The insurance industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by growing demand for digitalisation and personalisation. With growing importance of technologies such as telematics, machine learning, big data, deep learning, and data science, insurers are overcoming demographic challenges, low penetration rates, cybercrimes and fraudulent claims. In the last three years alone, there have been over 11,000 patents filed and granted in the insurance industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial intelligence in Insurance: Health risk analysis models. Buy the report here.
However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.
Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.
90 innovations will shape the insurance industry
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the insurance industry using innovation intensity models built on over 65,000 patents, there are 90 innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Within the emerging innovation stage, AI-assisted underwriting and treatment expense prediction are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Vehicle motion estimation, vehicle forensic analysis, and AV insurance risk analysis are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas is driving skill evaluation, which is now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for artificial Intelligence in the insurance industry
Health risk analysis models is a key innovation area in artificial intelligence
Health risk analysis models, which are a crucial area of innovation in artificial intelligence, are increasingly being used by insurers to predict the likelihood of a patient experiencing specific health outcomes. These models use a range of health risk factors such as patient demographics, medical history, lifestyle factors, and genetics and can help insurers better understand patient health risks, allowing them to price policies more accurately and offer more targeted healthcare services.
With the help of AI-powered medical technologies, these models can analyze vast amounts of data and provide insurers with insights that can improve patient outcomes and ultimately reduce costs.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 40+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of health risk analysis models.
Key players in health risk analysis models – a disruptive innovation in the insurance industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to health risk analysis models
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2021) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| J Fitness | 60 | Unlock company profile |
| Expanse Bioinformatics | 54 | Unlock company profile |
| Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China | 50 | Unlock company profile |
| Omron | 45 | Unlock company profile |
| UnitedHealth Group | 39 | Unlock company profile |
| Hartford Financial Services Group | 23 | Unlock company profile |
| Swiss Re Asia Pacific | 19 | Unlock company profile |
| Koninklijke Philips | 18 | Unlock company profile |
| Allstate | 18 | Unlock company profile |
| Taikang Insurance Group | 17 | Unlock company profile |
| DAYA Medicals | 15 | Unlock company profile |
| SomaLogic | 14 | Unlock company profile |
| SoftBank Group | 12 | Unlock company profile |
| Hi.Q | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Theator | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Sony Group | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Moody's | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Swiss Reinsurance | 10 | Unlock company profile |
| Terumo | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| Quality Standards | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| Fujifilm Holdings | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Healthcare Interactive | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Walmart | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Amino | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| International Business Machines | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Sunshine Insurance Group | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Quality Healthcare Intermediary | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Rite Aid | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| MedImpact Holdings | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Centene | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| USAA | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Bank of America | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Verisk Analytics | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Millennium Pharmacy Systems | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Swiss Re | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Microsoft | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Aliphcom | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Halliburton | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| 3M | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Humana | 5 | Unlock company profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Ping An Insurance is a top patent filer in health risk analysis models that use AI. The insurer has developed a solution and a related product for configuring insurance pricing based on a prediction model. To do this, comprehensive user data from an insurance company's database is uploaded into a pre-trained health prediction model that calculates a health score for the user. The model then integrates the health score into an insurance demand, determining the insurance requirement of an individual based on their health risk analysis. This helps insurers provide personalized insurance coverage based on an individual's health score. Some other key patent filers in applying AI in health risk analysis models include J Fitness, Expanse Bioinformatics, UnitedHealth Group, Omron, and The Hartford Financial Services Group.
In terms of application diversity, SomaLogic leads the pack, with Theator and J Fitness in the second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Swiss Re holds the top position, followed by DAYA Medicals and Halliburton.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the insurance industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Insurance.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
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