In today’s episode, recorded following a panel discussion at the Insurtech NY 2024 Spring Conference, Andrew Schwartz, a Senior Analyst at Celent, joins host Rob Savitsky to explore the use of generative AI and advanced analytics in insurance claims management. They delve into various applications, from first notice of loss to claims triaging, highlighting the potential for generative AI to enhance adjusters’ efficiency and elevate the customer experience. Listen in for an analyst’s perspective on these topics, and gain insights into the latest regulatory developments, including expectations outlined in the NAIC Model Bulletin regarding AI utilization by insurance companies.   Learn more about Celent by visiting celent.com and connect with Andrew on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrew-schwartz-celent/   Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting duckcreek.com/podcasts.

In today’s episode, Meredith Barnes-Cook, Partner at Resource Pro joins host Rob Savitsky to discuss the state of chatbots in P&C insurance. Given the rise of generative AI, how are today’s bots different from those of the prior generation? What are the biggest opportunities for insurers to leverage them across their operations? How will they impact the day-to-day life of the individual claim adjustor or underwriter? Recorded during a networking break at the Insurtech NY 2024 Spring conference, listen in for a quick hitting discussion. Learn more about Resource Pro by visiting resourcepro.com and connect with Meredith on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/meredithbarnes-cook   Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting duckcreek.com/podcasts.  

In today’s episode, Oliver Werneyer, VP of Product Strategy and Innovation at Duck Creek sits down with Bernhard Schneider of PwC to discuss the importance of payments for the insurance industry. Insurers are under immense pressure to reduce their costs, better meet customers’ expectations and innovate and grow their business. We explore how critical payments is to the overall insurance value chain, why insurers struggle to comprehend how much they are even spending on the payments capabilities they provide, and discuss the potential savings insurers can extract from a next generation payments setup. Finally, the discussion also covers what the major opportunities are for insurers in providing better customer experience and customer loyalty across several use cases.   As mentioned on the show, Duck Creek Payments is now available in the US. By providing a single connection to the entire payments ecosystem, Duck Creek Payments allows insurers to maximize the business value from payments with minimal heavy lifting, massively reduced cost and full compliance. Learn more about Duck Creek Payments by visiting duckcreek.com/product/payments.   Also, the Duck Creek and PWC joint payments white paper is available now: https://www.pwc.ch/en/insights/fs/insurance-payment-transformation.html.   Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

In today’s episode, Rob Savitsky sits down with David Gritz, Founder and Managing Director of Insurtech NY to discuss the role of insurance startup accelerators in facilitating innovation, the evolving role of the MGA and carrier relationship, and the impact that AI is having to drive better business outcomes.   What role do accelerator programs play in helping insurers extend their innovation programs? Given the proliferation of MGAs (some of which are coming out of accelerators), how should carriers be approaching and evaluating partnerships? What are some of the more prominent AI and advanced analytics use cases being implemented across the insurance value chain?   Listen to hear more about the next wave of innovation impacting the industry and how carriers can best position themselves to succeed in the future.     Learn more about Insurtech NY and their 2024 Spring Conference on March 20-21: https://www.insurtechny.com/   Register now for Duck Creek’s Formation ’24 conference on May 21-23 in Dallas, TX. With a theme of “Simplifying Together,” collaborate with some of the greatest minds from across the industry to build, learn, and innovate together. To reserve your seat, visit https://events.duckcreek.com/formation/home?ref=eventcorpsite   Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

In Duck Creek’s annual reflections and predictions on the Creek episode, hosts Rob Savitsky and Zach May sit down with fellow millennial, Ema Roloff of Roloff Consulting, to rewind the tape on 2023 and crystalize their visions for the evolving terrain of the insurance industry in 2024.   With older workers retiring in droves, what have carriers been doing to attract younger workers and what will they be doing in 2024? What impact have we seen thus far by generative AI and what impact will it have in the coming year? Will claims teams reinvent themselves in 2024 or will it be more of the status quo?   Listen to this special episode where the guest temporarily becomes the host and vice versa, and hear Ema, Rob, and Zach each provide their takes on key trends that will shape the industry in the year ahead.   Connect with Ema on LinkedIn or by visiting her website at https://www.roloffconsulting.com/.    Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting https://www.duckcreek.com/podcasts/.    Finally, Conversations on the Creek has been named the #1 Best Insurtech Podcast by FeedSpot. Check us out there: https://podcasts.feedspot.com/insurtech_podcasts/.   

In today’s episode, Rob Savitsky sits down with special guest, Sully McConnell, Head of Insurance at Snowflake, as well as his colleague, Dan Katz, Senior Director of Product Management at Duck Creek to discuss the state of data strategy in insurance.   They kick off the conversation by having a lively discussion around why it is more important than ever for carriers to be thinking about their enterprise data strategy. From there, both Sully and Dan offer up their perspective on the components for fostering successful data governance. The conversation evolves into a discussion around the consequences of poor data quality, as well as the importance of data as insurers look to embrace incorporating generative AI into their operations.   As the episode wraps up, the guests provide their viewpoints on where they feel insurers level of data maturity stands across various insurance use cases, as well as make predictions around where they see the top performing carriers will be in the future with respect to how they’ve operationalized their data, invested in data governance and data availability, and adopted generative AI.   As mentioned during the episode, Duck Creek’s new data management, reporting and analytics platform, Duck Creek Clarity, which is built on top of the Snowflake Data Cloud and optimized for Microsoft PowerBI is now available. Learn more about Clarity and our partnership with Snowflake by visiting duckcreek.com/product/clarity and duckcreek.com/partner/snowflake.   Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

In this episode of Conversations on the Creek, host Rob Savitsky continues the conversation from Part 1 and takes the show on the road to the InsureTech Connect (ITC) Vegas ’23 Conference to have quick hitting discussions with several P&C innovators around the most pressing industry trends. Guests include Sabine VanderLinden (Co-Founder & CEO; Alchemy Crew); Tara Kelly (President & CEO; SPLICE Software); Joshua R. Hollander (CEO, North America; Horton International; Host, Insurtech Leadership Podcast) Silvia Diaz-Roa (Co-Founder; ClaimDeck); Ryan Baillargeon (Senior Marketing Manager, Insurance; Glia).   If there was one trend that dominated ITC’23 this year, it was generative AI. Not surprisingly, the topic of AI came up at some point in nearly every micro podcast episode in today’s show.   See below for the time stamps of each segment to jump to a particular topic and/or guest:   [2:15] – Sabine VanderLinden of Alchemy Crew shares her take on investments in generative AI, and the use cases in insurance where she sees initial adoption.   [12:41] – Tara Kelly of SPLICE Software describes the role of utilizing surveys to better meet evolving customer expectations.   [16:01] - Joshua R. Hollander of Horton International weighs in on the evolving talent landscape, the importance of DE&I, and how carriers can position themselves to find and retain top talent.     [23:56] - Silvia Diaz-Roa of ClaimDeck talks about the state of claims litigation and the role of AI impacting the workforce.     [27:30] Ryan Baillargeon of Glia share his perspective on how to deploy AI in the context of customer communications.   Guests/companies link dump: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinevanderlinden/ https://www.duckcreek.com/partner/splice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuarhollander/ https://www.claim-deck.com/ https://www.duckcreek.com/partner/glia/     Check out Part 1, as well as all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

In this episode of Conversations on the Creek, host Rob Savitsky takes the show on the road to the InsureTech Connect (ITC) Vegas ’23 Conference to have bite-sized discussions with several P&C innovators around the most pressing industry trends. Guests include Rose Hall (SVP, Head of Innovation, Americas; AXA XL); Ryan Lockwood (Senior Manager, Data Platform; Toyota - Connected Analytic Services); Stephanie Behnke (VP, Solutions and Consulting; Hi Marley); Tony Cañas (Co-Founder; Insurance Nerds; Senior Recruiting Partner; Goodwin Recruiting); Kurt Jackson (Global Head of Sales; ICEYE). From the role of AI in claims to the evolution of telematics to carrier DE&I initiatives, each micro-podcast segment stands on its own. See below for the time stamps of each segment to jump to a particular topic and/or guest:   [2:05] – Rose Hall of AXA XL shares how the company is providing more proactive preventative risk management services and additional value beyond the insurance policy to better meet the needs of their commercial lines clients. Between bringing more risk reducing technologies to businesses and having risk engineers now also leveraging aggregated market information, AXA XL is poised to help businesses mitigate their risk while building long-lasting insurance partnerships.    [7:55] – Ryan Lockwood of Toyota - Connected Analytic Services describes how Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are transforming telematics insurance in their connected cars. Learn how Toyota is providing flexible options for Toyota customers to opt into sharing telematics data with the industry’s largest carriers, as well as offering an embedded insurance offering through their MGA, Toyota Insurance.     [18:01] - Stephanie Behnke of Hi Marley defines what “lovable” customer experiences look like and provides her perspective on how and when to deploy AI when texting with claimants. Between advances in sentiment analysis, whereby bots can alert adjustors to customer frustration, to being able to pull in multiple parties like a body shop to grouping multiple text messaging chains together, there are lots of new tactics for carriers to consider for helping their customers when they need it most.   [25:06] - Tony Cañas of Insurance Nerds and Goodwin Recruiting provides his take on what carriers need to attract and retain Millennials and Generation Z workers. Tony also dives into what he’s seeing carriers do to improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I). “Millennials expect diversity. Gen Z will demand it.” Tony makes the point that DE&I cannot just be a check the box item, and that the carriers that truly embrace DE&I as a priority are the ones who will succeed in winning on talent.   [36:26] - Kurt Jackson of ICEYE discusses how advances in satellite imagery and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology is enabling unprecedented responses to changes on Earth. With access to accurate, high resolution SAR images across the Earth during day or night, insurers now can make better decisions when natural catastrophes occur, improving their claims reserving and knowing how to better disperse their claims adjustors to homes and businesses.   Guest companies and other references from today’s show: https://axaxl.com/ https://connectedanalyticservices.com/ https://toyotaims.com/ https://insnerds.com/ https://insureequality.org/ https://www.himarley.com/ https://www.iceye.com/   Be sure to look out for Part 2 of this episode dropping later in November 2023.   Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky chats with Caribou Honig, Chairman and Co-founder at InsureTech Connect (ITC), and Partner at SemperVirens Venture Capital about why he started ITC, what attendees can expect at this year's event, as well as his predictions for what technologies will impact insurance in the future.  As a VC back in 2016, Caribou had been investing in the broader fintech space and was looking to begin investing more specifically in insurtech. The problem: as Caribou was trying to learn more about the industry, he couldn’t find an event that met his needs that was insurance and technology specific. The solution: he started ITC! This year’s conference will take place October 31 – November 2 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada and will feature 9000+ industry attendees and 400+ speakers. Register for ITC Vegas by going to www.insuretechconnect.com and follow Caribou on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caribou/.  At Duck Creek we are thrilled to be attending ITC Las Vegas this year. Please stop by our booth #2231 on November 1 and 2nd, where we will be showcasing our partners from across the insurance ecosystem, and describing how they integrate with Duck Creek. We look forward to meeting you and discussing how you can reimagine the future of insurance. Check out all our other episodes and follow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and by visiting www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.               

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky chats with Sarat Varanasi, P&C Practice Leader at Cognizant about the concept of “digital twins” and how insurers are leveraging them across the insurance lifecycle. Digital twins are virtual representations of physical objects or processes. They are fed by real-time data leveraging technologies such as IoT sensors, telematics devices, and AI/ML solutions.  Rob kicks off the show by asking Sarat for his own definition of digital twins. Sarat notes that while the term is overused and applied differently by different folks in the industry, one key point to keep in mind is that the concept of digital twins can be applied to multiple risks. For example, one of Sarat’s carrier clients has taken the concept of digital twins to create digital replicas of the 300,000 commercial properties that they insure. These properties are pulling in data sources such as aerial imagery about the building, flood zone, and neighborhood, as well as data from Yelp reviews and Google Maps. It’s these sort of data feeds that keep the carriers updated on the status of each risk, and enable them to make better decisions around which subset of properties to conduct physical visits during renewals.  Throughout the conversation, we discuss other use cases for digital twins including distribution, as well as claims assignment during CAT events. Learn more about our partnership with Cognizant by going to duckcreek.com/partner/cognizant/.   Check out all our other episodes and follow us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.              

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky chats with Ben Zimmerman, Founder and CEO of Opterrix about the founding of his company, and his viewpoint on how climate change will impact extreme weather events and its implications to the insurance industry.  Incubated inside of the venture-build studio at American Family Insurance, now known as Tenney 110, Rob and Ben spend a fair amount of time on this episode talking about what that experience meant to him. Ben shares his thoughts on how the organizational structure and culture at American Family provided the support and the resources to build a property risk intelligence platform that helps insurers proactively prepare and respond to severe weather events. From there, they switch gears and talk about climate change, and how changes in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes and floods will lead to more insured losses in the years to come. At the same time, Ben highlights how access to new data sources and exposure visualization tools can provide the industry with a path forward for identifying, quantifying, and mitigating losses from extreme events.  As referenced on the show, last year we recorded a parallel episode with Dan Gumpright, former New Venture Lead at Tenney 110. That episode describes American Family Insurance's approach to innovation through its investment in multiple venture concepts. You can listen to that episode here: https://www.duckcreek.com/podcasts/innovating-and-building-new-ventures-with-dan-gumpright-of-tenney-110-american-family-insurance/ Learn more about Duck Creek's partnership with Opterrix by visiting https://www.duckcreek.com/partner/opterrix/. Be sure to check out all our other episodes and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and visit duckcreek.com/podcasts.

Conversations on the Creek’s first-ever, live video podcast episode was recorded during the Duck Creek Formation ’23 conference!  In this episode, Rob Savitsky sits down with Matt Morgan, Co-Founder and COO of Argyle Insurance to discuss forming and running a new insurtech company targeting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia. The show kicks off with Matt discussing why he decided to start Argyle.  The conversation goes into why Matt believes brokers are so instrumental in 2023, and why he chose to partner and distribute through the broker channel rather than selling directly to SMEs.  The episode ends with Rob and Matt talking about the role of technology to execute Argyle’s business strategy, some early results since launching into the market, and lessons learned that Matt feels might be relevant to insurers around the world. Learn more about Argyle by visiting www.argyleinsure.com.  Be sure to check out all our episodes on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch the video version of this episode by visiting duckcreek.com/podcasts. Finally, out of more than 1800 insurance podcasts, Conversations on the Creek has been ranked in the top 50 best insurance podcasts by Feedspot. Check us out there and view the full list of podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/insurance_podcasts/

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky chats with Oliver Werneyer about the founding of Imburse, joining Duck Creek, and the importance of payments to the insurance industry.    Earlier in 2023, Oliver ""joined the flock"" upon Duck Creek's acquisition of Imburse. Imburse is a modern, SaaS platform that enables insures to quickly connect to the entire payments ecosystem. Through one single connection, insurers can access multiple payment technologies and providers from around the globe and manage their bill collections and claims payments.    We kick off the show by talking about Oliver's background and what prompted him to explore starting a company in the payments space.    Oliver then shares his thoughts on why payments is such a critical touchpoint for enhancing customer experience. He then goes on to share his perspective on the recent bank failures in the US, and some lessons learned for the insurance industry.    We conclude the show with a discussion around what's next for Imburse and the main things Oliver is thinking about as he continues to fulfill Imburse's mission of simplifying insurer’s access to the payments ecosystem.    Learn more about Imburse by visiting https://imbursepayments.com/.    Be sure to check out all our other episodes and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and visit duckcreek.com/podcasts.          

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Zach May fills in as host to chat with Tim Greene of Verisk about wildfire risk and the role of smoke damage, and how advances in new data sources can help insurers better manage the risk.  The show kicks off with Tim recapping the past couple of years of wildfire trends. From there, they delve more specifically into the role of smoke damage, including its financial impact during claims. Tim also shares his thoughts on what homeowners can do to protect themselves from smoke damage and how insurers can work more closely with their policyholders to mitigate potential losses. Next, the conversation turns towards discussing new approaches to leveraging data to better assess smoke damage and utilizing it to make predictions of future losses. Finally, the episode wraps up with Tim providing his own predictions of wildfire risk for the remainder of 2023. Note: this episode was recorded prior to the 2023 Canadian wildfires, where smoke has affected air quality across a large portion of the U.S. Learn more about our partnership and integrations with Verisk by visiting duckcreek.com/partner/verisk/. Be sure to check out all our other episodes and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and visit duckcreek.com/podcasts.      

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky and Mathew Stordy chat with Tanner Sheehan of LexisNexis Risk Solutions about optimizing the auto claims customer experience.   We kick off the show by asking Tanner about some of the key takeaways from his whitepaper on U.S. auto claims trends, which provides insights into consumers’ perception of the claims experience and the reasons why some consumers opt to switch or consider switching auto insurers while others do not.   From there, we had a lively discussion around some of the emerging data sources that are helping propel insurers to reduce time to close claims, and the varying levels of sophistication for how insurers are adopting 3rd party data to improve customer experience.   We then dive into chatting about connected cars and future opportunities for insurers to leverage crash detection data and other telematics when an accident happens.   Finally, we close out the show with Tanner providing his future vision for how he sees auto insurers using data and analytics in their core claims systems.    You can find Tanner's auto claims trends white paper by visiting https://propertycasualty360.tradepub.com/free/w_lexi83//.   To learn about our ten integrations with LexisNexis Risk Solutions, go to https://www.duckcreek.com/content-exchange/ and use the filter for “LexisNexis”.   Be sure to check out all our other episodes and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and visit duckcreek.com/podcasts. 

Microsoft is a strategic partner and investor in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT and other AI models. Given Microsoft’s recent $10B USD investment in the company, Rob Savitsky and Scott Field sat down to chat with Bob Breynaert of Microsoft about how insurers can leverage ChatGPT and other OpenAI models to enhance customer experience.  We begin by talking about ChatGPT’s ability to have human-like conversations and why it can do so more effectively than the previous generations of bots. From there, Bob shares his thoughts on how insurers can utilize various OpenAI models for use cases such as speech to text transformation to capture a claimant’s description of events during the scene of an accident, contact center automation, and rapid response communication during extreme events. You can learn more about our partnership with Microsoft by visiting duckcreek.com/partner/microsoft/.  Be sure to check out all our other episodes and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and duckcreek.com/podcasts.

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky sits down with Duck Creek Co-Founder and VP of Product Strategy, Andy Yohn, to discuss the founding and evolution of Duck Creek. We start off by discussing the early days at the company, and how in the year 2000, Andy teamed up with co-founders Doug Roller, John Roller, Becky Roller, Kerrick Tweedy, Barry Tate, Ken Toler and high school graduate, Devon Clasby to build a low-code, rating engine that would forever change the way that P&C insurers would build and manage insurance products. From there, Andy recounts various milestones as Duck Creek evolved and expanded the company from being a single product to a suite of SaaS core system applications and add-on modules. From teaming up with now Duck Creek CEO, Michael Jackowski at Accenture, to the various acquisitions the company has made along the way in areas such as data insights, distribution management and producer self-service, reinsurance management, and payments, to the growth of the Duck Creek ecosystem of SIs and Solution Partners, it’s been an entrepreneurial journey with an exciting chapter ahead! To close out the show, Rob, takes some inspiration from the “How I Built This” podcast and asks Andy: How much of your success do you think is because of your hard work and your skill, and how much because of luck?  As referenced on the show, IVAN’s podcast episode where Doug Roller shares his perspective on the origin of Duck Creek can be found here: https://www.insurtechpod.com/episodes/the-mighty-duck-creek/  Check out all our other episodes, leave us a review and follow Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky and Mathew Stordy chat with Bryan Falchuk about the future of insurance personalization.   As the President and CEO of the Property and Liability Resource Bureau (PLRB), and also an insurance & insurtech advisor and thought leader at insurance Evolution Partners, Bryan had lot to say on this topic!   We kick off the show by getting Bryan’s take on what “personalized customer experiences” means to him.   From there, we ask Bryan for his perspective on the industry’s adoption of text messaging (SMS) and the varying levels of sophistication in its use within the claims process for improving customer experience.   As the episode progresses, the conversation goes in several different directions: we chat about the pros and cons of using third-party data for personalization, use cases for leveraging AI/ML to provide more tailored and relevant experiences, and the state of usage-based insurance (UBI) and telematics for personalizing auto insurance.   To learn more about Bryan and his company, Property and Liability Resource Bureau (PLRB) visit their respective websites: http://future-of-insurance.com/, and https://www.plrb.org/.   To learn more about how Duck Creek can help insurers provide more personalized experiences, visit https://www.duckcreek.com/personalize-experiences-across-the-policy-lifecycle/.   Check out all our other episodes and follow Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and www.duckcreek.com/podcasts.

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, Rob Savitsky and Shreyas Chakravarthy Vasanthkumar sit down with Simon Torrance, an independent advisor, corporate venture builder, keynote speaker, and an investor at Embedded Finance & Super App Strategies and at MetaFlight, to chat about all things embedded insurance.

On this episode of Conversations on the Creek, we’re happy to welcome this month's guest, Martina Conlon, Head of the Property & Casualty Insurance at Aite-Novarica. Martina has extensive experience in IT strategy, best practices, organizational approaches, and technology architecture, and is the primary researcher and author of market-leading reports on agent portals, core systems, business intelligence, and technology strategy. Martina will share her insights with Duck Creek's Chris D'Souza into the challenges facing P&C insurers as they seek to accelerate product innovation, how insurer's are planning and prioritizing these initiatives for personal and commercial lines, and the key attributes insurers look for in a modern core system to sustain innovation at scale.   Learn more about AiteNovarica by visiting www.aite-novarica.com.   As a companion to this podcast, we invite you to download Duck Creek's Guide to Accelerating Speed to Market by visiting https://info.duckcreek.com/practical-guide-accelerate-speed-to-market-2   Check out all our other episodes and subscribe to Conversations on the Creek on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and https://www.duckcreek.com/podcasts/.