APIs in P&C Insurance Industry
Insurance industry is seeing increasing usage of public APIs.
The current interactions between insurance organizations, partners, distributors, regulatory entities etc.
provide innovative ways to use APIs both in private and public space. Additionally, technology advances (IoT, vehile telematics etc)
are making organizations adopt API centric integration strategies.
Currrently, not many in industry (insurers and others) have publicly exposed APIs.
However, this will change in coming years as value in API-fying the assets becomes more visible.
NOTE: I am not actively working on this list anymore.
Vehicle APIs
There is array of automotive datasets that can provide intellengence built in modern cars.
From vehicle specifications to on-the-road data, modern cars are equipped to generate data that can provide meanigful insight.
Following are some of the APIs that are available for public consumption.
| No. | API Provider | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | General Motors | Manufacturer - GM APIs for cars |
| 2 | Ford Motors | Manufacturer - Ford motors |
| 3 | Tesla Motors | Manufacturer - Tesla motors (unofficial APIs) |
| 4 | Honda | Manufacturer - Honda Developer Studio |
| 5 | KBB | Kelly Blue book |
| 6 | Edmunds Vehicle APIs | Edmunds Vehicle APIs for cars |
| 8 | Dash Chasis API | A Connected Car Platform |
| 9 | Carvoyant | A connected Car Platform |
| 10 | cars.com | Portal for Car shoppers and owners |
Insurer APIs
These are the APIs that could potentially be exposed by P&C insurers to public.
Some of the APIs carry customer sensitive information and need to be secured differently from consumption standpoint.
NOTE: Allstate Insurance is good example
among insurers, who is its exposing APIs.
| No. | API | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Get Quote | API to get insurance quote |
| 2 | Get Product Details | Retrieve insurance product details |
| 3 | Address & Contacts | Provides Insurers' locations, contact details, agent information and so on |
| 4 | Customer Profile | *Retrieve customer details |
| 5 | Policy Details | *Provide policy details, renewal information of customer |
| 6 | Claim Status | *Provide details of claims by claim Number |
| 7 | Vehicle Details | *Provide insured vehilce details, telematics data |
Vendor APIs
Vendor APIs that are relevant in B2B scenerios in insurance industry. These are commonly used services in P&C industry in USA. Some of them have have made progress in exposing their APIs publicly.
| No. | Service Provided | Service Detail | Vendor with open APIs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glass repair | Vendor providing glass repair for automobiles | Safelite |
| 2 | Fraud Details | Fraud details needed while underwriting | LexisNexis |
| 3 | Vehicle Damage estimation | Vehicle Damage estimation | Certified Collateral Corporation (CCC) </br> Audatex </br> Xactware (Property) </br> Service Power </br> |
| 4 | Injury estimation | Injury Damage estimation | Auto Injury Solutions (AIS) </br> Colossus </br> |
| 5 | Car Rental | Car Rental | Hotwire |
| 6 | Salvage Totalled vehicle | Salvage Totalled vehicle | Copart </br> Insurance Auto Auctions (IAA) </br> SNAPS </br> |
| 7 | Earthquake | Vulnerability for earthquake | California Earthquake Authority (CEA) |
| 8 | Weather Data | Weather Data | Weather Decision Technologies (WDT) |
| 9 | Credit MMR CLUE | Credit MMR CLUE | NexisLexis</br> Equifax </br> ChoicePoint </br> |
| 10 | Property Information | Property Information | ISO APLUS</br> HLDI </br> |
| 11 | Territory codes | Territory codes | GIS </br> LexisNexis </br> |
| 12 | Home characteristics data | Home characteristics data | MSB </br> XACTWARE </br> |
| 13 | Home Inspection | Home Inspection | Castle </br> Muller </br> National </br> |
| 14 | Geo Data | Geo coding,Product suspension, Rating territory determination, Property risk assessment, etc | ESRI |
| 15 | Vehicle History | Vehicle history based on VIN | Carfax |
| 16 | FAX | Send Fax | Easylink |
| 17 | Addess Standardization | Addess Standardization | Map Info</br> LexisNexis</br> |
| 18 | eSignature | eSignature | Silanis |
| 19 | Census Data | Census data used in determining loss and retention factors | Woods & Poole |
| 20 | Customer Data Prefill | Customer Data Prefill | AXIOM |
Value Added Services
These services are mostly outside insurance contract with the customer, but are relevant due to their peripheral nature to insurance.
Safety APIs
Safety related APIs (education content as well as services), for home and vehicle insurance.
| No. | Potential APIs | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Self Risk Assessment | Self Risk Assessment - driving, weather risk for homes |
| 2 | Teen Safety | Teen driving safety programs |
| 3 | Safe driving | Safe driving |
| 3 | Home Safety | disaster preparedness, fire safety. |
| 4 | NHTSA | National Highway Traffic Safety: Consumer Safety Advisory - Counterfeit Airbags |
Government Data APIs
There are numerous open datasets available from federal and state. Added with core insurance data, these APIs can provide lots of value to insurance ecosystem.
Utility APIs
These are are APIs available that have universal appeal. Some of the examples include maps, weather, online tools (barcode readers, email, photos, videos etc) and so on.
| No. | API | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Google maps | Location, Direction etc |
| 2 | Social media | Multiple social media platforms that expose their data via APIs | </body> </html>