Lombard talks #disruption

This morning Ian Gatley, head of data management at Lombard Insurance, one of CN&Co partners, spoke at the latest insurance institute of Gauteng’s insights educational session.

The theme for the event, and a hot topic within the insurance industry globally was #Disrupt.

With the advancement of technology, AI (artificial intelligence), the  IoT (internet of things), the industry has already seen interesting developments and will see many more over the years to come.

Gatley spoke about how AI and bots are currently being used in everyday life. From the digitisation of vapes and clothing where vape companies will know how often you take a drag, to your clothes being able to read your heart rate and relaying the message to your phone and email, even your medical aid.

He also showed how AI isn’t working 100 percent yet in the case study of Google Flu! A program envisioned to predict outbreaks of flu based on people’s searches on google. In this case the AI got it wrong 100 weeks out of 108. They have gone back to the drawing board and expect to see it being used in the near future.

In Gatley’s call to action he spoke about people and businesses needing to:

  • Develop a healthy obsession with technology
  • Continuously survey the landscape
  • Try to estimate the pace of progress and how it will impact business
  • Continuously adopt new technology
  • Never stop looking

Gatley spoke about the harmony that needs to exist between strategy, culture and technology for any company to survive over time. And something that we at CN&Co believe in that he mentioned is a quote by Peter Drucker – “culture eats strategy for breakfast”

Lombard was one of the sponsors for the morning that saw 120 IIG members attending to hear about this interesting topic that will be on the lips of everyone in the future.