Exploring Digitisation as a Solution to the Long-Term Insurance Sector Efficiency Quagmire

The insurance industry is necessary for the global economy, the stability of the economic system, and its sustainability. However, the industry continues to face challenges related to customer service, market competition and re-engineering of processes. The insurance industry is no different to other industries, it is also affected by the forever changing customer requirements and demands and this fast growing digitalization. Almost every organization wants to be part of the new revolution because of its ability to bring company improvement in process efficiency, productivity and performance. Just like industrial revolution did more than a century ago, it continues to reshape the way humans live and perform their daily duties. As a result, organizational processes, customer expectations and the adoption of new channels, products, and services have all undergone significant change, forcing a reconsideration of business models. Digital technology has been embraced by many businesses because it has the potential to transform business operations, much as it did for other industries, and it has the potential to change the insurance industry as well. The sparse use of digital technology is the main hindrance to the South African insurance sector’s success. The main goal of this paper was to examine the extent in which digitalization has been explored in the South African long-term insurance industry compared to other industries. This was accomplished by doing a thorough PRISMA-based critical analysis of the current literature. Sixty-two accredited journal articles were assessed to understand the contribution that has been made by digital models in the previous research and to identify gaps and be able to contribute to the body of knowledge by introducing effective techniques to close the identified gaps. The first finding was that digitalization has not been thoroughly explored in the insurance industry and there is dearth of research about digitalization in this industry, particularly in the African continent. Secondly, the reviewed literature revealed that the application of Internet of Things and big data has the potential to enhance customer database in insurance business, because these digital tools can help insurers obtain customer data in real-time. This has been highlighted as a solution to the problems the long-term insurance sector is currently experiencing.