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A recent study conducted by market research institute "Today and Tomorrow" in collaboration with Florian Elert, Professor at the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration, has shed light on consumer perspectives on data sharing, benefits, concerns, and expectations in the digitizing insurance industry.

The study reveals that consumers are eager for personalized, efficient services driven by AI analyzing their data to tailor insurance products and recommendations. For instance, AI enables pay-as-you-go policies that better align premiums with individual usage and risk.

Digitization and IoT technologies also allow insurers to actively prevent risks, such as smart home devices detecting hazards, benefiting consumers with potentially lower premiums and fewer claims. AI-powered tools provide faster, 24/7 customer support, help identify common issues via feedback, and enable personalized loyalty programs to improve customers’ experiences and retention.

Consumer Concerns

While consumers see benefits in data sharing, trust remains central, and dynamic. Consumers want ongoing interaction and feedback mechanisms to ensure insurers meet their needs accurately and transparently. Data sharing raises concerns about data quality, governance, and security, with many insurers still struggling with siloed, legacy systems that limit data usability and can erode consumer trust if not properly managed.

Consumers may also worry about how insurers integrate sophisticated AI tools without compromising service quality and data privacy, especially given complex legacy IT environments.

Expectations Regarding Digitization

Consumers expect seamless, multi-channel, personalized communication and services that build multi-layered trust relationships supported by AI. They want insurers to use data responsibly to improve pricing fairness, risk assessment, and claims handling while safeguarding privacy and maintaining transparency.

There is an expectation that insurers will adopt modern digital platforms and content management systems to offer better digital experiences and respond to evolving needs quickly.

Key Findings

Nearly half of consumers support the insurer being informed in real-time to enable immediate assistance and prevent further damage in the event of a claim.
More than half would provide photos of existing insurance policies to their advisor for analyzing their insurance situation.
About half of consumers also want to use as many data sources as possible to accurately represent the claim.
Customers expect that increased use of images, voice recordings, and videos will provide more comprehensive evidence in case of disputes with the insurer.
Younger customers, male insurance customers, consumers with higher household net income and education levels are the most open to new digital and data-driven applications in customer relationships.
Most customers reject sharing bank data or using data from social media for preparing a first insurance consultation.
54 percent of private insurance customers in Germany are fundamentally positive about insurers' efforts to improve their processes and products through digitization.
In terms of cross-selling, more than half of insurance customers agree that they should be shown tailored tariffs for further products in the customer portal, which they can then immediately purchase.
60 percent of surveyed insurance customers would like their advisor to have a more comprehensive picture of their financial situation and insurance coverage before the first meeting.
People are most likely to share their digital health records or data from a fitness tracker in the health insurance sector.
Over 1,500 insurance decision-makers aged 18 to 65 were surveyed for the study.
In the area of personal insurance policies, the willingness to include self-created images and videos of one's face or body in the consultation process for health analysis is very low.
To improve their overall insurance coverage, most customers are also willing to enter insurance policies from other providers in the customer portal.
Nearly one in five German insurance customers (18 percent) can imagine becoming a customer of technology companies like Google or Amazon if they enter the insurance business.
One in three respondents sees value in automatically sharing their data with their advisor or other insurers for analysis of optimization potential.
The study examined numerous specific digital application cases and solutions in the areas of advice, care/service, and claims processing.

In summary, consumers see strong benefits from data sharing in insurance through personalization, improved risk management, and enhanced service, but they emphasize the need for trust, clear data governance, and seamless integration of digital tools that respect privacy and data security.

Insurers should ensure that AI-powered tools are integrated seamlessly without compromising service quality and data privacy, as consumers are eager for personalized, efficient services but maintain concerns about data security.
Consumers anticipate modern digital platforms and content management systems to offer better digital experiences, with a strong preference for seamless, multi-channel, personalized communication and services that assure multi-layered trust relationships backed by responsible data usage and transparency.

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