Digital transformation has been the talk world-over since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here’s why it still is the most crucial part of today’s insurance world

“We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security — we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.” – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Nadella said this about Microsoft’s growth in the initial months of the pandemic, but the industry leader’s words hold true for every sector including insurance.

The Covid-19 pandemic jumpstarted digital transformations that were in the nascent stage around the world. Whether they were up for it or not, insurers worldwide had to adapt to meet the evolved demands of the world under lockdown.

How can we continue business operations, how can we adapt, and how do we ensure continued service? were questions on the top of insurers’ minds in 2020.

As Nadella pointed out, thanks to Covid-19, the pace of digital transformation has gone up by 10x speed in the past two years. It’s sure been a roller coaster ride for businesses worldwide and insurers are in constant anticipation of what’s next in store for the industry.

A survey by Guidewire in November 2020, on the insurance industry’s top imperatives for 2021, showed insurers were ready for change. Digital transformation emerged as the winner among 10 imperatives presented to the insurers surveyed, with 33% of them saying digital transformation would be their No. 1 priority. Delivering service excellence, profit growth, and increasing speed-to-market were among the other priorities – all of which can be accelerated with digital transformation.

Title: The Guidewire 2020 survey

 Guidewire 2020 survey results


The survey was taken eight months after the pandemic hit the world hard. A year and a half later and with the pandemic still raging on, Guidewire did a quick poll to revisit these imperatives and check how insurers felt the industry was doing on the digital transformation front. The poll respondents included insurers and vendors that support the industry.

  • 12% of respondents felt the industry was owning this race to digital transformation
  • 21% felt the job insurers were doing was only so-so.
  • While 10% felt the industry has not made any progress on the digital transformation front, an overwhelming 57% of insurers were confident that insurers have made or are making significant progress.

Guidewire latest survey results

Of the 243 responses to this poll, not one insurer responded saying that they were killing it on the digital transformation front. For that and that reason alone, digital transformation should continue to be the top priority for the industry in 2022 as well.

Here are some more reasons why digital transformation is not just an option for insurers anymore:

  • To stay competitive – Or fellow insurers will leave you for the digitized world and take your customers with them
  • To retain customers – Without digital capabilities, you will not be able to meet customer demands of being accessible anywhere and anytime and cater to their needs immediately. This is crucial for them to continue business with you
  • To plan your future roadmap – Charting your business’ future growth is as important as keeping the day-to-day operations smooth. This roadmap is impossible to create without advanced tools such as AI-enabled data analytics. You simply cannot overlook the importance of analytics and predicting customer behavior for business success. It’s strongly tied to customer satisfaction, which is the driving point of any business.

Start looking at where you stand and for ways to speed up your insurance digital transformation journey today.

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