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[00:00:02] Paul Lucas: Hello everyone, welcome to Insurance Business TV as we delve into the large mid-market space in the UK. It's been a year driven by consolidation, digital transformation, and ongoing profitability challenges. Growth in many instances has come from price rather than volume, but there are opportunities in many segments, particularly for brokers who can provide that trust and value perception that is so often desired. Today to talk us through those opportunities and challenges we welcome Faith Kitchen, Head of Client Relationship Management Mid-Market at Allianz. Faith, welcome to Insurance Business TV. 

[00:00:36] Faith Kitchen: Thank you Paul, I'm just delighted to be here today. 

[00:00:40] Paul Lucas: So let's start with those then Faith. What are the most significant market trends currently shaping the needs and expectations of those large mid-market clients in the UK insurance sector and indeed how is Allianz adapting its approach to meet those evolving demands? 

[00:00:55] Faith Kitchen: Yeah, it's a good question, Paul, and there's an awful lot going on at the moment for those large mid-market clients. So, firstly, you've got the economic environment that we're currently in. The economic is pretty challenging. The economic environment is pretty challenging. We've got rising operational costs. So, things like the increase in national insurance contributions and, of course, persistently high energy costs. Then alongside that as well, companies have got tighter access to finance, mainly driven by the inflationary environment, and also this weakened consumer demand as well. And that's driven by the continued cost of living. Then on top of all of this, they're also managing their response to climate change and the changing regulation legislation, managing their reputation, and of course, having to deal with rapidly changing technologies, such as adopting AI within their businesses, and also transitioning to renewable energy sources and perhaps managing a transition from a traditional vehicle fleet to an electric vehicle fleet. So, having a team like mine in place, Allianz are evolving to really develop the partnership and be with large companies and brokers every step of the way as they're changing. We're a single point of contact for Allianz Commercial, for brokers and our larger clients. We're focusing on all of these issues I've just talked about. If we look at AI, for example, and cyber risk, we've recently introduced a webinar series with one of our insurer, our panel lawyers as well, where we've actually provided some information on managing the risks of AI and cyber within your business. Actually, demand for that was so high that we've been running another session next month as well. The other thing we're doing is we're really supporting, we've got a great renewable energy underwriting team. So we can support customers with their transition. And also we've actually developed inspection service for things like solar energy panels and also for EV charging stations as well. So we're just continually evolving and developing our proposition and tailoring it to meet the needs of our larger clients so that we can ultimately provide the best solutions. 

[00:03:13] Paul Lucas: And it's interesting that you referenced quite early on about that economic uncertainty. That's, of course, alongside inflation impacting risk profiles. So how are you seeing those large clients' priorities start to shift? And indeed, what role do brokers play in helping them to navigate those challenges? 

[00:03:31] Faith Kitchen: Yeah, I think brokers play a really important role, actually, in helping the client manage and make the right decision for them in their unique circumstances. Now, of course, the elephant in the room is the soft market at the moment. In some respects, there's an opportunity for brokers and clients at this point in time to make some savings, to make more of an opportunity to press for things like risk management funding. Brokers can also help large clients perhaps rethink captive retentions, deductible levels, but also rethink perhaps additional line of business purchase as well. Obviously, cyber being quite an obvious one in light of what's happened in the broader market. Large clients, we find, are really looking for best value. So they're not just necessarily looking for the cheapest price, but they're also, of course, you need to be competitive. But they're also really looking for what else insurers can give them and what else they can offer. And that might be things like data insight or strategic risk management support. And I think as well, you know, a key priority, as I said before, was reputation. It's a key priority for them. And we do see clients really looking for alignment in values than things like ESG. And so that becomes another really, really important part of what we can offer as an insurer and how we can support brokers. I think also the larger clients are interested in building longer term relationships and for an insurer that can support them as they grow and acquire. There's also shifts certainly that we're seeing to larger clients perhaps taking on more of the risks themselves or exploring ART solutions. And Allianz has one of the biggest ART expert teams globally in the market. So we're well placed to help brokers support their clients in those sorts of conversations. And again, if clients are looking to expand their business overseas, then again, we've got a really great multinational team and offering as well that can support brokers and clients in helping them put that in place. So Yeah, I mean, I think that's probably the key thing. There's an awful lot going on at the moment. Brokers definitely can support them and they play a huge role in really understanding the unique needs, but also making sure that they're getting the right support for their client. 

[00:05:52] Paul Lucas: Indeed, as you referenced, there are an awful lot going on at the moment. And one of those factors is, of course, AI, as you mentioned earlier. We can't have an insurance conversation without it, it seems. But tell us a little bit about how Allianz is leveraging technology and indeed data analytics to enhance that client experience for those large mid-market customers. And in what ways are you supporting brokers to deliver added value through those innovations? 

[00:06:16] Faith Kitchen: Yeah, sure. So first I'll say there is a massive amount going on at Allianz in this space. We're really looking at how we can be the easiest insurers to deal with and actually we're looking at really investing in our data capability more generally internally, but also training our staff so that we've actually got a really strong data culture within Allianz. So I'm probably going to split this question down into three areas. That'll be claims, trading, and risk management because as I said we've got quite a lot going on in all three of those areas. So from a claims perspective, we are massively proud of the claims service that we provide at Allianz. We are ninth year running now, we've got the independent Grace Church Quality Service Mark Award for our claims service and as I said we've been really investing in our data capability and insights here. So for example we've really invested in our claims hub which helps our brokers and clients navigate and track their motor claims all the way through. It gets excellent feedback as well. We also can really help brokers particularly add value to the larger clients by providing them with some actionable insights as well. And we do this very much on a sort of bespoke basis. So, for example, one large construction client we've been working with, we provided some data insight regarding ethanol and the exact time of day of accident, accident frequency, and we're able to able to compare their rates to similar organisations. And that really helped that individual large client benchmark where they were, but also identified some really good areas of improvement for them as well. So moving on to trading, I think what we've been doing here is we've been investing to help standardize both our sales and underwriting data as well. So, for example, we triage all of our opportunities through using Sitora and the platform there. On an underwriting perspective, we've got a gen AI tool called Brian, which has been designed to allow information to be retrieved really at the touch of a button from the underwriters. Brian searches through masses of underwriting guides, information, and can bring back at the click of a button a very quick response, which again, helps our service, helps us to maintain the service and the underwriting service that we're very proud of and add value to our brokers and clients that way too. But we're using technology as well to really free up internal colleagues' time as well, so that actually they can spend more time being face-to-face in real life, I think IRL, as we call it, with our brokers and our large clients as well. Then from a risk management perspective, we work with a number of different preferred suppliers. And actually, only last week, we announced a really exciting partnership with Samsara. And Samsara is a telematics provider that offers risk management solutions. So, everything from a dashboard to, you know, a sort of onboard AI-enabled cameras to really look at the vehicle telematics and the driver safety tools to drive down those accident frequencies and claim severity as well. Ultimately, you know, the more that fleets can have, you know, a lower claims ratio and things, the better, you know, for the business overall and the lower the premium. So, I see AI playing a really great part in everything that we're doing from a claims perspective. The other area from a risk management perspective as well is leak detection. So that's another area where we've got a preferred supplier where they can use sensor technology to reduce the risk of escape of water, another huge source of claims. And of course, being Allianz, we use our size and scale to provide those to clients and large clients at a discounted price as well. So I think in the short, Paul. An absolute masses. I probably could have gone on as well, but there's loads that large clients can benefit from what we're doing to really harness technology. 

[00:10:10] Paul Lucas: Clearly a lot going on. Just to double check, that name was Brian, am I correct? 

[00:10:14] Faith Kitchen: Absolutely, Brian. Yes. It was named after one of our expert colleagues in Allianz. 

[00:10:21] Paul Lucas: Oh, there you go. I love it already. So one of the key challenges, would you say, Faith, in terms of what brokers are facing when servicing large clients in today's market? And Indeed. How is Allianz partnering with those brokers to overcome those obstacles and to drive that mutual growth that we're all looking for? 

[00:10:39] Faith Kitchen: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the key clients or the key challenges that brokers face here are keeping up with markets, trends, markets, changes, and really meeting high customer expectations because large clients do have high expectations and also managing complexity. So these are large, complex businesses that tend to need lots of different strands pulling together lots of different lines of business. So we partner with brokers to help them overcome those obstacles and instead drive that mutual growth that we're all after by ensuring they've got the resources and the support they need to succeed. So, for example, we've got our Smarter Broker business guides and we've got business risk support guides on our website that are regularly updated and can provide brokers with all of the insight they need into those market changes and trends. So, they can share those with their clients, make sure they're fully informed at any time. And I think the other thing that we will do as well is we will work with our brokers to help them find solutions to those challenges that you do face when you're working with large clients. It's actually finding those really creative underwriting solutions, working with them on a partnership basis to properly tailor the support that they can gain as well and make sure that we can meet their expectations. And it can be as simple as being able to cover really, really quickly for a large client when they need it, or it can be working with them in partnership over the course of a year or 18 months to really understand that client's business and to target it and win a new large case together. And we've had countless examples of when we've done that with brokers and it's been really, really successful. But I would also say we really help brokers cut through that complexity by being their single point of contact for Allianz. We, as said before, we're working towards being the easy insurer to do business with and having a dedicated client manager or a client advocate on all of our large cases really does help brokers and makes dealing with Allianz much simpler. 

[00:12:39] Paul Lucas: And looking ahead Faith are there any emerging risks or opportunities that you think brokers and large clients should be preparing for? 

[00:12:45] Faith Kitchen: Yes absolutely and I would say a plethora I'm afraid as well Paul. So at Allianz we produce a report each year called the Allianz Risk Barometer Report and it highlights the emerging risks that we should be looking out for. Probably no surprise that for UK for the 2024 2025 reports are highlighted cyber risk, business interruption, including the supply chain risk as well. Changes in legislation and regulation, political risks and violence, new technologies, which we've already touched on already, but natural catastrophes, the macroeconomic developments, climate change, but also fire and explosion and making sure you've got a skilled workforce. But I'm kind of glad as well, you know, these are whilst these are risks, they're also massive opportunities too. I'm definitely a half-full sort of person. So I know there's a lot of doom and gloom out there, but actually these are great opportunities. So those large clients and brokers that can support them to really adapt to the use of new technology, to adapt to things like renewables, to embed AI within their business, become more operationally efficient, more compliant operations, ultimately they can do more with less. Those are the ones that will be able to fully get ahead of their competition, head off those risks by managing them up front and become more resilient businesses. And that's ultimately what we want to do. We want to support our brokers and clients becoming more resilient. 

[00:14:16] Paul Lucas: There you go. There is a very positive twist indeed. We look forward to, of course, the risk barometer in early 2026 as well. But great tips, Faith, and fantastic to have you with us. And great, of course, to have you with us too. We'll see you next time right here on Insurance Business TV.