The study highlights how the industry has been defined by three digital eras over the past seven years and how changes in market and industry dynamics have shaped the direction and strategies of companies and insurers along the way.

Over the past seven years new risks have emerged, customer behaviors and expectations changed and expanded, technology-driven capabilities and data sources accelerated, channels increased, partners and ecosystems formed, relentless growth of investment in the InsurTech market and a pandemic drove significant changes in the market.

As a result, the industry has seen three distinct digital eras in a short seven-year period: the Era of Digital Disruption, the Era of Digital Transformation and the Era of Digital Acceleration, this study reveals.

Plan for and anticipate the new generation of buyers

"As insurers look to keep pace and overcome challenges throughout each of these eras, staying informed, planning ahead and executing those plans has never been more critical", explains Denise Garth, chief strategy officer at Majesco.

"The changes we've seen over the past seven years have created a new generation of shoppers who see everything differently, in digital. The growing importance of innovative new products, value-added services, channels and customer experiences are only achieved by embracing advances in next-generation platform technologies, APIs, microservices, robust digital capabilities, new/non-traditional data sources and advanced AI/ML analytics to compete in a vastly changing market and a new generation of buyers", she says.

Leaders still have a big advantage

The past seven years can be summed up in one word: change. Strategic responses to these changes have redefined industry players into three categories: Leaders, Followers and Laggards, lists the report.

For Majesco over this period of time, the differences between them have remained the same, but the size of the differences continues to change. However, the experts warn: "One thing has not changed... The Leaders, represented at all levels, continue to accelerate the pace with a considerable gap that differentiates them from the Followers and Laggards".