Amid a changing landscape for insurers, carrier executives demonstrate an awareness of what's to come from changing consumer demands and the progression of technology. But they seem content to slowly evolve to meet these challenges, rather than making drastic and immediate changes to their businesses.  

KPMG revealed the results of its 2014 Insurance Industry Outlook Survey this week, explaining that insurers seem to prefer "evolution" over "revolution." Laura J. Hay, national sector leader, insurance, however, says in the current environment, "evolution" is just too slow. "We firmly believe that those companies that defy the collective opinion of the industry will give themselves a clear competitive advantage. It all comes down to the pace of change."

Hay says in the survey's foreword, "Over and over—in their views on growth drivers, planned investment, M&A, talent, operations, enterprise risk management (ERM), and data analytics— respondents revealed their awareness that a next-generation insurance industry is coming, with customer centricity, new products, and new distribution channels, all enabled by new technology and tech-savvy talent, but they also revealed their unwillingness or inability to implement that change now."