With offices in over 25 countries, Zurich-headquartered Swiss Re is one of the largest reinsurers in the world. Swiss Re is strategically positioned to leverage its  AI and analytics capabilities to drive better business results for its customer and businesses across the globe. 

The AI and analytics space will see increased adoption of centralised and automated processes that will make the end-to-end process efficient, scalable and foster collaboration, data-led decisions, increased awareness of fairness and ethics around using AI.

Swiss Re is leveraging scalable technology platforms to streamline internal processes. It also focuses on evaluating the fairness and other aspects of Responsible AI to be future-ready. 

Swiss Re’s core services, products and solutions 

Swiss Re’s core expertise is in underwriting in life, health, as well as the property and casualty insurance space. As a reinsurer, it has access to the world’s largest pool of claims data which is harnessed to create innovative, consultative products. Their product, Magnum, is the largest underwriting tool in the life and health space; Swift Re is the largest player in property and casualty insurance. These are some of the end-uses for enabling automated underwriting and effective risk assessment. In addition, Swiss Re’s natural catastrophic assessment is available via CATNet product widely used in the industry. 

Interesting case studies

Swiss Re works on a wide range of problem statements, from pricing, underwriting, marketing/lead generation to claims, operational efficiency, etc. In addition, the risk assessment taps into new age data sources like satellite images, open-source news data, vehicle GPS data and others.

It has a dedicated research institute that focuses on building models for traditional catastrophic losses like EQ, flood, windstorms, climate, cyber, and liability risks. The niche experts in each area work very closely with the analytics team to ensure that the company is able to deliver value for its clients in a sophisticated manner by creating products out of these models. 

 Swiss Re’s plans in India

Swiss Re’s tech strategy focuses on developing smarter and innovative solutions for clients’ value chains by leveraging data and technology. The company is harvesting the full potential of data by integrating, analysing and deriving insights from it. In a nutshell, the company is applying technology to its value chain.

Learning and skill-building opportunities

The company organises various internal meetups/ knowledge sharing sessions/communities established to encourage upskilling. It empowers colleagues to combine their domain knowledge with best practice programming, statistical modelling, data science and communications skills in their daily work. 

Swiss Re believes in a hands-on, practical approach where it upskills while solving real business problems. It has an internal development environment that provides tools for rapid prototyping or proof-of-concept trials. Data scientists have a pre-configured suite of state-of-the-art platforms at their fingertips, allowing them to focus fully on finding innovative solutions to the analytics challenges of the use case idea.

Swiss Re is currently hiring for the roles of applied data scientists, data engineers and data analysts. It looks for people who are business focused and have a wide range of technical skillsets, including Python, Pyspark, PowerBI etc. 

Build a data-centric workforce and make it inclusive

The company is amidst a paradigm change, from a process-focused mindset that treats data as a supporting commodity to a data-led mindset where data is the source of new business opportunities. It wants to fully adopt a data-centric mindset built upon a strong data foundation, architecture, and governance, exploiting advanced analytics capabilities hosted on key platforms and leveraged for insights by a data literate workforce. 

Building the right data culture is an integral part of the company’s data and analytics strategy. Data culture essentially refers to the way we work together around data and value across traditional boundaries. It is about empowering colleagues with the skill sets and mindsets that they need to collaborate and innovate while moving towards a data-led future.”

Roadmap for 2022-23

One of the company’s strategic priorities for the year is to create impact through an integrated data and tech strategy. 

The role of new technology, specifically data and analytics capabilities, will further its ability to offer services and risk insights that help its clients and partners make more data-driven business decisions. In addition, the research, solutions and tools will improve understanding of future risks and opportunities. 

Expand the talent pool at Swiss Re Bangalore

Swiss Re is looking forward to adding to its talent pool at its Bangalore office. Its energetic team of data analysts, actuaries, underwriters, doctors, data scientists, engineers, innovators and other diverse, skilled professionals are actively creating products and developing solutions that will drive change in societies worldwide. 

The future is bright for Swiss Re

The transformation at Swiss Re is already happening. However, as it actively focuses on integrating data and technology in the value chain, attracting the right mix of talent to bring about these changes will be crucial to emerging as a leader in this path of innovation.