Emerging and converging technologies are reshaping the insurance industry, to the point that it may hardly be recognizable in a decade’s time. The business of insuring against risk is being transformed by a variety of trends and technologies. Here are a few examples. Drones If you’ve seen footage of the aftermath of the recent flooding…

In the coming decade, the confluence of three major technological trends will generate seismic shifts in the property and casualty insurance industry. Specifically, exponential advances in artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and Big Data will lead to the creation of new and unconventional competitors; spawn the formation of new business models; and…

Yesterday, I addressed the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Society (CPCU) on the future of insurance industry. Given the advances in data analytics, the “Internet of Things,” robotics and collaborative consumption, I told them—perhaps not unsurprisingly—to expect big changes, including the possibility of new competitors. One of the more unconventional competitors on the horizon is Google….

The future may be unknowable. This does not, however, imply it can’t be prepared for. Below are just five future risks I have—and will—address in various keynote presentations to the insurance industry in the coming months. 1. Economic instability: Foxconn, the large Chinese electronic manufacturer, recently announced a hiring freeze. Eventually, this “freeze” will turn…

Late last year, I reported mobile web video conferencing was expected to grow 250-fold by 2015. Not surprisingly, I suggested this would impact how a great many people conducted their work. To this end, the field of tele-psychiatry is now taking off. To understand, consider this statement from a professional using tele-confernecing to consult with…

What if you could be enticed into saving more money just by being made to look older? What if you could be encouraged to exercise with greater regularity by appearing to be more overweight, and what if you could be made to become more environmentally-conscious by cutting down “virtual” trees. The aforementioned ideas might sound…

A series of recent articles suggest that future earnings for “20-somethings” may be depressed in the future. That might very well be the case, but economists are historically awful at predicting how future technologies will disrupt old industries and jobs, create entirely new ones as well as change human behavior in some unexpected ways. Regardless…

(Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, 20/20 Foresight: 20 Trends Which Will Transform Business in the Coming Decade, which I am writing with the able assistance of fellow futurist Simon Anderson, host of www.futur1st.com. This chapter covers trends in the emerging field of gaming dynamics.) A restroom in a Japanese pub might…

Over the past few months, I have delivered a number of insurance oriented keynotes and, later this week, I’ll be addressing the LOMA Conference on Emerging Technologies for the Insurance Industry. While I cover a wide variety of trends in the information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology sectors, here are five trends already impacting the insurance…

As someone who has written two books on the topic of nanotechnology, including The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business, I’m well aware of the field’s immense potential. As a professional futurist, however, I am always cautioning my clients to be aware of “black swans”–or large…