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Arun Balakrishnan, CEO, Xceedance, in a crisp interaction with Amit Singh highlights the adoption of AI & ML in actuarial and underwriting services, and automation in claims and customer service along with embedded insurance policies as insurance organizations catch up with other financial segments on digital transformation initiatives
What are the top trends you see in the insurance industry and how the pandemic has impacted the industry?
The pandemic has enabled insurance companies to catch up with other financial sectors that have historically been quicker to adopt technology into their products. Just like the other industries, the pandemic has led to increasing trust and reliance on new technologies, even in the insurance sector.
The insurance industry has seen a paradigm shift in the last couple of years as the millennial and Gen Z demand for online insurance services has reached an all-time high. Trends show that because of this surge in demand, insurance is seeing that digital transformation initiatives are being adopted and projects and funding are being accelerated. Several innovative start-ups have mushroomed in this industry, and we expect that trend to continue in the post-COVID world. Adoption of AI & ML in actuarial and underwriting services, Automation in Claims and Customer Service along with Embedded Insurance policies, are some of the other top trends our industry is seeing.
What are the unique challenges you see in the Indian insurance sector as compared to the developed economies?
One of the biggest challenges we observe in the Indian market is the lack of penetration, which leaves a large section of the population uninsured. This could be partly due to a lack of capital and a lack of awareness of insurance and other risk management tools. This leaves us with a massive gap between the Indian insurance market and the more evolved western markets. Technology innovation and a lack of customer centricity are other challenges that insurers are grappling with in modern India. Having said that, India represents a big opportunity in the insurance industry. It is easy to forget that the insurance industry in India was privatized only 2 decades ago. A lot of the innovation that is happening now is a recent occurrence versus something that has been in development for a long time.
In India, digital penetration in insurance stands at 2 percent, denoting significant headroom for growth in the years to come. How is Xceedance leveraging this headspace with its technology expertise?
India is not alone when it comes to the market potential for digital penetration in insurance. While other insurance markets do have a greater than two percent digital penetration, each market still has significant opportunities for growth. That’s where a company like Xceedance can help, by leveraging vast insurance and technology expertise to facilitate, automate, and optimize insurance lifecycle functions, including exposure management, actuarial requirements, underwriting, policy management, claims handling, and finance for insurance organizations across the globe.
Xceedance is a global provider of strategic operations support, technology, and data services to insurance organizations. Our team works with insurers, reinsurers, agents, brokers, and program administrators to boost operational efficiency.
With support from Xceedance, our diverse re/insurer clients can boost operational productivity, strengthen data stewardship, implement intelligent technology, enhance policyholder service, enter new markets, and improve profitability.
Headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts, US, Xceedance has a presence across 9 global office locations, including four in India, and has annual staff growth of over 30 percent. With over 2,600 team members, 138 client partners, and 250+ ongoing insurance operations and technology engagements, Xceedance helps insurers launch products, implement intelligent technology, deploy advanced analytics, and achieve business process optimization.
What are your top focus areas and India expansion plans over the next couple of years?
Our growth plan for the next 4-5 years is to grow to 3-times our current size in terms of revenue. To date, we have seen a growth rate of 40 percent year-over-year and are committed to scaling that up in the next 2 years. Xceedance has a significant presence in insurance markets across the globe, from North America and Europe to Australia, and we are looking to expand our footprint in each of those markets.
We are building an organization that will outlive all of us – one that will be operating 100-200 years from now. When you start thinking in those terms it doesn’t matter quite as much what you are doing over the next 1-2 years or even the next 5 years. The insurance industry that we are part of was here 300 years ago, and it will be here 300 years from now. While the market has always evolved and grown, the foundation of insurance remains. Our role at Xceedance is to provide value and insights to insurance organizations no matter their specific role within the industry. As such, we’ll need to continue to flex and adapt as the industry is dynamic and expected to change constantly.
