Halloween has always been a much celebrated holiday at Cake & Arrow. Over the years, we’ve learned to adapt our holiday traditions to contemporary working conditions, one of us Zooming in from our perch in outer space, another making a comfortable cushion of a giant inflatable dinosaur tail at a conference room table at our office in Flatiron.
This year, we’ll be creating some new holiday traditions as we celebrate Halloween for the first time ever in Vegas, where we’ll be attending what has come to be known as “the Super Bowl of insurance.” InsureTech Connect brings together the best and brightest minds across insurance, insurtech, and beyond. It’s a conference we attend as much for the networking as we do for the conference sessions. For those of us focused on advancing the customer experience, ITC provides an unparalleled opportunity to take the pulse of CX innovation across the industry.
After combing through this year’s stacked agenda, these are the four sessions I’m most eager to attend:
1. From good to great: Leveraging the power of personalization and leveraging data to improve customer experience
When: Wednesday, November 1: 10:30am – 11:05am
Who: Andrea Iorio, Columnist, MIT Technology Review, Brent Williams, CEO, President & Founder, Benekiva; Effi Fuks-Leichtag, CPO, NEXT Insurance; and Jackie Morales, SVP, COO, Security Benefit
The retail industry long ago proved the power of personalization and only now is the insurance industry starting to catch up. Still, personalization remains an elusive goal for many carriers. And while data is a critical aspect of any impactful personalization strategy, it’s most effectively leveraged alongside deep customer insights derived from user research.
This session promises insights into tangible strategies for taking personalization efforts to the next level. I’m interested to see how the panelists view the role of user research and I’m hopeful it will inspire enhancing personalization in a way that adds real value for customers.
2. Creating a seamless omnichannel experience for insurance customers
When: Wednesday, November 1: 2:00pm-2:35pm
Who: Alex Scherbakovsky, General Partner, AXA Venture Partners
The term omnichannel has been all the buzz at insurtech conferences for 3-4 years and counting but has anyone truly mastered it? And does the industry even agree on what it means? For some omnichannel simply means having an app or a social media presence, but a true omnichannel experience will meet customers where they are at and will reflect a well-researched customer journey–not just assume that because there’s an app it’s solving the problem.
From Cake & Arrow’s perspective, humanizing the omnichannel experience is the true north of any omnichannel approach. I’m excited to hear how the panelists are working to enhance connections and consistency across channels to drive more meaningful customer relationships.
3. The generative AI revolution and path to value in insurance
When: Thursday, November 2: 10:30am – 11:05am
Who: Anju Gupta, VP – Data Sciences and Analytics, Northwestern Mutual, VP – Data Sciences and Analytics; Attila Toth, CEO & Founder, Zesty.ai; Nick Milinkovich, Partner, McKinsey & Company; Scott Ham, CEO, Pinpoint Predictive
When new and exciting technologies emerge on the scene there is often a rush to embrace them immediately, if only to claim being among the first. And while early adoption can be a true differentiator, understanding what problems and needs the technology effectively addresses is critical to any winning technology adoption strategy.
At Cake & Arrow we have long practiced (and advocated for) identifying and understanding problems before jumping to solutions. Technology is great, but only when it’s solving a real problem. I’m interested to see how the panel is thinking about generative AI in context of the problems plaguing the insurance industry and am looking forward to hearing about how generative AI can enhance experiences when applied strategically to address human needs.
4. ChatGPT and Generative AI in insurance: Reality, hype, What’s Next, and how to prepare
When: Thursday, November 2: 2:00-2:35pm
Who: Alexandre Douzet, CEO – Pumpkin; Dr. Dave Rengachary, SVP – Head of Underwriting, US Mortality Markets RGA; Eugenio Gonzalez, Partner – Plug and Play Ventures; Simon Pelletier, Partner – Oliver Wyman; Yuval Man, CEO & Co-Founder – Digital Owl
As to my point above, is AI more than hype (my gut says yes)? And how and to what extent will it actually solve the problems the industry is facing? With AI advancing rapidly, this session could not be more timely. I’m eager to hear a pragmatic point of view on AI’s current capabilities and limitations, along with insights into how it may shape the future customer experience.
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If you will be attending ITC this year, we’d love to connect, talk about your user experience challenges, your goals for the coming year, and see if there are any creative ways we can partner together in the future.
See you in Vegas! Oh, and Happy Halloween 🎃
