The conservative nature of the insurance sector was summed up last year by Andrew Brem, who is chief digital officer at insurance group Aviva who said, as quoted by TechWorld, that the sector is "not known for its incredible radicalism". Whether it is due to threats from start-ups or realization that start-ups can provide competitive advantages for big insurance companies, the major players are starting to engage with start-ups. This trend is captured in the Digital Journal article "Platform to link insurance brokers to InsurTech partners." The types of new technologies disrupting the insurance sector include mobile apps, investment in digital channels, process to hire technology talent and platforms for analyzing customer data. Moreover, research from London accelerator Startupbootcamp InsurTech and PwC, where more than 1,300 start-ups across the world were reviewed, indicates that 75 percent of incumbent insurers "believe the biggest impact to the industry will come from building new products in order to address the changing needs of the customer".

It seems to the hot topic, or the'in thing' if you would. Machine Learning is taking the technology world by storm, but what is it? In short Machine Learning is a new form of data analysis that uses algorithms which learn from data. The more the data changes, the more the algorithm learns about its behaviours and individual characteristics. It's a new form of analytical model building that helps companies to predict behaviour of data and in turn, relate that to their customers.