Why Insurers Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Modern Pet Technology
Pet technology is booming. A recent market forecast report predicts the global pet tech market will reach 80.5 billion USD by 2027 with a CAGR of 24.7% from 2024 to 2031.
As pet gadgets, apps, and new technology transform how pet owners care for their pets, it brings up many interesting questions for insurers.
How will pet technology impact pet insurance? Can insurers leverage pet tech data to improve designing pet insurance policies? And how can insurers tap into the pet tech trends to gain a competitive edge?
In this article, we’ll cover 5 trending pet technologies that open exciting possibilities for pet insurers.
#1. Pet Activity Trackers & Dog Tech
Remember how health tech wearables transformed the way insurers design health insurance policies? Well, get ready — because the pet insurance will experience the same transformation.
Consider this. Pet obesity is rising. Like humans, overweight pets face more health issues. Obese pets are more likely to develop diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and bladder stones.
Studies show that more active pets are less likely to be obese, which also makes them less likely to develop diseases that need costly treatment. Wouldn’t it be useful then for pet insurers to know how active a pet is?
Thanks to dog tech like WonderWoof and pet tech such as Bluetooth-enabled smart leashes and GPS pet trackers, pet insurers can have access to pet activity data.
Some data that insurers can access include pet location, movement, number of daily steps, and training progress.
In other words, insurers can now leverage behavioural analytics for pet insurance. This type of information has never been available before for pets!
Due to the lack of behavioural analytics, most of today’s pet insurance policies minimise risk as much as possible. Minimising risk usually translates to higher premiums for the end user — the pet owner.
With the right analytics to perform more effective risk management, insurers can make pet insurance more affordable and expand their customer reach.
#2. Digital Daycare
Pets are becoming more humanised than ever. Younger generation pet owners are more aware of how loneliness is a health risk for pets. It’s only a matter of time before pet mental health, especially for dogs, becomes a central concern.
Additionally, city life exacerbates pet mental health. Many city-dwelling pet owners don’t have the luxury of landed property, leaving pets cooped up in an apartment all day while their human parent is at work.
Without a connection to the outside world of play, pets can become very lonely. Their human concerned human carers look for ways to be there for their pets, even when they’re not home.
Through pet technology like this smart ball with a pet camera, people can use a mobile app to play with their pets from wherever they may be. Pet owners can remotely give their dogs a treat or entice their feline friends in a laser-chasing game through digital daycare services for pets.
How can insurance businesses leverage this technology? Like activity trackers, digital daycare technology gives behavioural analytic insights to improve products and services.
#3. Health Monitoring
Health monitoring through wearable tech has been one of the biggest insurtech trends impacting health insurance. Based on this, we predict that pet health monitoring technology will have the same impact on pet insurance.
Innovative companies are coming up with new pet technology that can detect health markers beyond activity. One exciting example is this smart health monitor that detects feline health issues through the cat litter.
Since pet health can affect humans, cat feces health monitoring can be very important for both cat owners and their cat.
For example, it’s well known that cat feces can trigger toxoplasmosis in humans. Toxoplasmosis is a severe disease that causes headache, fever, and fatigue. It requires serious medical attentiona and may be life threatening.
Toxoplasmosis is caused due to an infection by a parasite called toxoplasma gondii in the cat feces. If biosensors in a cat litter box can detect this, it can help protect the cat owners too.
Thus, health monitoring technology for pets can even help insurers improve health insurance for pets and their human carers.
#4. DNA Testing & Pet Genetics
Ready to take things to another level? Then let’s get into pet genetics.
Many diseases are heriditary in both cats and dogs. Some diseases become more common in purebred cats or dogs due to limited gene pools and close breeding.
For example, short-faced dog breeds are more prone to brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS). While Siamese cats are one of the most disease-prone cat breeds.
With services like DNA testing for cats and dogs now available widely, pet owners can have insights on how to care for their pets even better.
Pet genetics is also good news for insurers. Through pet genetic testing, insurers can have accurate information of the cat or dog breed they’re insuring.
This will help insurers determine customised coverage for specific breeds. As a result, insurers make their customers happier by giving them the peace of mind that their furry family member’s health care needs is covered.
#5. Online Pet Services
It’s evident that a digital transformation is happening within the pet care industry. From appointment scheduling software to regularly groom your pets to booking vet check-ups, online pet services are getting more diverse by the day.
Pet care has the potential to become an ecosystem of numerous technologies and services. There is massive potential for insurers to bring together online pet services with pet technology in one place, so people can easily cater to their pet’s every need.
Through the right partnerships, insurers can build a reliable network for their customers that extends beyond just vets and clinics. Providing this can make customers feel like their insurers truly care for their pet’s overall well-being and daily happiness.
This leads to improved trust, higher engagement, and loyalty with insurance providers.
Exciting Possibilities Await for Pet Insurers
In summary, leveraging new data streams from pet technology helps insurers conduct more effective risk management. Insurers can also design the next generation of pet insurance products that are custom fit for a pet’s lifestyle and breed.
Without a doubt, pet tech opens up a whole new world of exciting business growth possibilities for insurance. Through strategic pet tech partnerships, pet insurance can become more customised, accessible, and affordable.
Proactive insurance providers who leverage pet insurance technology can give their customers a better experience. When customers are happy, retaining customers and expanding clientelle becomes much easier in the competitive pet insurance niche.
For more tips on how to leverage the latest insurtech trends to grow your insurance business, explore the articles on our blog.
About Cloud Insurance
We help entrepreneurs to launch their digital pet insurance offering quickly and smoothly by enabling them to integrate all the tools into one tech ecosystem, and leverage a mix of high-quality standard and unique features while keeping costs down. Learn more about our features here.
