We are excited to share the brightest moments we had representing Thryve at Insurtech Insights Europe 2026 on 18th-19th March in London. This event brought together global leaders, innovators, and decision-makers in the health industry to explore the future of insurance. In the current landscape, the industry is at a turning point, driven by advances in digital health, artificial intelligence, and a growing focus on prevention.
To represent the heart and soul of Thryve, Paul Burggraf, Alexander Spalding, and external advisor Bart Jordens attended the event, contributing to conversations around how wearable data and continuous health insights are reshaping both health and life insurance.
A key highlight of the event was Paul’s participation on the panel “Healthy Ageing & Longevity Innovation: Reimagining the Future of Life Insurance,” alongside senior leaders from across the industry, including Christoph Nabholz (RiskInsight Consulting), Orna Carni (FinTLV Ventures), Peter Ohnemus (dacadoo), and Tim Smith (Hannover Re).
The discussion focused on how increasing life expectancy is forcing insurers to rethink traditional models. Instead of relying on static risk assessments, insurers are beginning to explore continuous, data-driven approaches that reflect real-world health behavior over time.
“As longevity increases, insurers are moving beyond traditional risk models towards continuous, data-driven insights. This shift opens new opportunities to support healthier lives while building more sustainable insurance systems.” – Paul Burggraf, Thryve
The panel also addressed one of the most pressing questions in the industry today: how to support long-term health, not just assess risk. Preventive health, powered by wearable data and digital infrastructure, is becoming a central piece of that transition.
One of the strongest themes across the event was the increasing focus on preventive health. While adoption of patient-generated data is still approached with caution, there is a clear shift towards integrating prevention into insurance models.
Examples like Bupa UK’s move into genomic-based preventive services show how insurers are beginning to explore earlier intervention strategies. The challenge now is making these approaches scalable and operational.
Many insurers acknowledged that conventional approaches to engagement are no longer effective at scale. Programs like step challenges or small rewards tend to attract individuals who are already invested in their health, rather than those driving the highest claims burden. While more personalized goals are a step in the right direction, there is growing recognition that they need to be combined with more thoughtful incentive structures to drive meaningful, long-term behavior change.
What is becoming clearer, however, is why these approaches have struggled, and where the opportunity lies. Engagement is not a one-size-fits-all challenge. Younger, digitally native members are already responsive to data-driven, app-based experiences, and are increasingly comfortable engaging through wearables and health data. The greater challenge lies in reaching older, less digitally engaged populations, who account for a disproportionate share of costs. Here, success will likely depend on combining highly personalized behavioral goals with more compelling and relevant incentive structures. Rather than a lack of solutions, the industry is converging on a more nuanced, segmented understanding of what effective engagement really requires.
The rise of GLP-1 therapies was also a major point of the event, including during Paul’s panel. With a growing number of people using these treatments, insurers are facing new challenges around underwriting and long-term outcomes.
What stood out in the discussion was the challenge around the maintenance phase. As patients transition off GLP-1 therapies, long-term success depends less on the treatment itself and more on whether underlying behaviors have changed. If the psychological relationship to food, as well as eating and exercise habits, remains unaddressed, there is a high risk that weight will return, raising important questions for insurers around sustainable outcomes and long-term support.
AI was everywhere at the event, but there is still a lack of clarity around its most impactful use cases in health insurance.
While many conversations focused on automation, such as claims processing or underwriting improvements, there is also growing interest in more advanced applications. From Thryve’s perspective, the real opportunity lies in combining AI with high-quality, continuous health data from both patient-generated sources and clinical systems. Without that foundation, even the most advanced models remain limited.
At Thryve, this approach is already being explored in practice. Current initiatives include the use of chatbots to improve the resolution of customer service inquiries around insurance programs, the combination of wearable and clinical data to identify early signals of rehospitalization, and the comparison of treatment pathways against clinical standards to detect and correct deviations. Another area of focus is the continuous adjustment of hyperpersonalized SMART health goals based on real-world behavior.
These developments point toward a broader shift: AI in insurance is moving beyond automation toward systems that connect data, interpret it in context, and support more informed decision-making over time.
Another theme that came up repeatedly was the need for trusted partners. Health insurers, in particular, are looking for ways to innovate without increasing risk.
Rather than adopting isolated tools, there is a clear preference for integrated solutions that combine technology, regulatory understanding, and operational support. Strong partnerships are becoming a key enabler of innovation.
The team’s takeaways from the event really speak clearly to our mission at Thryve: shifting towards prevention, continuous health insights, and hyperpersonalized insurance models, which require a reliable data foundation.
But what is a reliable data infrastructure in 2026? You can find that answer in our Insurance model that combines within itself transparent and modern features:
In closing, Insurtech Insights Europe 2026 highlighted one key idea: as insurers are beginning to resolve key operational challenges, such as the difficulties in quickly resolving claims, this progress is allowing them to come back to other issues that may have previously been overlooked, such as prevention.
We would like to say a big thank you to the Insurtech Insights team for organizing such a well-curated event, and to all speakers and attendees for the high-quality discussions. The openness and diversity of perspectives made the exchange particularly valuable.
If you are looking to bring continuous member-generated health data into your insurance products, book a demo with Thryve to unlock the most out of your preventive potential!
