The insurance industry needs to understand the demands of its future customers if it is to satisfy their expectations. EXL's head of UK and Europe and SVP Insurance, Nigel Edwards explains how smarter insurers will adopt personalisation and a frictionless purchasing and servicing experience to win out UK insurers are all aware that they need to prepare for the future, taking a digital-centric approach and meeting shifting customer demands. However, less than less than 25% of insurers feel well prepared to meet the needs of future insurance customers in 2030. To prepare for this future, insurance companies must first know what the industry will look like in the coming years. That's why EXL and Post conducted a joint survey into how insurance leaders believe the business will change by 2030, and how companies can begin adjusting to that future reality today.

With this in mind I have decided to do another of what is becoming a biannual roundup of new businesses to keep an eye out for. If you want a reminder of some of the previous firms we have spotlighted, last year I featured six at the start of the year and 12 others split over two parts in the summer. So here are ten start-ups that, while young at heart, seem to have bold plans to wake up insurance in their own ways. Pitch: Protect your business from cyber risk through artificial intelligence-based cyber assessment and tailored recommendations. Bewica is the brainchild of the former head of claims at Hiscox UK & Ireland Eva Berg-Winters.

Accenture found that the combined number of deals across artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technology, increased by 79% and in 2016 accounted for 44% of global insurtech deals compared with just 10% in 2015. "We've seen a rapid acceleration of investment into and deal activity around intelligent automation and IoT start-ups over the last 12 months," said Roy Jubraj, digital and innovation lead in Accenture's UK financial services practice. "These technologies are primed to disr