At the 41st annual insurance conference of Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, Alan Schnitzer, the chairman and CEO of Travellers, emphasized that long-term thinking and scale are the keys to the company’s success. In the face of current economic uncertainties, inflation and geopolitical risks, Schnitzer said that insurance companies cannot adjust their strategies quickly but need long-term planning. He took the COVID pandemic and catastrophe management as examples, pointing out that travelers have achieved industry-leading performance through early scenario planning and scientific risk management, such as generating a net income of 5 billion US dollars in 2024.
Schnitzer also mentioned that Travelers invest 1.5 billion US dollars annually in technology and artificial intelligence, significantly enhancing operational efficiency. For instance, AI-assisted claim processing enables half of the claims to be resolved directly, while the efficiency improvement of the underwriting process reduces the submission processing time from two hours to two minutes. He emphasized that in the future, insurance companies need to be large in scale to bear the high technological investment and data demands, and small or niche companies may face greater challenges.
Schnitzer predicts that the insurance industry will tend to consolidate in the next three to five years, and scale will become a key factor in competition. Companies with strong balance sheets, advanced technologies and data analysis capabilities will have more advantages. He called on the industry and policymakers to address risks based on evidence. For instance, on the issue of climate change, factors such as population growth, economic inflation and aging infrastructure should be comprehensively considered instead of focusing solely on climate issues.
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