The insurance industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by growing demand for digitalization and personalization. With the 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: Treatment expense prediction.
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
Treatment expense prediction is a key innovation area in artificial intelligence
AI-enabled analysis has equipped insurers to accurately estimate the treatment and hospitalization expenses of policyholders and potential customers. AI models make personalized cost predictions by examining multiple elements, including patient history, illness, treatment choices, and medical expenses. Insurers and patients can use this information to determine the insurance coverage needed.
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 10+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of treatment expense prediction.
Key players in treatment expense prediction – 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 treatment expense prediction
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2021) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| Cota | 32 | Unlock company profile |
| Theator | 27 | Unlock company profile |
| Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China | 13 | Unlock company profile |
| Oracle | 12 | Unlock company profile |
| Koninklijke Philips | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Advanced Medical Solutions Group | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Amino | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Salesforce | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| International Business Machines | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | 5 | Unlock company profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Ping An Insurance is one of the leading patent filers in medical insurance expense prediction methods, devices, equipment, and storage medium. The company’s invention relates to the technical area of medical treatment and entails obtaining and analyzing an insured patient's historical treatment records. By using the technique, significant errors brought on by estimating the cost of medical insurance based on growth rates can be reduced, and the precision of medical insurance cost prediction is increased. Some other key patent filers in AI for treatment expense prediction for the insurance industry include Cota, Theator, and Oracle.
In terms of application diversity, Theator leads the pack, with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and Ping An Insurance in the second and third positions, respectively.
By means of geographic reach, Cota holds the top position, followed by Theator and Ping An Insurance.
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.
