Q&A with Shira Warshavski, VP Marketing at Atidot.
Shira Warshavski, VP Marketing at Atidot
What does Atidot Do?
Warshavski: Atidot is a leader in predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions for the Life and Annuity insurance industry. Founded by a team of data scientists and veteran actuaries, Atidot offers a cloud-based software platform that provides data-driven insights to inform decision making, drive new business strategies, and create new revenue streams. The company has offices in the US, UK and Israel and was listed in the InsurTech100 Companies for 3 consecutive years by the research firm FinTech Global. In 2019 the company won a Gartner Cool Vendor award in Insurance, recognized as one of the leading companies bringing innovation to the insurance industry.
What can insurers gain from Atidot’s AI and Big data analytics tools?
Warshavski: Atidot solutions provides deep understanding of insurers in force management book of business. The modules enable insurers to improve retention, upgrade risk modeling, distribution management or product strategy dynamically resulting in improved market penetration and increase in market share. In addition, AI and Machine Learning capabilities detect and provide predictions of market trends and future performance based on prior sales and predictive algorithms.
If you know your data, you can simulate buying scenarios, use the projections to manage your capital better, you can get better re-insurance prices, focus on desirable customer segments with specific behavior, and better navigate your business decisions.
The outbreak of the Pandemic creates volatile macro-economic environment, driving down the economy, interest rates are dropping, unemployment souring to 20% or more, affecting policyholder ability to pay premiums and eventually to potentially lapse, and regulation changes taking place rapidly. This environment drives the need to digitization and increase the value of solutions such as Atidot’s.
Tell me about the co-operation with Ipipeline.
Warshavski: iPipeline is a US based, software solution provider for the life insurance industry. They own the most comprehensive and current private database for competitive benchmarking in the industry. The joint offering with Atidot’s AI and Predictive Analytics modules leverages on that data set and enables new insight for insurers. It also enables insurers to predict future performance based on product selection, producer group, producer, location, demographic, and other critical factors. This new offering is a game changer in the life insurance industry.
You have recently signed a major deal with life insurance Giant pacific life. Tell me about that deal.
Warshavski: We are very excited about this new deal with Pacific Life and about the unique nature of the project in general. Pacific Life, is a top insurer in the US is clearly stepping into the future of product and pricing design with the implementation of iPipeline and Atidot’s predictive analytics models based on the results, they will be able to optimize market penetration on demand. We live in a volatile environment and buying preferences can change overnight. By using Atidot’ predictive analytics models together with iPipeline’s case analytics, Pacific Life will gain deep insight into the competitive carrier landscape. Given the fallout from COVID-19, this solution is one of the best ways to navigate in real-time the uncertainty in today’s selling environment.
What investments were made in the company so far?
Warshavski: The company has raises $9M to date and is hoping to grow significantly in the next 12-18 months.
Tell me about key figures in the company.
Warshavski: Both founders, Dror Katzav, Atidot CEO and Barak Bercovitz, the company’s CTO, are the two key figures at Atidot. They have known each from their days at Talpiot and other elite intelligent units in the Israeli Army. In 2016, they decided to combine their expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies and apply that knowledge to the life insurance industry, which in general, is lacking data analytics. Dror, based in the Silicon Valley, is a data scientist that has accumulated in depth industry knowledge over the years and is a sought-after speaker in international conferences and panels. Barak manages the company’s R&D in Israel and envisions the next cutting-edge technology for the Life Insurance.
