More than 500 people attended the two-day ANZIIF Insurtech Conference in Sydney last week to engage with thought leaders and experts.

The conference is designed to connect insurers, start-ups and incubators from across Asia-Pacific to drive new thinking.

Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) CEO Prue Willsford says the turnout is testament to the way the insurance industry embraces technology.

“It was great to see so many people in attendance with a shared passion for insurtech,” she said.

The Envest TechTank seminar saw five competing entrepreneurs showcase their companies for a guaranteed place at this year’s Insurtech Delegation. Margot Birbeck, Executive Director of inQuba, won with her pitch on customer journey management. She will attend the Insurtech Connect Conference in Las Vegas or the Digital Insurance Agenda Conference in Munich.

Speakers at last week’s conference included Munich Re Digital Partners CEO Andy Rear, who told delegates insurtech “hype” is set to become reality.

He predicts insurance will have its own “Uber moment” and some incumbents will disappear, but he adds the process will take much longer than many assume.

“Will major insurance brands go bankrupt over the next 20 years? Of course they will,” he said.

Mr Rear recommends incumbents move quickly to buy into start-up competitors, even if it means paying over the odds.

“The alternative is to stay away and wait and see who wins,” he said. “But it is very difficult to fix your business in the face of rapid change. The danger is that you are hit by a technological typhoon.

“If you look back in 20 years and ask where it went wrong, you will think it was now, when you decided to sit back.”

Catriona Wallace, CEO and founder of listed machine learning company Flamingo Ai, told the conference there is no need to fear new technology.

She says artificial intelligence (AI) will increase efficiency and spark revenue growth, but is unlikely to result in large-scale redundancy.

The audience heard that by 2026 40% of financial services jobs will be automated. And in just two years machines will handle 30% of all customer interactions.

Dr Wallace says AI has been compared to the invention of fire and the discovery of electricity.

“It is not a disruptor but a transformative power. AI is not just an analytics tool that helps underwriters make better decisions, but can… answer a question, sell an insurance policy and conduct a claim.”

Dr Wallace says when the financial services industry started to send jobs overseas there was “great panic” about the loss of local jobs.

But she says this did not occur, and predicts it will be the same with AI. “Every time we have been at a time of history like this, there hasn’t been great job loss and new jobs are created.”

The ANZIIF event is Australia’s premier insurtech conference and the only one backed by Insurtech Australia and InsurTech NZ.

Insurance News was the event’s Media Partner.