Insurance risk managers draw on unstructured data

Insurers operate in a world of unstructured and unsorted data with gigabytes of information at their disposal, some of which is barely used. The latest analytical tools, advances in computing power and a new breed of data scientists are helping firms make more use of this powerful resource in their risk management. Clive Davidson reports

Like the physical universe, the data universe is vast and expanding at an enormous rate. Already, total data volumes must be measured in zettabytes – that is trillions of gigabytes. And the amount of information that is being created globally is now doubling around every two years. While some of this data is stored in orderly collections residing in conventional databases, the majority is a more random assortment of text, audio, images and video. Only a tiny fraction of this data is analysed –