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‘Data surge’ will create industry skills gap: Lloyd’s

The surge of data from emerging technologies will create a temporary skills gap in the insurance industry, Lloyd’s warns.

The market’s Head of Innovation Trevor Maynard says while traditional skills will remain important, the industry will see the emergence of the “purple underwriter” – someone with both data skills and domain knowledge.

The exponential growth of data from Internet of Things sensors will fundamentally change how insurers operate, allowing them to take remote corrective action to stop losses or reduce their impact, he says. As robotics, augmented reality, the Internet of Things and the sharing economy develop, data will become critical.

“That’s why we will need to love our data a lot more and love the people that love data a lot more.

“Because if we can’t map the data trends and understand what our claims data is telling us, we will not be able to compete in the future.”

He says insurers will be able to predict losses, creating new types of insurance based on forecast losses rather than responding after the fact.