As the insurance economy becomes less relational in favor of technology-supported responsiveness and data-based granularity, it changes who will run the industry. Already in decline are agents that sell local families 3 or 4 annualized policies for perpetual commissions, underwriters who make experience-based decisions on eligibility, and claims adjusters who review repair estimates.
In their place will come people applying an insurance context to 3 core competencies: inquisitive use of data, adaptive creativity in communication, and inventive solution finding. With insurance products changing, service offerings automating, and AI performing rote activities and decision-making, tomorrow’s insurance talent will need fewer insurance skills than ever.
Future standouts in insurance will be better at demonstrating nuance than policy-language proficiency. They will have hard skills in technology application and soft skills in asking superlative questions of customers and data. They will use fewer bullet points and spreadsheets and more infographics and chatbots. They will be valued less for their task accomplishment and more for their impact.
Insurance has a self-centeredness problem in how we talk, who we promote, and the tasks we perform. Those come from things we invented, not from what’s been in demand. However, that fever is about to break, and the new insurance paradigm will attend to what it means to address someone’s worries. To do that will bring opportunities to creative thinkers, technology wizards, and challengers of the status quo.
Darren McGraw & Mechelsen Private Client 
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