You've heard the term, and you probably nod in agreement when someone tells you how important it is. But secretly you may not be sure what it is or how it works. Ask your data scientists to explain, and you may get lost in a sea of specialist talk about forks, leaf nodes, split points, and recursions. The only thing you need to know is that machine learning applies statistical models to the data you have in order to make smart predictions about data you don't have. Those predictions can help you find signals in the noise and extract value from all the data you're collecting.

With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, cognitive computing and machine learning, insurance carriers have the opportunity to join the travel and retail industry, and leading technology players such as Google, IBM and Microsoft who are already taking advantage of these smart technologies. This form of "conversational intelligence" or "thinking machine" technology learns from every human interaction to be predictive towards a users questions or proactive with a suggestion. One of the barriers carriers face is with the Data. "Collecting it, storing it, normalizing it, tracing its lineage and the critical – if not particularly sexy – matter of governance" The key is then harnessing modern software and technologies to translate these insights into action. "There's little arguing that the degree of complexity around big data in healthcare is exactly why clinicians, physicians and, indeed, the industry at large need these emerging technologies, which have felt so far away for so long."