InsureWell and Algebraix Data to Collaborate on Big Data Analytics for Insurance Industry

By Christopher Mohr
TMCnet Contributing Writer

InsureWell recently announced a business relationship with Algebraix Data (AD) where both would develop technology for machine learning and big data analytics for the life insurance industry. The partnership is illustrative of how the availability of big data technology allows insurance providers to be more competitive.

InsureWell is a San Diego-based company that provides income protection quotes. While not an insurance company it acts instead as an advocate that finds the best plan for each customer’s needs. Based nearby the city of Encinitas, CA (News - Alert), Algebraix Data Corporation provides graph analytics as a service to customers seeking business intelligence solutions.

Few, if any industries rely on data more heavily than the insurance industry as the data is key to determining risk and thus the price of policies.

The availability of big data technology provides a more accurate picture of the risk behind a policy. One reason is that by definition you get more data points than with historical information. Another reason is timeliness. Data is being obtained and evaluated more quickly, so it more accurately reflects the current state of risk. Because this information is more accurate, it allows providers to be more competitive with pricing.

Big data analytics also help with detecting fraud. It makes it easier for companies to examine large quantities of data and evaluate it rapidly. This combined with analyzing data from unstructured sources like social media posts allows claims that appear to be fraudulent to be flagged for further examination.

The announcement of the InsureWell-Algebraix Data relationship is indicative of the direction the insurance industry is headed. While it might not be accurate to categorize policies from the past as ‘one size fits all’, they lacked a certain level of granularity and relied on data that may not have been up-to-date and were therefore more likely to be less accurate.

It’s a great time to be an insurance customer, because the industry is more competitive and now has the ability to capture more data more frequently which has spurred intense competition. Companies can now offer more customer-centric policies that are priced accurately to protect their interests, but still compete on price. For some customers however, the news is not all good. Those who commit fraud will have a more difficult time getting away with it than they did before.