June 2017 - Specialty insurance is a sector of the insurance industry defined by specialization in risk analysis and product design and a value chain with highly specialized buyers, sellers, and intermediaries. The process efficiency and automated decision-making benefits of technology have had less obvious value to specialty insurers than to others. But new developments in technology, especially in analytics and IoT, are starting to shift specialty insurers’ mindsets.

Specialty insurers are starting to realize that product innovation is inhibited by legacy systems and practices and that digital communications can be used to enhance, rather than replace, high-value relationships.