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Unstructured Unlocked Season 2 Episode 7 with Bill Costa, Insurtech Executive and Consultant

Watch Indico Data CEO Tom Wilde step in as co-host alongside Michelle Gouveia, VP at Sandbox Insurtech Ventures, in season 2 episode 7 of Unstructured Unlocked with Bill Costa, Insurtech Executive and Consultant.

Listen to the full podcast here: Unstructured Unlocked Season 2 Episode 7 with Bill Costa, Insurtech Executive and Consultant

 

Tom Wilde: Welcome to another edition of Unstructured Unlocked. I’m Tom Wilde, joined by my co-host, Michelle Gouveia. Weā€™ve got a great guest with us today, Bill Costa. Bill has extensive experience in the insurance industry, including key roles at Geico, and now consults across the industry. Bill, welcome to the show.

Bill Costa: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Tom Wilde: Weā€™d love to hear more about your background as we kick this off.

Bill Costa: My journey started in the back office as an actuary, which gave me exposure to how the business functions. Over time, I moved into big data analytics, data science, product development, and operations, working with customer experience and digital applications.

Since retiring from Geico in 2021, I’ve consulted with dozens of companies across different lines of insurance. Itā€™s been interesting to see the strengths different companies have and the challenges they face in modernizing their businesses. Iā€™ve been particularly focused on telematics, helping bring telematics solutions to the auto insurance industry worldwide. My goal is to drive transformation that benefits both insurers and consumers.

I also serve on the board of Baxter Credit Union, which ties into financial services. There are strong synergies between insurance and financial services, and I believe thereā€™s a lot of opportunity to apply technology in ways that improve both industries.

Tom Wilde: Thatā€™s a great topic to dig into. How do you see the relationship between financial services and insurance evolving?

Bill Costa: Transformation in insurance has been slow compared to financial services. Thereā€™s a huge opportunity across all lines of business, but the key is focusing on the core purpose.

At Geico, there was a strong emphasis on being mission-driven, and I truly believe in that. When you return to first principles, the mission of both insurance and financial services is about serving the customer. The real opportunity for transformation is not in sticking to legacy processes but in finding new ways to fulfill that mission.

Michelle Gouveia: How did you think about that mission across different roles youā€™ve had? Moving from an actuary to someone building digital strategy seems like a big shift.

Bill Costa: When you start as an actuary, you work with data without fully understanding how itā€™s created. Once you see how that data is collected, itā€™s eye-opening.

I worked to make the exchange of information between insurers and customers more efficient. When you can collect and verify data seamlessly, you improve the customer experience and provide the company with reliable information.

I spent a lot of time on applications for sales, service, and underwriting, ensuring that the process of obtaining information from customers was as smooth as possible. Those friction points impact customer satisfaction, business performance, and a company’s reputation. Moving from a back-office role to an operational one really changed my perspective on how insurance functions.

Tom Wilde: Thereā€™s been a lot of discussion about how new data sources unlock potential for new insurance products, especially with changes in mobility. We now have more data on the objects being insured, like vehicles, and more insights into customer behavior. Are we getting closer to a more dynamic, usage-based insurance model where rates vary based on real-time data?

Bill Costa: The technology is definitely there, and Iā€™ve worked extensively in telematics. The goal is not just pricing insurance differently but actually changing driving behavior to make roads safer.

Youā€™re also seeing changes in mobility, like electric scooters and shared vehicles. Right now, that space is a bit of the wild west, and regulations will likely increase. Traditional underwriting and claims practices can be rigid, and the industry needs the right data, technology, and partnerships to build new products that reflect modern mobility trends.

Tom Wilde: Thereā€™s been tension lately between insurers and consumers, particularly in personal lines. Weā€™re seeing policies canceled based on drone surveys, vehicle data being sold to third parties, and a general lack of transparency. How do you think the industry can rebuild trust in these areas?

Bill Costa: The biggest issue is transparency. Consumers should know what data is being collected and how itā€™s used.

Take vehicle telematics as an example. A customer can request their driving data from LexisNexis, but what they receive is often a 300-page document full of raw data points that donā€™t translate into meaningful insights. If customers could easily access a clear summary of their driving habits and how it impacts their rates, it would build trust and encourage participation in telematics programs.

The key to telematics adoption is customer-centricity. If insurers allow customers to own and transfer their data between providersā€”just like a credit scoreā€”it would create a competitive marketplace where good driving is rewarded.

Michelle Gouveia: Early on, there was excitement about how IoT and telematics could transform underwriting and claims, but are insurers actually able to process all this data in a way that delivers real improvements?

Bill Costa: When insurers have access to structured data, they use it well. The challenge is that a lot of this data is fragmented.

Look at vehicle data. Some insurers get it through third-party providers like LexisNexis, while others work directly with manufacturers. The issue isnā€™t the lack of dataā€”itā€™s the difficulty in consolidating and making it actionable.

Telematics is just one example. There are also opportunities in small business and property insurance, where drone technology can assess risk more accurately. The challenge is finding a platform that can ingest all these different data sources and make them useful for underwriting, pricing, and claims. Whoever solves that in a scalable way will have a significant advantage.

Tom Wilde: The insurance industry has historically been reactiveā€”insurers step in after a loss occurs. But with IoT and AI, is there an opportunity for insurers to take on more of a loss prevention role?

Bill Costa: Absolutely. Weā€™re already seeing this shift in certain areas. Telematics programs encourage safer driving, and IoT devices in homes can detect leaks or fire risks before they become claims.

Companies like Hartford Steam Boiler have developed hardware solutions that prevent losses, and theyā€™ve seen substantial savings as a result. The challenge is creating a system where customers can easily share this data with insurers in a way that benefits both parties.

Michelle Gouveia: AI could also help sift through false positives in these systems. You wouldnā€™t want a minor water leak to negatively impact future insurance rates just because a sensor detected it.

Bill Costa: Exactly. AI can help insurers interpret this data accurately. If a small leak is detected and fixed immediately, that should be seen as a positive action, not a risk factor.

More broadly, insurers need to consider whether their mission includes helping customers prevent losses. Historically, many have seen their role as simply paying claims when something goes wrong. But a more proactive approach, like what we see in health insurance with wellness programs, could create better outcomes for both insurers and consumers.

Tom Wilde: This has been a really interesting conversation. Weā€™ve gone deep into telematics, AI, and the regulatory challenges of data transparency in insurance.

Michelle Gouveia: Yeah, we havenā€™t done a deep dive on telematics and its AI implications before, so this was really enlightening.

Bill Costa: I appreciate the opportunity. Iā€™m passionate about transforming the insurance industry, and discussions like this help move things forward. Looking forward to our next conversation.

Tom Wilde: Thanks for joining us, Bill.

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