Dogan Kaleli, leader of the program business, finds opportunities to pilot various emerging techs in his role and beyond.
Dogan Kaleli, head of programs for Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty in North America, has an active role in Allianz’s innovation efforts driving multiple InsurTech projects within Allianz North America. He is also a cofounder of multiple tech startups specializing in AI, quantum computing and digitalized ecosystems. Previously, Dogan was Allianz’s Head of Risk Management in the Americas and began his insurance career with Allianz in Turkey and Brazil; Kaleli actively mentors up-and-coming Turkish entrepreneurs through the Hamdi Ulukaya Startup Support Program (HUG). He spoke to Digital Insurance about issues in insurtech.
How does your work in the program business connect to your interest in emerging tech and innovation in insurance?
The programs business is very specific. Allianz has about $700 million in US and Canada program business. Program administrators and MGUs understand their markets very well, and are focused on how they can differentiate themselves most of them are focused on niche markets and they know exactly what those markets need from a product perspective. At the same time, they don’t have our governance and large corporate structures and can be more nimble. So if you think about insurtechs focused on sales and business, they are looking to disrupt the customer expectations and create something beautiful, but they don’t want to become a full insurance company. If we provide them the insurance paper. now they have capacity and can go to market, and I basically get a proof of concept for the technology.
Why are you passionate about AI’s impact on insurance?
I’m actually working with one startup that I can’t disclose, but they are specialized in both AI and quantum computing. Any AI company can support you with behavioral pricing, but it doesn’t solve the black box of insurance. When you have the AI abilities combined with quantum computing, you can better explain what’s going on with your level of income, your level of stress, these type of components traditional pricing results are not able to capture. If my AI captures any data source, I can plug in and analyze it in a heartbeat, and relate that to other underwriting factors.
Source/More: How AI, blockchain and autonomous vehicles will shake up insurance: Allianz exec | Digital Insurance
