TIN London Market Claims 2025 – Claims transformation enters a new phase

The TIN London Market Claims conference earlier this month marked a significant inflection point. After years of talking about digitalisation and process improvement, the tone at this year’s event felt markedly more practical, more confident, more focused on ensuring claims takes its rightful place as a driver of profitability, not just the necessary point of delivery on an underwriter’s promise.

‘Legacy systems should be in museums.’ That line from David McNamara of the Davies Group in the opening session set the tone for a day that repeatedly came back to one central idea: claims professionals deserve systems that are a pleasure to inhabit and work with, platforms that empower claims people to think, collaborate and deliver value — not waste their time wrestling with needless complexity.

Bridging complexity with clarity

In sessions on bordereaux processing and delegated authority, the same underlying challenges resurfaced: fragmented data, the need for manual intervention, and inconsistent processes across coverholders, TPAs, and insurers. Volumes are high, and so is variability — and that creates friction. Participants repeatedly called out the need for automation, common data standards, and better visibility of end-to-end processes.

There was widespread recognition too, that, while API adoption and robotic process automation have begun to make a difference, the gains have been uneven so far. Real progress depends on cross-party collaboration and a common understanding of why each party does what they do in the chain, how each affects the others, and where and how the impact is ultimately experienced by the customer.

That consistent human thread ran through every session. As one delegate put it, ‘We’re not as bad as we think we are.’ There are pockets of genuine excellence within the market — and also a shared desire to scale what works, learn from best practice, and keep communication front and centre. That’s an aspiration and an approach that’s close to our hearts, here at DOCOsoft, as our strong emphasis on mobilising the collective learnings and insights of our active user community – and the wider market beyond – clearly illustrates.

Reimagining claims

There was a common agreement that user experience is key. Automation and AI clearly have an important role to play, but their deployment needs to be thoughtful, so that it augments and supports human judgement, rather than a substitute for it. With better management information and smarter analytics, carriers can identify bottlenecks earlier, make faster, more confident decisions, and shift towards more strategic portfolio-based approaches that bring consistency and efficiency to complex claims handling.

The shift in tone at this year’s event was striking. Claims is increasingly seen an equal partner to underwriting, risk, and operations. One speaker insisted that claims is now ‘just as sexy’ as underwriting! A mildly suspect and outmoded turn of phrase perhaps, but the parity of status that claims increasingly enjoys does really matter. It signals a cultural shift that’s just as important as any technology upgrade.

The fifth hurdle: from compliance to confidence

The final session on the Lloyd’s Hurdle Principles underlined the codification of that shift. Claims has moved beyond a minimum standard. Managing agents now need to attest to how they’ve performed against that principle — and what they’ve learned in the process. The emphasis has shifted from how processes are followed to what outcomes they deliver.

That focus on outcomes, supported by stronger governance and board-level engagement, reflects the direction in which the market is heading. Claims is no longer a back-office function. It’s central to reputation, profitability and client experience.

A market moving together

As the event’s main sponsor, the team from DOCOsoft were encouraged to participate in so many conversations that aligned so closely with the principles that drive our own engineering and product development: clarity, collaboration and empowerment. Yes, it’s our core business, but we’re well aware that building better technology is only part of the story. The greater challenge — and opportunity — is creating a cultural environment in which technology enables people to do their best work.

What really matters is helping claims professionals do their jobs more effectively, supported by systems that make their work easier, faster and more rewarding. There’s a sense that the big questions around data, automation and user experience are now being approached with both realism and intent. Claims leaders are thinking less about tools in isolation and more about how people, processes and platforms can evolve together. If the conversations we witnessed at TIN London Market Claims are any guide, that emerging consensus will play a key role in helping all market participants move forward together into the next phase of transformation.