just over three years to prepare, how can insurers ensure sustainable practices and solid consumer trust amid a wave of retirements by using AI and automation?
What Can Insurers Do?
In my 30 years in the industry, I have witnessed firsthand how data-driven strategies can elevate decision-making in complex environments. Strategically operationalizing knowledge enables insurers to maximize these years into a competitive advantage. Instead of running toward AI with their heads down toward retirement, senior insurance leaders should establish mechanisms to document the insights that can only come with decades of experience.
Technology and operations leaders should be key partners in this knowledge transfer, setting up focus groups with key positions to interview them on a regular basis. This knowledge transfer will take time, and should really be done in parallel to efforts to advance toward Dynamic Insurance and Swarm Decision Intelligence, which I wrote about in the first two articles in this series. Imagine the difference between two carriers: one that infused these two steps with hundreds of years of real-world expertise, versus one that didn’t. The fast-moving nature of business and consumer demand will quickly shine the spotlight on innovative insurers with the best customer experiences.
Building A New Human-Technology Capital Alliance
Now is a critical time for insurers to use Dynamic Insurance, Swarm Decision Intelligence and the Great Insurance Knowledge Transfer to build a new type of human-technology capital. Capturing this knowledge to build AI models and a new unified data infrastructure could create a period of elevated decision-making in underwriting, claims and distribution like the industry has never seen.
The new C-suite leaders would have swarms of AI bots that possess some of the intangible intelligence that their mentors and previous leaders had. This asset will help them move forward over the next decade before another major wave of retirements occurs.
When that next wave starts, if the industry gets 2029 right, there won’t be as much to be concerned about in terms of lost knowledge capital. The mechanisms I am recommending for extracting Boomer insights should become core to how all insurers operate and continuously fine-tune their processes and technology.
Facilitating The Great Insurance Knowledge Transfer
Here is a simple, but effective three-pronged approach insurers can implement to successfully elevate their institutional knowledge.
1. Capture: Decision journaling in focus groups from seasoned underwriters and adjusters. Systematically recording their decision-making processes—coverages, negotiation sequences and reserve rationales—allows organizations to convert this knowledge into reusable playbooks for future employees.
2. Transfer: Implementing dual-track mentorship, where technical skills are paired with stakeholder tactics, enhances the training process. Utilizing replay labs with human staff while also leveraging Swarm Decision Intelligence agents to analyze historical losses and binds offers invaluable insights into the nuances of the insurance landscape.
3. Augment: Swarm-style underwriting and claims copilots can then compress the time needed for new hires to reach effectiveness. The integration of audit trails will facilitate regulatory compliance and ongoing training efforts.
Time To Improve Relationships And Growth
As the insurance industry navigates this transition, C-suites equipped with Dynamic Insurance and Swarm Decision Intelligence will have more time to think of novel ways to transform insurance and customer relationships.
Instead of having to fight fires—internal or customer-related alike—these executive leaders can better monitor changes in consumer demand across other industries and stay on top of the right new technologies that could further augment their business.
Going back to the human element in all of this: if you think about the three topics that I have covered in this series, these practices are what have made the insurance industry so successful for hundreds of years. Successful insurers have tried to be flexible in meeting customer needs while leveraging collective internal team skills for operational excellence and new-employee training. Even still, now I am advocating for the integration of advanced technologies into these processes as a partner, not just a tool.
A Three-Year Action Plan
Insurance leaders must act decisively as we approach the impending wave of retirees in 2029. Breaking this into smaller time frames:
• Over the next 90 days, organizations should identify subject-matter expert hotspots and pilot decision journaling efforts for two loss types and one underwriting line.
• Over six to twelve months, formalize mentorship rotations and stand up copilot support for underwriting and claims.
• In the 12-24 month frame, scaling efforts should align with specific KPIs and integrate customer-facing initiatives that leverage technology to enhance service delivery.
Leaders who invest in the tools and processes I’ve outlined to excel during this period can secure their place as trustworthy market leaders in the evolving insurance landscape. It’s time for the industry to embrace this impending transition, turning challenges into opportunities that redefine what insurance can achieve.
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