Insurers are investing heavily in cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, but many continue to struggle to translate those investments into faster business decisions.

This was a central theme at a recent Insurtech Insights webinar on building the agile insurance enterprise, featuring Earnix vice president of global solutions Drew Lawyer.

Earnix’s analysis highlights the gap between technological investment and operational results, with connected decision-making emerging as a priority for insurers seeking to improve pricing, underwriting, profitability and customer experiences. Bupa head of strategy Roddy Barnes and Prudential engineering leader Rohan Rayarikar joined Lawyer to explore why digital investment does not automatically lead to greater business agility.

Rayarikar argued that the insurance industry’s biggest challenge is not a lack of technology, but a failure to make decisions efficiently. While cloud migrations and AI initiatives continue to expand, insurers still need to improve how quickly they respond to market changes, assess risk and deliver relevant services to customers and intermediaries.

He said the industry has traditionally treated technology as a separate tool rather than embedding it into everyday workflows. The conventional proposition was, “here is a system, here is technology that can help your life.” Rayarikar believes insurers should instead build an integrated path from customer intent to business decision, allowing information to follow customers through underwriting, pricing and engagement without requiring them or their advisers to repeatedly provide the same context.

The challenge is particularly significant for large organisations. Prudential’s field force includes more than 90,000 financial professionals, creating a substantial requirement for relevant information to be available at the point of decision.

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