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 Innovation in Insurance: Insurance application database management systems.
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, property maintenance sensor networks and automated data annotation are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Fall detection sensing alarms, vehicle motion estimation, and building design risk analysis are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas are trip metering-based insurance and real-time fault monitoring systems, which are now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for the insurance industry
Insurance application database management systems is a key innovation area in insurance
An insurance application database management system includes an agency management module that tracks salesforce and agency-derived insights, as well as an index system or an insurance claims module that tracks policyholders' claims history.
A cloud-based insurance application database management system simplifies day-to-day insurance record-keeping by eliminating the need for manual systems. With remote access made possible by the cloud, several users can simultaneously update and review data. Using application database management systems, insurers can keep track of their employees, claims, user policies, premium payments, and more.
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 70+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of insurance application database management systems.
Key players in insurance application database mgmt systems – 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 insurance application database mgmt systems
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2021) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China | 493 | Unlock company profile |
| SoftBank Group | 217 | Unlock company profile |
| State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance | 152 | Unlock company profile |
| Taikang Insurance Group | 117 | Unlock company profile |
| INRIX | 83 | Unlock company profile |
| Allstate | 82 | Unlock company profile |
| Hartford Financial Services Group | 61 | Unlock company profile |
| J Fitness | 60 | Unlock company profile |
| Expanse Bioinformatics | 52 | Unlock company profile |
| Flex | 49 | Unlock company profile |
| LyondellBasell Industries | 45 | Unlock company profile |
| Ant Group | 38 | Unlock company profile |
| International Business Machines | 38 | Unlock company profile |
| Pictometry International | 37 | Unlock company profile |
| Apogee Technology | 31 | Unlock company profile |
| China Life Insurance (Group) Company | 27 | Unlock company profile |
| Travelers Companies | 24 | Unlock company profile |
| Tractable | 23 | Unlock company profile |
| KBC Group | 23 | Unlock company profile |
| Accenture | 22 | Unlock company profile |
| Black Hills IP | 22 | Unlock company profile |
| Clearlake Capital Group | 20 | Unlock company profile |
| eBay | 15 | Unlock company profile |
| China Investment | 14 | Unlock company profile |
| Swiss Re Asia Pacific | 13 | Unlock company profile |
| American Well | 13 | Unlock company profile |
| Sony Group | 13 | Unlock company profile |
| Hitachi | 12 | Unlock company profile |
| Vista Equity Partners | 12 | Unlock company profile |
| Healthy io | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Theator | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| USAA | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Lufax Holding | 10 | Unlock company profile |
| Taikang Pension Insurance | 10 | Unlock company profile |
| Owl Cameras | 10 | Unlock company profile |
| Sensata Technologies Holding | 10 | Unlock company profile |
| UnitedHealth Group | 10 | Unlock company profile |
| Yembo | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| Guidewire Software | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| PICC Property and Casualty | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| Huawei Investment & Holding | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| Donan Engineering | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| DXC Technology | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| Baidu | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| Sunshine Insurance Group | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| LunaPBC | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| Microsoft | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| Emerson Electric | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| Moody's | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| Dell Technologies | 7 | Unlock company profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Ping An Insurance is a leading patent filer in insurance application database management systems. The insurer has developed a multi-dimensional data account-checking method to ensure the accuracy and consistency of synchronous data. The method involves sending data from at least one data provider to a common platform, recording the first data, extracting the second data from the common platform, and performing an account check to see if both data are identical. This system guarantees prompt handling of abnormal data and prevents incorrect data from entering other flows and causing errors. Some other key patent filers in the industry include SoftBank Group, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, Taikang Insurance Group, INRIX, and Allstate.
In terms of application diversity, Theator leads the pack, with INRIX and Healthy io in the second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Owl Cameras holds the top position, followed by Sony Group and KBC Group.
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.
