AAIS SVP Joan Zerkovich on the openIDL Blockchain...at IBM Think 2019

AAIS SVP of Operations Joan Zerkovich addresses a sold-out audience at IBM THINK 2019, where “thinkers” gather to make the world of business work smarter…where the journey to cloud and AI delivered on a modern infrastructure take center stage. Joan, along with Eileen Lowry, Program Director for IBM’s Blockchain Lab, discuss how IBM and AAIS have come to collaborate to develop openIDL (Insurance Data Link), and transform the insurance industry using blockchain.

Joan provides background on AAIS’s role as intermediary between carriers and regulators in the insurance industry. Acknowledging that its role as an advisory organization was likely to change in the future, AAIS worked with IBM to use Design Thinking exercises to engage carriers and regulators and other entrants in the insurance environment (i.e.: data and technology providers, to better understand the way advisory organizations may operate in the future.

Looking at the way insurance data was likely to be shared and made available in the future, carriers were concerned about data security, the environment it would be shared in, the value they might receive back as a result. Trust, security and auditability recurred as features that carriers and regulators would be looking for in a modern solution. IBM and AAIS then began work on developing openIDL, the first blockchain network servicing the insurance regulatory environment.

Ms. Zerkovich describes how regulatory reporting after a hurricane or other natural disaster will change going forward, speeding the development of data collection and market insights for regulators, carriers and modeling firms. She also discusses the importance of openIDL’s ability to scale to accommodate data for the entire insurance industry using a 3-prong strategy that includes a multi-tenant environment, a standard configuration called “openIDL-in-a-box”, and a commitment to open Hyperledger standards and architecture.