Data affects everything today, while artificial intelligence and foundation platforms give enterprises more and more developer experiences. In that context, insurance has emerged as one of the hot areas in the space.

That’s where MongoDB Inc. and Databricks Inc. hope to offer their expertise, with one of its most prominent use cases being attempting to help customers modernize away from the constraints of legacy systems.  

“Fundamentally, insurance is a data processing organization, has been forever,” said Jeff Needham (pictured, right), principal of industry solutions at MongoDB. “For an organization to be able to process data more efficiently, more effectively with less hands on keyboards is tremendously compelling, obviously, to the industry.”

Needham and Marcela Granados (left), global insurance leader with Databricks, spoke with theCUBE industry analyst John Furrier at the MongoDB .local NYC event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the importance of real-time data, the role of AI and the key steps insurers should consider in all of this. (* Disclosure below.)

Telematics comes into view

It’s also important to consider the concept of real-time data, which is vital in insurance, according to Granados.

“Oftentimes, insurance companies care about the reports, like, ‘Hey, if all I need to do is financial report, regulatory reporting, I can do it on a monthly basis, I can do it on a quarterly basis. What real-time data?’” Granados said.

That’s where the concept of telematics comes into focus, which is no longer a dream, according to Granados. Lots of insurance companies know that with prohibiting the use of credit score behavioral data, telematics is key.

“If you don’t have that real-time view of how people are driving and how it would affect not only pricing, but also claims, it’s absolutely critical,” she said.

When it comes to telematics, the partnership between MongoDB and Databricks involves a solution accelerator built together around usage-based insurance. But the concept of semi-structured data on telematics can go beyond the personal auto market, and commercial auto is now heavily based in telematics, according to Granados.

“In our view, I think every single line of business and insurance can be affected by semi-structured and unstructured data as well,” she said.

Here’s the complete video interview with Marcela Granados and Jeff Needham, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the MongoDB .local NYC event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the MongoDB .local NYC event. Neither MongoDB Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE