The global connected home market is big and getting bigger. By 2016, it is expected to reach $235 billion, with the largest revenue-generating segments including home security ($110 billion), smart utilities ($33 billion) and home entertainment ($68 billion). Connectivity is popping up everywhere, from smart refrigerators that can monitor food consumption to smart carpets that provide notification of unauthorized entry. 

For insurers, the connected home can provide value in the form of new insurance models and products—based on deeper insight into the customer's needs—and a higher level of customer satisfaction derived from dynamic risk monitoring and improved claims handling. The connected home also creates opportunities for insurers to lower costs and improve operational efficiency; insurers can leverage data from connected home devices to assess and mitigate risk, increase pricing sophistication, and offer new products, all of which help drive operational efficiency and top-line growth.

However, insurers seeking to deliver value in the connected home market must deal with a complex ecosystem with multiple participants. These include utility companies, home security providers, telecoms companies, and Internet giants such as Google, all seeking to establish positions. The key to success is in finding the right market entry point as well as the right value proposition for customers.