EP 12 - From Social Media to AI: How Generational Change Reshapes Insurance
For fifteen years, social media has reshaped the way people communicate, consume, and interact. Insurance was not immune to these changes, though its response was often slower and more cautious.
In this Episode:
Francois Jacquemin explores how generational change and AI are reshaping insurance. He explains how shifting expectations, speed, and digital habits will transform client relationships.
Now, with AI accelerating at unprecedented speed, the pressure on the industry is different. The habits formed in a digital world are becoming the baseline for how people expect to engage with insurers.
A foundation built on shifting expectations.
Insurance is a long-term industry. It is highly regulated and deeply embedded in the functioning of economies. Its value is not abstract; it enables people to drive cars, own homes, protect their health, and facilitate the movement of goods across borders. But while its role remains stable, the way clients experience it is changing.
Insurers themselves no longer define the expectations of clients. They are shaped by years of social media interaction and digital habits. Clients are used to speed, transparency, and availability. They are accustomed to being in control of what they consume and how. This shift, first visible in younger generations, is spreading across society.
The acceleration of AI.
AI is not simply another tool. It brings a step-change in what is possible. It allows insurers to personalise services at scale, to respond in real time, and to bridge the long-standing silos that left clients waiting for answers. New entrants, often AI-first, are setting a higher bar for availability and relevance.
For incumbents, the danger is not that they disappear overnight. The sector is resilient, backed by regulation and capital. The real risk is gradual irrelevance if client expectations move faster than industry adaptation.
The balance between tradition and transformation.
Insurers carry a responsibility not only to their shareholders but also to the social fabric. Trust in insurance underpins social stability. That is why regulators, governments, and insurers themselves must work in symbiosis. But this stability cannot become an excuse for stagnation.
It is easy for leaders to believe there is still time. And to some extent, there is. But the patience of clients is not infinite. As AI demonstrates its value in other industries, tolerance for outdated processes will erode. The discipline required now is to modernise while protecting the essence of insurance: trust.
The leadership challenge ahead.
This moment calls for leaders who can navigate both continuity and change. Who can embrace AI not as a replacement for human judgment, but as a partner in serving clients more effectively. Who can anticipate generational expectations without abandoning the principles of long-term stability?
Insurance will not disappear. But it will be reshaped. And the measure of leadership will be whether we can anchor innovation in trust, discipline, and human meaning.
Timecode:
00:00 Introduction: Generational and Structural Elements
00:06 Impact of AI on Insurance
00:39 Changing Customer Expectations
00:46 Generational Shifts and Social Media
01:05 COVID-19 and Social Media Consumption
01:58 Societal Changes and Insurance
02:36 AI and the Future of Insurance
03:19 AI-First Startups vs Traditional Insurers
04:30 Conclusion: Structural Changes in Insurance
Francois Links:
Apple Podcast
Transcript:
There are two elements that are extremely important that are generational and structural. We spoke here earlier about ai, and AI is impacting the the insurance world in a way which is much stronger than how social media we're doing and impacting it for the last 15 years. So it accelerated, it broadens it, and it also changes the expectation, customer behavior.
The of this, uh, is of course social media swiping the speed of, uh, of interaction with whoever, uh, is your delivery provider. As a client, the expectation is faster. It expects more availability, it expects transparency. This is something that impact is of course, the younger generation who were 15 years ago may not be admin client.
They were just consumer of social media at the time. But now more and more they become a client of other type of goods and they want to consume in a way that has been their habit for the last 10 years. And this has been, um, impacting even or accelerated even more during the CID crisis. The first one was basically, uh, how we are at home.
We meet the family again, it's a bit, uh, somehow, uh, terrible, but also the nucleus of the family was stronger. So the consuming of the social media was less, but the more crisis were beating themselves, the more it was this consuming element was, was growing. And, um, this is something that has changed dramatically. Not only the young generation, but also all people. The, the society per se, who was less user of social media have become heavier user of social media. Whether they kept it or not, it doesn't matter. Afterwards, what matters is that the behavior has changed, their expectation have changed. So this generational structural change in society is creating a much bigger expectation towards the way insurance companies or exchanging and sharing information and accepting input from the clientele.
There's still a lot of. Uh, respect and maybe understanding that insurance will go slowly. It takes time. So that's very clear. But the, the key here is that there's still an understanding of society that the changes take time. Now this understanding is fading down. The more we speak about ai, the more there are example of AI usage.
On various element of society, the less the clientele will be understanding. And second, the younger generation digital native in a way that part of the education system, since the young age, has been not controlled by the normally school system, but also by everything that the appears and all the information that the appears on the social media and the way it works and. Yeah, that segment of the population is growing and will be demanding much more towards the insurance world. There. There is still a time for the change, but what we see is a lot of, um, innovators, newcomers that are AI based first. Uh, AI works always with human, in my understanding. It's a teamwork, but a lot of society and industry element are still saying.
We are human first, and then AI is there to create improvement. The new generation of startup and InsureTech are AI first and human is there to drive ai, which creates also a increased speed, increased availability, increased personalization, accelerated use of data, and understanding and bridging between the element of information that exists. And therefore creating a competitive advantage for the the new world. The old world, uh, still has a lot of power, financial backing and sustainability, which is, uh, the key element of insurance. So, uh, the danger is not immediate. The structural changes in the way insurers are interacting with their client is all route.
Some fasters, some slower. But, uh, there was a common conscience in the industry that, um, this structural change in society were going to impact how the business was conducted. And it's, uh, it's happening.