Stewart Reeder
Head of Insurance, EMEA Markets Hitachi Digital Services
March 31, 2025
Over several days in March, thousands of industry leaders, innovators, and investors gathered at Insurtech Insights Europe 2025 to explore the future of insurance. Panels, workshops, and keynote speeches underscored that rapid AI adoption, customer-centric strategies, and navigating complex compliance challenges are shaping the industry’s trajectory.
1. AI Adoption as a Competitive Imperative
Artificial Intelligence, particularly Generative AI (GenAI), emerged as a dominant theme. Industry leaders widely acknowledged that GenAI will drive unprecedented productivity gains and efficiency improvements, potentially surpassing the adoption speeds witnessed during the early days of the internet.
Aditi Subbarao, Global Financial Services Industry Lead at Instabase, highlighted the rapid trajectory expected with GenAI integration: “Competition will also be driven by benefits of AI, which, until now, seems to be following the Solow paradox. Internet adoption/utilisation took 10-20 years to show improvements in productivity. With GenAI, it could be as short as 2-3 years to adopt, so within 2-5 years we’ll see a tangible impact of GenAI in businesses.” Indeed, this rapid adoption timeline could determine market leadership—making timely AI integration not just beneficial, but potentially existential for companies.
2. Collaboration Over Competition
A notable shift this year was the growing emphasis on strategic partnerships between traditional insurers, insurtech firms, and technology providers. Instead of competing directly with incumbent insurers, insurtechs are increasingly positioning themselves as enablers—offering specialized capabilities to enhance legacy processes.
Tom Erik Helle, Senior Solution Architect at Simplifai, emphasized this strategic approach: “Many insurers consider creating AI solutions themselves. If you decide to build an AI Platform yourself, you need to be ready to spend 50-60% of your time on hygiene factors, not business functionality.” Service providers and consultancies thus present a compelling value proposition—absorbing the significant investment in these foundational components, enabling insurers to focus on their core business capabilities.
3. Customer-Centric Transformation
Customer-centricity was the most frequently covered topic, with 12 dedicated events during the two-day conference. Innovations like embedded insurance, usage-based products, and personalized digital interactions illustrate the industry’s evolution towards customer-driven design. Insurers now recognize that engaging experiences and empathy-driven claims processes are critical differentiators. The ease of integrating Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing into claims processes has led many vendors and insurers to initiate their AI adoption journey in this area.
4. Underwriting, Risk Management and Connected Risk
Beyond customer engagement and compliance, two other prolific areas were Underwriting & Risk Assessment and Connected Risk. With 11 events focusing on Underwriting & Risk Assessment, the strong attendance from risk management platforms and supporting companies underscores their integral role in the insurance ecosystem, providing asset-level and hyperlocalized data essential for effective risk management. Data management and integration emerged as critical success factors for all AI and IoT-driven initiatives.
5. Navigating Compliance and Regulation
The rapidly expanding role of AI and digital platforms also raises regulatory concerns. Discussions underscored the need for balancing innovation with compliance, particularly with the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and the EU AI Act approaching in 2025. Hitachi Digital Services (HDS) welcomes these regulations as the AI transformation journey is still in the early stages. System integrators like HDS provide valuable cross-industry insights and collaborate closely with compliance and ethics teams to ensure responsible AI implementation.
Looking Ahead
Insurtech Insights Europe 2025 painted a clear picture: insurers must embrace AI-driven innovation, prioritize customer engagement, leverage strategic partnerships, and diligently navigate regulatory landscapes. Those who successfully balance these elements will be best positioned to lead in the rapidly transforming insurance marketplace.
For further insights or inquiries, please reach out to Demir Aykanat, Digital Strategy Lead, Demir.Aykanat@hitachids.com, or Stewart Reeder, Head of Insurance, Stewart.Reeder@hitachids.com
