In an increasingly digital world, customers have new expectations about how they interact with their insurance providers. The ubiquity of mobile and apps, in particular, have altered the dynamics of communication and commerce. Customers expect to be able to pay, submit claims and manage their insurance policies online using their preferred devices.

As social media continues to change how customers share and consume information, so too must insurers evolve to incorporate this into their marketing and customer service strategies. The more progressive consumer insurers are already using Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to deliver content on new products and offers.

Simultaneously, forward-thinking insurers are also harnessing the power of big data and sophisticated analytics tools to help them better understand, target and serve their customers. Progressive, for example, has launched Snapshot, a service that gives customers a personalized auto insurance rate based on how they drive. Downloading photos to your insurer's mobile app and receiving real-time feedback on cost estimates is already a reality. The massive amounts of data gathered by insurers every day is a valuable commodity to third parties in other industries. Thus, ambitious insurers will be looking to aggregate, productize and monetize this information.