With AI starting to come into play in the workplace, the future and what it will look like is a common conversation. As new generations rise in the workforce and technology advances, what will that mean for the insurance industry? In our fourth and final blog post in a series focused on reaching Gen Zers and millennials in insurance, we will speculate more on the future of insurance with Generations Y and Z, also known as millennials and digital natives or Gen Zers.

Let’s look at what our interviewees say about the future of insurance and technology.

Looking into the Crystal Ball of Insurance

Will advancing technology create a whole new industry landscape, or will it look mostly the same but faster? We heard a little bit of both from our interviewees.

Interviewee Insights

Cassandra: I think the industry's future looks like quicker transactions, quicker responses to our customers, and quicker claims being paid out. I'm just hoping we can speed up that process in the future so that clients can get paid much faster.

Mamadou: In the future, you'll see more of both digital and personal relationships. For this business, it's been this way forever. As far as the relationship perspective, speaking on the phone, getting somebody face to face, I don't think that it'll ever go away. I think as the years go by, more people will be using more of the technology or digital component of it, and it's something that we're seeing that's growing and will continue to grow. But I don't see the relationship aspect of it going away.

Raghav: I've been asked this question on podcasts for the last five years since I started Tarmika, and I've answered it the same way every single time. It is going to look exactly the same as it does today. Some people say it will change every single time, more or less, though it hasn't. And I don't think it ever really will. We'll get more connected. We'll be more technologically savvy. There'll be some younger people in the industry. It's all going to look the same, though. It's still going to run through agencies. It's still going to run to the same carriers. There will be very few carriers that can take over and take a large chunk of the business. It's just the way it is.

Challenges and Future Opportunities

Of course, there will always be industry challenges, but we look at today’s challenges as tomorrow’s opportunities. If we embrace technology and engage the strength of all generations, we will see a bright future for insurance.

Interviewee Insights

Cassandra: One of the biggest things facing the insurance industry right now is possibly the customer's perception of all of the technology. Because you have so many different demographics that purchase insurance. You have the young people on their phones; they click a button and are happy. But you have the other generation, the older generation, that would sit down across a table and have a policy written out by hand for them. So, I think that the one thing that the insurance industry needs to just be mindful of is, yes, we're targeting that next generation, but to keep the generation that has been so loyal to us for the past 50-60 years, I would say just make sure we can accommodate both.

Mamadou: I think the biggest challenges facing the insurance industry today are rate capacities. More carriers are opting out of certain states and certain lines of business, and we see that every day. Speaking about rates, everybody's taking some sort of increase at the moment, some more than others, and then people are not sure when that will come back around.

Raghav: I think the insurance industry is facing a talent shortage. The industry is getting older, and very few people in their twenties and thirties are willing to jump into the insurance industry because they think it's old. They think it's not fun. It's not attractive for them. It's such a great industry to be in. I don't think we'll get around the talent shortage, which is why automation, connectivity, and all of this stuff is so important because we'll never have the talent we had 10 years ago.

Influencing the Future of Insurance

Technology is already changing the insurance industry. But, to keep up with the times, it's important to make sure that the younger generations stay interested and engaged in this field. The good news is, according to our Gen Z and millennial respondents, there's a lot of hope for the future of insurance.

What Do Gen Zers and millennials want the future to look like?

This is what some of our survey respondents had to say:

• “Probably a lot more of a digital, online or over-the-phone experience rather than in-person offices.”

• “It will definitely be more analytics-driven in order to maximize premium revenue and speed up the claims process.”

• “Inclusion of AI will create more jobs to keep up with the AI and the less need of human interaction for reports.”

• “I think the future will be more digital as we get away from paper, and more business will be done virtually.”

• “Agents will still be a key component since human experience will be crucial to adequate coverage.”

More Insights from the Rising Generations

Want to learn more about what Gen Zers and millennials have to say about digital connectivity and what drives them as employees? Check out our Reaching the Rising Generations in Insurance report.