The future of industries : how personalization of insurance policies using artificial intelligence will disrupt the insurance status-quo

In the future, the concept of insurance will change and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already disrupting the state of this industry. Insurers worldwide are using AI to automatize processes and tasks, such as fraud detention, underwriting and claims processing. Additionally, there has been a rise of new competitors in the market, such as InsurTechs, that are bringing innovative solutions for insurance, responding to the new trends in customers’ lifestyles and behaviours, that are more demanding for services directed for their needs. This study aims to understand how personalization of insurance policies, created with Artificial Intelligence, will disrupt this industry in the future and what will be the impact in the European market. Personalization of an insurance policy with AI would encompass the definition of the coverages and premiums more appropriate for an individual customer and do the risk evaluation, in a market of one strategy. This innovation would take advantage of the accrual of Big Data from customers, as people are each time more connected and information about them is constantly being shared, allowing companies to use it to know consumers better. Some limitations that might arise are related to the regulation applied to the insurance industry in Europe regarding customer’s data privacy, with the GDPR and regulation against discrimination in insurance.No futuro, o conceito dos seguros irá alterar-se e a Inteligência Artificial (IA) já está a causar disrupção no estado desta indústria. Seguradoras por todo o mundo já utilizam IA para automatizar processos e tarefas, como detetar fraudes, na subscrição de seguros ou no processamento de sinistros. Adicionalmente, tem-se assistido a um aumento de concorrentes no mercado, como as InsurTechs, que trazem soluções de seguro inovadoras como resposta às novas tendências nos estilos de vida e comportamentos dos consumidores, que são cada vez mais exigentes e procuram serviços mais direcionados às suas necessidades. A presente dissertação visa estudar como a personalização de apólices de seguro, criadas a partir de Inteligência Artificial, irá disruptar a indústria no futuro, e qual será o impacto no mercado europeu. A personalização de apólices inclui a definição das coberturas e prémio mais apropriados para o consumidor individual, assim como a avaliação do risco, numa estratégia de market of one. Esta inovação tiraria partido da acumulação de Big Data dos clientes, uma vez que os consumidores estão cada vez mais conectados e informação acerca deles está constantemente a ser partilhada, permitindo às empresas conhecê-los melhor. Algumas limitações que poderão surgir estão relacionadas à regulamentação da indústria dos seguros na Europa, relativa à proteção de dados, com o RGPD e com a regulamentação contra a discriminação nos seguros

Collaborative Prepositioning Network Design for Regional Disaster Response

We present a collaborative prepositioning strategy to strengthen the disaster preparedness of the Caribbean countries, which are frequently hit by hurricanes. Since different subsets of countries are affected in each hurricane season, significant risk pooling benefits can be achieved through horizontal collaboration, which involves joint ownership of prepositioned stocks. We worked with the intergovernmental Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency to design a collaborative prepositioning network in order to improve regional response capacity. We propose a novel insurance-based method to allocate the costs incurred to establish and operate the proposed collaborative prepositioning network among the partner countries. We present a stochastic programming model, which determines the locations and amounts of relief supplies to store, as well as the investment to be made by each country such that their premium is related to the cost associated with the expected value and the standard deviation of their demand. We develop a realistic data set for the network by processing real-world data. We conduct extensive numerical analyses and present insights that support practical implementation. We show that a significant reduction in total inventory can be achieved by applying collaborative prepositioning as opposed to a decentralized policy. Our results also demonstrate that reducing the replenishment lead time during the hurricane season and improving sea connectivity are essential to increasing the benefits resulting from the network.</p

Collaborative Prepositioning Network Design for Regional Disaster Response

We present a collaborative prepositioning strategy to strengthen the disaster preparedness of the Caribbean countries, which are frequently hit by hurricanes. Since different subsets of countries are affected in each hurricane season, significant risk pooling benefits can be achieved through horizontal collaboration, which involves joint ownership of prepositioned stocks. We worked with the intergovernmental Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency to design a collaborative prepositioning network in order to improve regional response capacity. We propose a novel insurance-based method to allocate the costs incurred to establish and operate the proposed collaborative prepositioning network among the partner countries. We present a stochastic programming model, which determines the locations and amounts of relief supplies to store, as well as the investment to be made by each country such that their premium is related to the cost associated with the expected value and the standard deviation of their demand. We develop a realistic data set for the network by processing real-world data. We conduct extensive numerical analyses and present insights that support practical implementation. We show that a significant reduction in total inventory can be achieved by applying collaborative prepositioning as opposed to a decentralized policy. Our results also demonstrate that reducing the replenishment lead time during the hurricane season and improving sea connectivity are essential to increasing the benefits resulting from the network.TÜBİTAK ; Institute for Data Valorisation (IVADO) ; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canad

A Mutual Catastrophe Insurance Framework for Horizontal Collaboration in Prepositioning Strategic Reserves

We develop a mutual catastrophe insurance framework for the prepositioning of strategic reserves to foster horizontal collaboration in preparedness against low-probability high-impact natural disasters. The framework consists of a risk-averse insurer pooling the risks of a portfolio of risk-averse policyholders. It encompasses the operational functions of planning the prepositioning network in preparedness for incoming insurance claims, in the form of units of strategic reserves, setting coverage deductibles and limits of policyholders, and providing insurance coverage to the claims in the emergency response phase. It also encompasses the financial functions of ensuring the insurer’s solvency by efficiently managing its capital and allocating yearly premiums among policyholders. We model the framework as a very large-scale nonlinear multistage stochastic program, and solve it through a Benders decomposition algorithm. We study the case of Caribbean countries establishing a horizontal collaboration for hurricane preparedness. Our results show that the collaboration is more effective when established over a longer planning horizon, and is more beneficial when outsourcing becomes expensive. Moreover, the correlation of policyholders affected simultaneously under the extreme realizations and the position of their claims in their global claims distribution directly affects which policyholders get deductibles and limits. This underlines the importance of prenegotiating policyholders’ indemnification policies at the onset of collaboration

Essays on supply chain analytics: Investment and capacity planning under uncertainty

In this dissertation, we study a firm’s investment and capacity planning strategies in the presence of different types of supply uncertainties and risks. Both essays in this dissertation benefit from empirical analysis as the analytical models build on the findings and observations from the corresponding empirical investigation. Each essay shows the benefits from utilizing flexible options that are deemed to be less preferable before conducting the analysis. Wine futures investment represents the flexible option (due to its liquidity) in the first essay, however, it exhibits greater uncertainty in price than the traditional bottled wine. We find in our empirical analysis that both weather and market fluctuations influence the evolution of the price in wine futures, and thus, despite being the flexible option, it also represents the riskier investment. On the other hand, capacity expansion at a geographically remote facility represents the flexible option (due to its greater backup capabilities) in the second essay, however, it is a more costly backup alternative than a nearby facility. As a result, both essays examine the trade-offs between these flexible, yet risker and/or costlier, alternatives, and shed light on the risk-reward structure of these various operational levers

Buildings for Education

This open access book presents theoretical and practical research relating to the vast, publicly financed program for the construction of new schools and the reorganization of existing educational buildings in Italy. This transformative process aims to give old buildings a fresh identity, to ensure that facilities are compliant with the new educational and teaching models, and to improve both energy efficiency and structural safety with respect to seismic activity. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on the social role of the school as a civic building that can serve the needs of the community. Innovations in both design and construction processes are then analyzed, paying special attention to the Building Information Modeling (BIM) strategy as a tool for the integration of different disciplines. The final section is devoted to the built heritage and tools, technologies, and approaches for the upgrading of existing buildings so that they meet the new regulations on building performance. The book will be of interest to all who wish to learn about the latest insights into the challenges posed by, and the opportunities afforded by, a comprehensive school building and renovation program