On 2nd September 2021, the IIG held a webinar sponsored by Bryte. The IIG Vice President, Thabo Twala (IIG Deputy President) welcomed all in attendance and introduced our panellists and the topic of the day as Prospects and Perils of 4IR, Business continuity in an advancing, technologically-enabled world.
Our Speakers:
Sedick Isaacs
Sedick is head of Business Support Services and has been in the insurance industry for 36 years and his career has spanned a variety of senior roles.
Liza Morris
Liza is the Regional Manager for the Western Cape and is also the current President of the Insurance Institute of the Western Cape (IIWC). She is an experienced professional with more than 26 years in the insurance industry.
A Swiss Re sponsored webinar, Net-Zero Insurance – unrealistic or inevitable held on 18 Aug 2021 via MS Teams.
Erik Harkema
Eric is the Chief Data Officer at Bryte Insurance and joined the company in June 2019. Erik has been in the insurance industry for 26 years. He has held a variety of senior roles across the insurance industry.
Sedick introduced the topic of the day: the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is a fusion of advances in Artificial Intelligence and Automation amongst many things.
He explained further that 4IR is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technology advances that are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that present both socio-economical transformation opportunities that come with risks.
What Eric had to say on 4IR and growing prospects was that it all started about 27 years ago. Mobile technology has created over 1million jobs and a 9% increase in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (SSA GDP), progressive work environments and connectivity help especially in these crying times of the pandemic.
He also touched on data actionable insights and customer data privacy, aligned with POPIA. Bartering is a huge thing these days where paper money ceases to have any value and most people resort to barter, e.g. Bitcoin.
Liza spoke about social and financial empowerment. Financial inclusion where we have 20%- 25% unbanked and the use of mobile money, e.g. M-Pesa, e-wallet etc.
When it comes to revolutionizing medicine we have medical technologies with self-diagnosing machines, machine-learning, Ubenwa (screening tool that analyzes a baby’s crying to warning signs of baby’s asphyxia), telehealth and 3D printing.
On business consideration, Liza warned that to have a future-focused workplace, you need to have the right people in your crew. You also need to have policies in hand. The people in your company need to grow, they need to have the skill, constantly up-skill and re-skill all the time.
Collaboration and co-creation mean that businesses need active change-makers for business sustainability and the government needs agile governance, collaboration and conceptive/ cultivating opportunities.
Eric is back to talk about 4IR and Insurance.
Collaboration the common theme:
- Insurtech
- R100bn market
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine-learning
In closing, Liza had advice for the insurance industry:
- The right mix of people, processes, insights and technology is critical.
No time to waste
Understand and keep abreast
Recognize complexities and always seek progressive solutions.
Competitive edge and sustainable outcomes.
The insight ended with a Q&A session. Sedick thanked the sponsor- Bryte, the co-presenters Liza Morris and Erik Harkema, Thabo Twalo from the IIG as well as the audience.
We encourage the IIG community to register on the IIG CPD vault to earn CPD points for attending the insight sessions.
Article by Mpho Tlagadi
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