More than 200 leading minds from the insurance industry, technology and politics met at the Macherei Design Offices in Munich for the InsurTech Hub Munich's Insurance Innovation Night 2024. The event revolved around a central theme: the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the insurance industry. Top-class speakers, innovative contributions from start-ups and intensive discussions made one thing clear: the scaling of AI not only brings challenges, but also enormous opportunities. However, in order to exploit this potential, great efforts, targeted knowledge transfer and a clear spirit of innovation are required.
Dr. Markus Juppe - BavariaDirekt & VKB / Dr. Josef Adersberger - QAware / Carolin Rudelbach - Allianz / Martin Gräfer - die Bayerische Moderation: Claudia Fell - Roland Berger
AI and insurance - a perfect symbiosis
The Insurance Innovation Night impressively rounded off the annual theme of "Scaling AI in the insurance industry" (Scale AI). As Miriam Hook emphasized in her welcome address, the coming years are a key phase: "The transition from the pilot phase to successful scaling is crucial in order to harness the immense potential of AI for the insurance industry."
Hubert Aiwanger, Bavarian Minister of State for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, Deputy Minister President and patron of the event, came with a clear message: "We need to overcome old ways of thinking and become more ideology-free in order to drive innovation forward." Markus Blume, Bavarian Minister of State for Science and the Arts, added in his subsequent speech the central role of AI for economic competitiveness: "Artificial intelligence is a basic technology for all industries."
Prof. Dr. Christian Stummeyer from Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences directly followed up on this demand with his keynote speech. In his presentation "A cross-industry view on AI-enabled customers and how to serve them", he emphasized the opportunities offered by AI to address customers in an efficient and personalized manner. His key statement: "The dream team of the future consists of employees and AI working together in hybrid form!" He also emphasized that AI learns differently because it does not know our conventions and appealed to the industry to create an ethical framework to shape AI responsibly.
Exploring synergies: The interplay of artificial and human intelligence
The panel discussion "How AI is rewriting the rules of the game in sales" , moderated by Claudia Fell (Roland Berger), shed light on how artificial intelligence is transforming insurance sales from different perspectives. The focus was on key topics such as the acceptance of AI, the interplay between human and artificial intelligence and best practices for the successful use of new technologies. The discussion made it clear that innovation requires not only technological advances, but also a human-centered approach and transparent communication in order to exploit the full potential of AI. Key takeaways from the discussion:
- Martin Gräfer (die Bayerische): It is crucial to take fears about AI seriously and at the same time encourage the desire for innovation.
- Carolin Rudelbach (Allianz): The success of AI depends on a "human-in-the-middle" approach - a harmonious interaction between man and machine.
- Dr. Markus Juppe (BavariaDirekt & VKB): Transparency towards customers is crucial in order to create acceptance.
- Dr. Josef Adersberger (QWare): The more complex the tasks, the more humans are required. At the same time, AI enables time-efficient and personalized customer interactions.
Best practices: How AI is scaled and implemented
After the discussions, participating start-ups from this year's SCALE AI program and partner companies demonstrated how AI solutions are successfully applied in practice:
- Muffintech & PMA: Demonstrated how Conversational AI boosts agent efficiency and increases sales closures by up to 30%.
- Cognigy & ARAG: Presented the use of voice bots to optimize the customer journey and streamline processes.
- Google & NTT Data: Combined their expertise in generative AI to develop and implement concrete value-added ideas for insurers.
AI in Europe: Decisions today for the competitiveness of tomorrow
Are we in Germany and Europe competitive in the international AI context? Dr. Björn Bringmann from Deloitte shed light on this question in an insightful keynote speech. Based on a recent study on global and German developments in the field of artificial intelligence, he showed that although Europe is investing heavily in AI innovations, it still has challenges to overcome in an international comparison in order to secure its long-term competitiveness. The message was clear: the decisions we make today are crucial to ensuring Europe's future viability in the global AI landscape. The subsequent panel discussion with Prof. Dr. Diane Robers (EBS), Dr. Björn Bringmann (Deloitte) and Dr. Klaus Driever (ITHM) emphasized the prerequisites for Europe's competitiveness and the role of the insurance industry as a driver of innovation.
Networking, awards and a successful finale
"The Insurance Innovation Night 2024 has impressively demonstrated how crucial it is to bring state-of-the-art InsurTech solutions to Europe and Germany - especially in times of rapid innovation and increasingly fierce technological competition between locations. The InsurTech Hub Munich from business, science, politics and start-ups shows how this change can be successfully shaped. Artificial intelligence opens up enormous opportunities for the insurance industry," says Dr. Klaus Driever, CEO of InsurTech Hub Munich, summarizing the importance of the event.
The Insurance Innovation Night 2024 offered plenty of opportunities for networking in a relaxed atmosphere. A special highlight was the award ceremony. With prizes such as the Transformative Impact Award (die Bayerische), the Collaborative Excellence Award (VAARHAFT), the Most Engaged Partner Award (Hiscox Germany) and the Scale AI Award (HUK-COBURG), companies were honored for their special commitment to the InsurTech Hub Munich, great openness to collaboration or a clear focus on the business impact of innovation.
The Insurance Innovation Night: the perfect combination of expertise, vision and community.
