This post is part of a series sponsored by IAT Insurance Group.

Companies that engage in disreputable towing — sometimes referred to as predatory towing — practices are preying on trucks in areas known to have an elevated frequency of crashes. They may even use nefarious means to contribute to likelihood of an accident. This is the latest scam affecting long haul and moving and storage trucking.

Case in point: A driver recently incurred significant damage when attempting to drive their tractor trailer under a Chicago bridge, whose “low bridge” sign had been suspiciously removed. As soon as the accident happened, an unsolicited tow truck appeared. In the driver’s distress and haste to rectify the situation as quickly as possible, the driver accepted towing services without a quote. Soon after, the moving and storage company received a bill for the $75,000 towing, a service that should have cost around $2,500.

Blackcomb Consultants is now part of Accenture

I am excited to welcome Blackcomb Consultants, a leading independent Guidewire partner in North America, into the Accenture family.

Why Blackcomb Consultants?

Amid market disruption and heightened consumer expectations, insurers are turning to platforms such as Guidewire to drive strategic digital and business transformation. Accenture and Blackcomb Consultants share a vision focused on delivering innovation to P&C carriers of all sizes, helping them create a sustained competitive advantage

I have previously spoken about how Guidewire is helping insurers transform. Guidewire’s end-to-end technology platform combines digital, core analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities across the underwriting, billing, claims and customer relationship management functions, helping property and casualty insurers reimagine their operations in the cloud.

We thoroughly examined the marketplace and Blackcomb’s reputation among its clients was unmatched. Joining forces really brings our total reinvention story to life by adding a company to our repertoire with

While product design—including technology and architecture capabilities—is foundational for carriers to play in the embedded insurance space, strategically leveraging the agent will exponentially increase the likelihood of an embedded product’s success. We believe agents could play a major role in embedded insurance distribution, driving sales and capturing opportunities to cross-sell and upsell.

In our last post, we provided an overview of the evolution of embedded insurance  as it expanded from “version 1.0”—purchasing life insurance at the airport before a flight—through “version 2.0” and “version 2.5” in which technology and online commerce pushed embedded insurance towards its current iteration, “version 3.0.” We define “version 3.0” as insurance that is sold as part of another commercial transaction. Buying auto insurance from an OEM or home insurance through a real estate brokerage are examples we would consider to be embedded insurance 3.0.

In this post, we’ll highlight why we believe agents are critical

As technology closes the gap between the real and the virtual, it has become more important than ever for carriers to consider how customer needs – and their ability to meet them – are going to evolve. In our recent Accenture Insurance Technology Vision 2022 we outline how the metaverse continuum will impact the industry over the next decade.

One of the key trends that arises when we talk about the metaverse is the advancement of Web3. This term might be new, but it encompasses a great deal of the technological advancement and activity that is already naturally occurring on the internet. Web3 refers to an iteration of the World Wide Web where decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics build new, secure ways of connection and commerce.

This new vision for the internet includes the creation of immersive virtual worlds, blurring lines between digital and physical, and may create the

The insurance industry is experiencing a growing talent shortage. While this challenge has been anticipated, much of the discussion on solutions is often generalized to the entire workforce. But not every job will be impacted in the same way. As insurers grow, some functions will need more support, while others will be better primed to use cognitive technology, like AI, RPA and more. This means some jobs will be replaced by technology, other jobs will be enhanced by technology and other jobs will require more humans (an area where people can shift to, if their job is replaced).

The fact is that insurance operations are changing, and people are the center of that change. The question isn’t, “How do we address this workforce gap?” The question is, “How will claims, underwriting and sales be impacted by this workforce gap, and how can we leverage technology to address each one to