Insurance is a data-driven industry. Actuarial tables calculate the probability of death, thereby enabling insurers to quantify and create products to insure against that risk. The Internet of Things (IoT) and the data streaming from devices in the home, the car, or worn on the body represent an opportunity for the insurance industry to quantify risk with greater precision than traditional methods.
Insurers are racing to gain access to data in order to quantify risk on a more granular level. Today, most insurance discount programs for smart products are cross-marketing programs focused on lifting sales and collecting data that can, over time, be analyzed to more precisely quantify risk.