Over the past decade, the world has seen an explosion of online and social activity, all of which is generating vast amounts of data. Louis Rossouw surveys the future for insurance.
While some may view such behaviour as odd, it provides a glimpse into the future of personal data available and the potential to use that information for personal improvement.
Some of this type of tracking is already becoming more general through websites and applications, such as foursquare.com which track check-ins based on location.
Websites such as toutapp.com can analyse the data contained in a person’s email account to visualise how they communicate.
Another example is heart rate monitors and GPS-based mobile applications that provide online access to exercise data. People use these applications to improve exercise routines and to challenge and engage their friends in doing so (e.g, polarpersonaltrainer.com and endomondo.com).
The implications for insurance concerning the availability of data of this nature are obvious and there are already clear examples of how it can be used.
Both Discovery and Momentum, life/health insurers active in the South African market, have begun to use information including gym visits and pedometer steps to monitor the health of their policyholders.
The aim is to encourage healthy behaviours by providing benefits, including potential premium discounts, to those policyholders with healthier lifestyles.
Gamification and rewards
Gamification is defined by The Gamification Summit as, “the process of using game mechanics and game thinking in non-gaming businesses to engage users and to solve problems”.
Essentially, it plays on the competiveness of human nature and the enticement of rewards to encourage people to interact. An early example of this process is airline rewards programmes, which have been extended to customer loyalty points in various spheres, including retail, credit cards and even insurance. The Gamification Summit quotes Dan Brostek, head of member and consumer engagement at healthcare company Aetna, as saying: “At Aetna we think gamification has the potential to help people improve their health by making it fun, rewarding and engaging.”
In South Africa, Discovery has proven this point with the Vitality programme, which offers a point system that encourages healthy behaviour. This system not only enables Discovery to differentiate healthy customers from less healthy customers, but it has encouraged people to actually change their behaviour. In addition to discounted premiums, rewards include discounted movie and airline tickets.
Gamification is a way for insurers to engage their customers with rewards in exchange for parting with data.
Analysing big data
Various techniques are emerging to analyse diverse data, including:
