More than two out of three Germans can now imagine taking out insurance completely online. Not only that, 13 percent would also "sign" the insurance contract with Alexa or Siri.
These are the findings of the "Digital Insurance 2019" study, for which more than 1.000 German citizens were surveyed in a population-representative manner. "The willingness to take out a complete insurance policy with a few clicks recently stagnated at below 60 percent. Now there was the leap that some experts had already expected for the previous year," comments Michael Sub, Managing Director of Adcubum Germany. "Especially among 35- to 55-year-olds, online affinity has increased significantly. Nearly three quarters in this age group are now open to online-only policies."
Simple insurance policies are already being taken out online
As the study further shows, however, a positive basic attitude toward online insurance still does not automatically mean that the customer will also immediately become active online. "70 percent of online enthusiasts have already actually purchased insurance completely online," Sub said. "Although a good one in two Germans has already successfully used this sales channel, many customers still find online offers too complicated or in need of explanation."
As in the previous year, the online favorites of German citizens therefore include motor vehicle insurance, liability insurance and household insurance. "The development of the figures underlines the fact that online conclusion is increasingly becoming the norm for these rather simple insurance policies," explains insurance expert Sub. "For more consulting-intensive products such as life insurance or annuities, on the other hand, this is not yet apparent."
Leap of faith for voice assistants
With the exception of a few providers in the travel insurance sector, transactions via a digital voice assistant such as Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri are still a thing of the future. "But our study shows the potential that lies dormant here," analyzes Sub. "13 percent of German citizens can already imagine graduating via such an assistant, even though the technology has only been on the market for two to three years — an enormous leap of faith."