Reimagining InsurTech in the Regime of AI – Hong Kong Startups Ruled at FinTech Week

Let the FinTech Week 2024 cook, and we get a melting pot of innovative ideas and industrial expertise for cross-industry collaboration, converged to have commercialisation at its best.

Notably, the insurance industry underwent a significant transformation, driven by emerging insurance technologies that are redefining the boundaries of how the industry operates. This shift has focused on customer-centricity, personalization, and AI-driven customer engagement, drew growing attention and appetite in the market.

Applied Technology Group (ATG) and GF Lab, among 41 startups that brought their market-ready solutions to HKSTP Pavilion at the FinTech Week, showcased their AI-powered innovations that rose with the user’s wellbeing in mind, had the InsurTech sector intrigued, and led to respective partnerships with BUPA, while gained traction from over 30 corporate partners and potential investors, and indulged the event in catalysing for innovation in the financial industry.

Intelligence meets Insurance

GF Lab, specializes in AI motion-tracking technology that underpins a digital wellness platform GOFA featuring proprietary Posture Analysis technology. According to Wayne Chung, GF Lab’s founder, their AI solution enables motion tracking, monitoring, and providing feedback for nearly all workouts – from yoga to cardio exercises – originally designed for self-training fitness.

AI motion analysis can also identify mobility deficits in older adults by using motion data from specific body segments. This information can be used to provide targeted interventions.

Wearables, for insurers, created a new opportunity to engage with customers through wellness programs. With smartphones now capable of accurate motion analysis, health assessments on form and muscle conditions can be made in unlocking another vast opportunity in the insurance industry.

“By tracking motion in real-time, we capture human movement and design exercises to evaluate muscle strength,” said Chung. “This enables actionable insights that foster customer engagement and deepen relationships.”

Exercise is universally recommended for wellness management, though not universally enjoyed, GOFA gamifying the experience with personalised feedback and scores, it can easily translate to seeding for success.

Chung said support from HKSTP has been for GF Lab in building business connections and making a pivot into Insurtech. “We’ve seen incredible interest from global insurance practitioners in our solution, and at the same time, given us new ideas on how the tech can grow.”

Operation marches with Occupation

ATG, a pioneering health technology startup, aims to transform the healthcare landscape with its AI-powered medical platform, ClinicONE, offering an all-in-one SmartClinic solution that does comprehensive health checks for Blood Pressure, ECG, BMI, and other vitals, provides accurate diagnoses, streamlined operations and secure electronic health record management, according to Jonathan Linstow, Director of Business Development at ATG.

Linstow emphasized the impact of a potential telemedicine service, an addition to the insurance industry: “lowering health risk assessment costs for insurers while offering tech-driven screening services, often times equal to bettering motivation in closing business leads.”

ClinicONE digitalizes end-to-end medical records, so providers aside, patients could share personal data without the fear of leaks. This facilitates streamlined clinical experience, from access to medical histories for definitive diagnosis, to efficient payment procedures handling claims and reconciliation.

All while the demand for alternate mental health services continues to grow amidst a global psychiatric shortage, ATG is poised to launch an AI-powered assessment solution to address this gap and empower insurers to expand into mental health coverage. Benefited from cross-industry collaboration, Linstow stressed that partnerships are salient to the development of ATG, in both advancing potential of the tech and accelerating prospects of trade.

Derek Chim, Head of Startup Ecosystem and Development of HKSTP, highlighted the event’s significance in showcasing new pathways for fintech development. “HKSTP offers a comprehensive support system for startups to commercialize innovative ideas, the ones that are revolutionizing the financial industry, for example, by leveraging federated learning to empower banks to share insights without compromising data privacy, is one of them.”

As Hong Kong’s largest I&T ecosystem, HKSTP represents an extensive definition of nurturing innovation that includes tapping into a vast network of alumni, mentors, and investors, as well as participation in trade shows that facilitate business matching and investment opportunities.