Insight 1: The full digital transformation of the insurance industry is driving the full digital transformation of insurance agents
At present, some leading insurance companies in the industry have accelerated their digital transformation based on the application of insurance in product development, sales and distribution, customer management, insurance underwriting, policy management, customer service, and claims management, based on their respective advantages. Existing insurance agents should also actively participate in this “digital” revolution.
Insight 2: Insurance agents are at risk of being replaced by specialized intelligent robots
With the development of intelligent technology, some basic, routine, and repetitive tasks will be undertaken by insurance intelligent robots, and some marketing links may be “intelligent”, “unmanned” and “real-time”, and some insurance agents will face the risk of being replaced by intelligent robots. However, intelligent robots cannot provide warm services, and it is difficult to stimulate insurance awareness in different people, so the replacement of intelligent robots is only partial.
Insight 3: Insurtech-induced ‘fuzziness’ of underwriting boundaries will subvert insurance agents’ business logic
The development of insurtech has greatly expanded insurance application scenarios and blurred the original insurable risk boundaries. With the popularization of Internet technology, the convenience of insurance claims and claims has been greatly improved, and consumers have created new demands for fragmented and high-frequency insurance products. In this context, insurance agents need to use big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and other technologies to improve risk loss measurement and insurance precision services, break the homogeneous competition pattern of insurance products, and help differentiated development of insurance products.
Insight 4: Insurance agents need to be “data-driven” to provide customers with full-cycle personalized services
We are in a highly digital age of connectivity, with new demands for the quick response and a high level of personalization of insurance services. Unlike traditional data, today’s “big data” can be complemented with real-time information from sensors, weather data, location and traffic updates, etc., enabling better understanding and forecasting of insurance needs. Insurance agents need to make full use of these data to promote the personalization of products and services to meet the specific needs of different customer groups and provide customers with competitive and personalized insurance solutions.
Insight 5: Insurance agents will need to adapt to ubiquitous, ever-present “tech-based” regulation in the future
The vigorous development of insurtech has brought technical risks, data, and information security risks, and even induced systemic risks, forcing regulators to respond vigorously. In the future, it will be possible to introduce “technology-based” supervision to realize the modernization and transformation of insurance supervision, to better cope with the risks and regulatory challenges caused by insurance technology.
Insight 6: Insurance agents need to strengthen their professional norms to avoid becoming “initiators” and “communicators” of risks
The development of science and technology and the market has made the connection between the various actors in my country’s insurance market more closely. With the improvement of business cross-cutting, the speed and depth of risk transmission between various subjects are also increasing, and systemic risks may become destructive. An important hidden danger to the stable operation of my country’s insurance industry. Insurance agents need to adhere to professional norms, improve professional quality, and avoid becoming the “initiator” and “spreader” of risks.
Insight 7: Insurance entering the “Awakening Era” will drive insurance agents to iterate product logic and market logic
Under the epidemic situation, people mostly use the Internet to obtain information in a more diversified manner, which accelerates the speed of people’s access to information and also promotes changes in people’s perception of insurance products. With the deepening of people’s knowledge of insurance, insurance products have become relatively simple, customers can understand insurance products to a certain extent, and the objects of insurance agents selling products no longer know anything about insurance products. Therefore, insurance agents need to fully understand the changes in consumers’ perception of insurance and truly provide them with the products and services they need from the perspective of customers.
Insight 8: “Internet” consumption model drives the transformation of traditional insurance sales to Internet insurance sales
Actively promoting the Internet insurance business has quickly become a necessary choice for enterprises to maintain a good operating condition. At the same time, it also helps enterprises to achieve precise market segmentation and maintain long-term relationships with customers. The Internet model can more efficiently reach, disseminate and change more people’s perceptions of their risks and their demand for insurance protection through lower-cost services. Therefore, some traditional insurance sales are subtly turning to Internet insurance sales.
Insight 9: Insurance agents need to shift to an “insurance broker” mindset
Insurance agents need to transform into the thinking of “insurance brokers”, that is, from thinking based on the interests of insurers to thinking based on the interests of policyholders, from selling established products as the goal to meeting customer needs as the goal, from The task of completing the sales behavior has been transformed into a way of thinking that serves the whole process from underwriting to claims. Only in this way can we truly base ourselves on customer needs and provide better services to our customers.
Insight 10: Insurance agents need to guard against unemployment crises as “pyramid” teams weaken or disappear
The “human sea tactics” in my country’s insurance market have reached a bottleneck. Internet platforms and artificial intelligence will threaten marketers with poor service levels, and insurance agents will change from large-scale to elite. Under the new economic and social background, insurance agents need to strive to improve their business development capabilities to prevent the unemployment crisis caused by the weakening or disappearance of the “pyramid” team.
Insight 11: Insurance agents need to use business development platforms to continuously expand business development channels
Compared with traditional forms, insurance agents empowered by technology can expand their business development channels through the Internet, and rely on artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, and other technologies to analyze the multi-level needs of users, to realize targeted service plans. In the future, the breadth and depth of insurance sales will continue to expand, and the business development methods of agents will become more diverse.
Insight 12: The overall quality of insurance agents needs to be improved urgently, and the responsibility for intermediary management needs to be continuously strengthened
To establish a good industry environment, the government should formulate corresponding regulatory policies in response to the problems of uneven quality of practitioners in the agent market and the need to improve the management system, emphasizing the strengthening of insurance companies’ relationship with intermediary channel partners and insurance institutions. The management responsibility of sales practitioners requires the establishment of an insurance intermediary information system, and at the same time, the rectification of adverse market phenomena to solve problems such as insufficient consumer trust. In the future, the management responsibility of insurance intermediaries still needs to be continuously strengthened.
Insight 13: Self-regulatory organizations in the insurance agent industry are gradually improving
The insurance agency supervision system of the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and other countries adopts a dual supervision model that combines government management and industry self-discipline. Industry self-regulatory organizations can serve as a useful supplement to government supervision, and implement self-discipline and management through coordination and cooperation within the industry. my country can refer to this dual supervision model to further improve the self-regulatory organization of the insurance industry, strengthen the self-management of the insurance industry, and enhance the supervision function of the industry self-regulatory organization.
Insight 14: The selection mechanism of insurance agents is more standardized
At present, my country has canceled the qualification examination for insurance practitioners, and there is no standardized examination system for the admission and selection of agents. In the future, we can learn from the foreign agent qualification examination and training system to improve the entry threshold of agents, and at the same time provide agents with a variety of self-improvement channels, encourage agents to continuously learn the latest industry policies and trends in the process of practicing, and Keep up with the times.
Insight 15: Independent personal insurance agents are an important transformational trend
The independent individual insurance agent system has broken the original sales distribution pattern and provided more capable salesmen with the opportunity to innovate and start a business and increase their income. In the long run, this system is conducive to promoting the separation of production and sales in the insurance industry, reducing the management costs of insurance companies, improving the professionalism and professionalism of practitioners, better-benefiting consumers, and achieving a win-win situation for all parties. With the improvement of the system and the improvement of the relevant laws and regulations, the independent individual insurance agent system will be fully promoted and implemented in my country.
Insight 16: Insurance agents will face a multi-tiered structure model
Traditional agents, insurance agents empowered by technology, and independent personal agents have their advantages, and there are also differences in the customer groups they face. At the same time, my country can learn from foreign consultant-type agent systems to provide customers with a series of consulting services for family wealth management and expand the income channels of agents by charging consultant fees. For some time to come, multiple types of agents will co-exist to provide consumers with the insurance agency and consulting services.
Insight 17: Insurance agents will become more specialized and professional
my country’s agents, especially life insurance agents, have obvious part-time features. Compared with part-time agents, full-time agents have lower training costs, higher efficiency, and generally higher career development capabilities and service levels. The specialization and professionalization of agents will become the development trend of the future intermediary market.
