“Tech Trend Radar 2022”: How will technology impact insurance?

If companies spot and understand technological trends early on, they can adapt proactively, prove their worth – and build trust. That is why since 2015, experts from Munich Re and ERGO have been joining forces to produce a fresh issue of their “Tech Trend Radar” each year. Like its seven predecessors, the 2022 edition of that renowned study again collects and assesses the latest and most relevant technologies, helping insurances and enterprises from other sectors to prepare their business accordingly. 

How relevant are new technologies to the insurance industry? Which trends are mere hype – and which ones might have true potential for both the reinsurance and the primary insurance business? The newly published “Tech Trends Radar 2022” by Munich Re and ERGO, together with partners, provides a framework for identifying opportunities, taking investment decisions and improving digital collaboration. “I encourage everyone to watch the trends closely, so that we can better assess the risks and seize the opportunities that technology affords us,” Munich Re CEO Joachim Wenning writes in his foreword to this study.

Insurance in the age of seamless user experiences and instant feedback

In their own joint foreword, study authors Martin Thormählen (Munich Re) and Daniel Grothues (ERGO) illustrate the different ways in which trends could affect the insurance industry by using two extreme – but not entirely serious – examples:

One thing is certain: Digitalization and data analytics are transforming the entire insurance value chain – from products to sales and marketing, to underwriting, customer service and claims. Thus, to keep pace with this global change process, insurers have to continuously analyze the impact of technological trends on the insurance value chain in a structured manner, and optimize their own products, services and business operations.

44 trends from 5 trend fields

By analyzing developments around the world, aggregating and defining them into trends – and, finally, by assessing each trend’s respective impact and relevance, the experts at Munich Re and ERGO have compiled 44 significant trends spread over the following 5 trend fields:

1. Wellbeing
2. Hyperconnectivity
3. Data & AI
4. Cyber and Crypto
5. Emerging Industries

To make these 44 trends more catchy, clearer and easier to research, they are presented as an “interactive radar” that may be filtered by line of business to quickly find what is most relevant for you. Each trend comes with a short description, describes typical use cases and mentiones both opportunities and risks. Most importantly, the report provides an assessment of that trend’s maturity:

• Hold (“add it to your watch list”)
• Assess (“consider what it may mean for your business”)
  
• Trial (“first initiatives should be underway in the most affected business areas”)
  
• Adopt (“start taking full advantage of this technology”)
  

In addition, the interactive radars feature solutions by both Munich Re and ERGO which are already available in the respective field.

Metaverse as an example

The metaverse describes an immersive digital space that blends reality and virtuality through sophisticated augmented and virtual reality technology. In recent months, it has evolved beyond a buzzword, that’s why we here at //next have already tried to assess its impact on the insurance industry, have listed important companies, projects and digital coins as well as our experiences with it at ERGO. Not surprisingly, the "Tech Trend Radar 2022" is listing the Metaverse as one of the top trends within the trend field “Hyperconnectivity”, analyzing its opportunities and risks and advising readers to assess this trend even closer:
 

Curious now? For further details on the “Tech Trend Radar 2022” and the other 43 exciting trends it has detected, please access the project’s landingpage at:

Articles on earlier editions of “Tech Trend Radar”:

Tech Trend Radar 2021: Let’s develop our future together​

Tech Trend Radar 2020: Behind the scenes