In more specific terms, insurers will need to be most mindful of: 1. TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS. Robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) will streamline operations and lower costs. New distribution channels will increase competitiveness. Insurers struggling with legacy modernization, emerging technologies, structured and unstructured data sources, and data science to inform decision-making will fall behind. The relentless change will push the industry’s risk-aversion well out of its comfort zone. Capgemini’s 2017 trends report notes two forces driving the industry’s evolution: “connected 3 — forces foreign to late-career insurance professionals. technologies and data analytics” 2. INCREASED REGULATION. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ post-2008 Risk and Solvency Assessment suggests lack of expertise in region-specific insurance regulatory requirements — with a corresponding lack of data analytics technological capabilities — cause 4 insurers to struggle with forecasting, scenario-planning, stress-testing, and risk-assessment. 3. EVOLVING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS. Policyholders and producers expect online and mobile tools to enhance their experiences, to give them greater insight, to provide increasingly accurate premiums and lower claims costs, and to help them understand coverages and pricing. 4. EXTERNAL PRESSURES. The race to keep up with items 1-3 squeezes profit margins and necessitates cost controls. Many insurers lacking the internal capacity and expertise to address such threats are hard-pressed to create process improvements with which to compete and differentiate. Just as meteorological storms pay no heed to what they upend, the perfect storm of knowledge and skill deficits will upend insurance organizations of every size: Large re/insurers with simultaneous initiatives, insurers, brokers, MGAs with modernization needs, and start-ups with shortages of resources and expertise — all must refresh their approaches and resources to manage the insurance lifecycle. The future will be dramatically different in form and function for insurance organizations of all stripes. So, they must also have access to a new model and requisite resources to bolster their growth and productivity.