Insurers must shake off their inertia and make plans to remain relevant in a landscape that is already being reshaped by new technologies, Lloyd’s CEO Inga Beale says.

The industry is significantly behind other financial services players that have taken more proactive steps to innovate and adopt digitalisation in operations and product rollouts.

Unless insurers start changing their mindset, they face being overtaken by non-traditional competitors such as insurtechs and wider fintech businesses.

“New technology is transforming the way we work and is allowing the competition to do it better than we can,” Ms Beale said. “I am concerned that as a sector we are sleepwalking into this new world at a time when we need to be fully aware of what is going on around us.

“But the greater forces buffeting our shores require us to pull our heads out of the sand and look to the horizon, because it’s the long-term play we make today that will determine the success of our industry in the future.”

The industry is aware of the pressing need to have a technology DNA, but is somehow still reluctant to push through necessary changes. Driverless cars, Big Data and the use of artificial intelligence to assess catastrophes are some of the obvious factors reshaping the way the industry works.

Ms Beale says the industry has moved to address the technology challenge, but the pace is not fast enough.

“The strange thing is we know the urgency and yet there is inertia,” she said.

“We all need to up our game if we are to see off the competition and offer our customers the kind of seamless, efficient service they are used to getting from other business sectors.

“We need to do more to encourage a culture in which invention is encouraged and celebrated.

“We need to close the insurance gap and convince our customers that we can deliver what they want us to.”