The insurance industry continues to be a hotbed of patent innovation. Activity is driven by digitalization, personalization, and growing importance of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, and cybersecurity in insurance documentation and data analytics, predictive risk assessment, fraud detection, and smart policy management. In the last three years alone, there have been over 9,000 patents filed and granted in the insurance industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial intelligence in insurance: smart health risk assessment. Buy the report here.
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However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilizing and reaching maturity.
Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.
25+ innovations will shape the insurance industry
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the insurance industry using innovation intensity models built on over 75,000 patents, there are 25+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Within the emerging innovation stage, repair estimation AI, treatment expense prediction and underwriting AI are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Smart policy management, AI in driver risk profiling and smart vehicle damage assessment are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas is automated weather forecasting, which is now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for artificial intelligence in the insurance industry
Smart health risk assessment is a key innovation area in artificial intelligence
Smart health risk assessment AI refers to the use of advanced technologies, such as machine learning and wearable devices, to evaluate an individual's health condition and determine their risk of developing certain health conditions or diseases. By analyzing biometric parameters, health attributes, and genetic data, smart health risk assessment systems can generate personalized health scores and provide valuable insights into an individual's overall health status. Life and health insurers use smart health risk assessment AI to optimize underwriting risk management and customize insurance policies to the specific needs of individual customers.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 260 companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of smart health risk assessment.
Key players in smart health risk assessment – a disruptive innovation in the insurance industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of applications identified for each patent. It broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of countries each patent is registered in. It reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to smart health risk assessment
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2022) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| Taikang Insurance Group | 57 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Expanse Bioinformatics | 52 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Oracle | 49 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Microsoft | 46 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Omron | 43 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hi.Q | 36 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Theator | 34 | Unlock Company Profile |
| UnitedHealth Group | 33 | Unlock Company Profile |
| 23andMe | 27 | Unlock Company Profile |
| The Allstate | 26 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Ping An Insurance (Group) | 25 | Unlock Company Profile |
| The Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation | 25 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Humana | 24 | Unlock Company Profile |
| SomaLogic | 23 | Unlock Company Profile |
| CVS Health | 23 | Unlock Company Profile |
| The Hartford Financial Services Group | 23 | Unlock Company Profile |
| State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance | 20 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Swiss Re Asia Pacific | 19 | Unlock Company Profile |
| DAYA Medicals | 16 | Unlock Company Profile |
| hc1.com | 16 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Swiss Re | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Clarify Health Solutions | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Verisk Analytics | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Alibaba Group | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Moody's | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| OptumHealth Care Solutions | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Intersections | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Quality Healthcare Intermediary | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Abbott Laboratories | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Express Scripts Insurance | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Omron Tateisi Electronics | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| USAA | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
| International Business Machines | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Quality Standards | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Terumo | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Advanced Medical Solutions Group | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Sony Group | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Koninklijke Philips | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Fujifilm | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hitachi | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Bank of America | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| 3M | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Rite Aid | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Taikang Pension Insurance | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Healthcare Interactive | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| dacadoo | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Furukawa | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| ROM Technologies | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Taikang Insurance Group, one of the largest life insurance companies in China, is one of the leading patent filers in technologies associated with smart health risk assessment. The company filed patents related to methods, apparatus, medium and electronic equipment for processing and managing health information, creating health prediction models using machine learning, and forecasting diseases based on the input of the core physical examination data into a health prediction model.
Some of the other leading patent filers in the smart health risk assessment space include Expanse Bioinformatics, Oracle, and Omron.
In terms of application diversity, Microsoft held the top position, while hc1.com and Intersections stood in second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Expanse Bioinformatics leads the pack, followed by Microsoft and Theator.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the insurance industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Insurance.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
