Imagining and creating the ‘next normal’

What is our impact on society? What is a better future? The current crisis must lead us to build the ‘next normal’, or ‘the world after’, differently. We must think about a more inclusive and sustainable world, and ask ourselves how we contribute to this future by having a positive impact on society, beginning right now.

Making the next normal a desirable and positive future

This ‘world after’ will of course be marked by an acceleration of crises in a multitude of areas. Technological, regulatory and environmental changes are converging and oblige insurers to address unprecedented challenges.

Yet despite this permanent state of uncertainty, we have every reason to remain optimistic as we embrace a world where people are once again at the center. In the very near future, people will enjoy access to personalized services and products that will improve their day-to-day lives thanks to easier access and the use of responsibly managed data and artificial intelligence. In this environment, technology fades into the background, becoming ambient, an integral part of daily life thanks to voice recognition and the Internet of Things.

Another fundamental trend is that nature has more than ever become a source of inspiration, and at the same time the focus of concerns. The fight against climate change and protection of the environment and biodiversity are top of mind in everything we do. Having a positive impact becomes central in our daily activities, whether at home or at work. To achieve this, socio-economic ecosystems reinforce thanks to our ability to forge alliances, sometimes between seemingly remote disciplines, between industries which would never have met before, and between players of completely different types.

As an insurer we have a responsibility to help shape a more sustainable world

I believe that as an insurer we will be a key actor in this desirable future and begin building it immediately by expanding our mission of “making insurance more accessible”, because this is what gives real meaning to our profession.  This will be a compass for our company, in these uncertain times.

It is precisely because we believe in the value of insurance for society that we are now creating alliances with actors outside our traditional scope in order to address the concerns of our policyholders and contribute to meeting the challenges our society faces. For example, to help reduce unemployment, we have created a free “employability” platform for customers of our partner Coursera in Latin America.

Our technological expertise also enables us to take very concrete steps to make insurance easier to subscribe and use, and to enhance the utility of insurance. This is why we introduced new health and life insurance products linked to a comprehensive ecosystem of services to meet the needs of customers of our partner Scotiabank in Latin America. Here, technology has enabled us to link different healthcare players as part of a very easy to use digital platform that provides useful services for customers amidst the current health crisis, such as a pre-diagnosis thanks to artificial intelligence.

We have also made new commitments to sustainable financing, because we believe that we have a duty to manage the savings entrusted to us by our policyholders in a manner that combines financial performance with positive impact on society. At the same time, our responsibility as an insurer means empowering our customers to contribute to a more sustainable world by offering an ever-richer range of unit-linked investment products that they can include within their life insurance contracts and pension savings plans. 25% of our French policyholders' savings are currently invested in unit-linked vehicles qualified as having a positive impact.

We know that our customers are eager to participate in the development of the circular economy. To help them, we launched a remote diagnostics app that encourages people to extend the lifecycle of their mobile devices, thus helping them reduce their carbon footprint.

To shape this ‘world after’ we of course continue to invest in our primary asset, the people of our company. Our ability to transform our company relies on our employees and their skills, which we continually grow together to be better positioned to effectively engage with changes in technology and society. This is essential to let us move forward together in this changing world.