The Connected Insurer: How Composable Platforms Enable Ecosystem Growth

The insurance industry has long been defined by silos of data, systems, channels, and sometimes even mindsets. Legacy infrastructure and rigid platforms once gave insurers stability and compliance control. But in an ecosystem-driven economy, stability alone doesn’t win. Agility, connectivity, and speed do.

According to recent research, the global digital insurance platform market is valued at US$148.15 billion and projected to reach US$255.43 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 11.51%. This surge underscores how rapidly insurers are re-architecting for flexibility and connectedness.

Today’s insurers are no longer competing just on products or pricing. They’re competing on ecosystems. The winners will be those who can connect their services, partners, and technologies to deliver seamless, personalized experiences across the insurance value chain. And that’s exactly where composable platforms step in.

From Monolithic to Modular

Traditional insurance core systems were designed for control and consistency, not change. Every new product line, integration, or process tweak required months of customization and testing. Over time, this created “technology debt” - massive, complex IT ecosystems that are costly to run and painfully slow to adapt.

Enter the composable enterprise - a modular approach that breaks down monolithic architectures into flexible, interoperable building blocks. Each block (or microservice) performs a specific function, like policy issuance, claims adjudication, or risk scoring, and can be independently updated, replaced, or scaled.

In simpler terms: instead of one big system trying to do everything, insurers move to a network of smaller, smarter services that plug and play with each other.

The result? Freedom. Freedom to experiment, to innovate, and to scale, without disrupting the entire operation.

The Rise of the Connected Insurer

Becoming a “connected insurer” isn’t just about integrating APIs or adopting a new platform. It’s about reimagining the insurance business as a living, adaptive network. One that connects products, channels, and ecosystems seamlessly.

Composable platforms make this possible by:

• Decoupling systems: Each capability like underwriting, claims, engagement can evolve independently.
• Enabling real-time data flow: Unified data fabrics ensure decisions happen faster and smarter.
• Simplifying ecosystem integration: Whether it’s embedding insurance in e-commerce, health, or mobility ecosystems, composable architecture makes partnerships plug-and-play.

In short, insurers can now operate like tech companies - building, testing, and deploying new propositions at market speed.

A recent Capgemini and Efma report (2025) found that 68% of insurers see ecosystem partnerships as critical for future growth, yet only 30% currently have the technology to fully support these integrations. That gap represents both the challenge and the opportunity of becoming truly connected.

Ecosystem Growth: The Big Opportunity

For insurers, the ecosystem opportunity is massive. Customers today expect contextual, embedded experiences; insurance that appears exactly where it’s needed: when booking travel, applying for a loan, or purchasing a car.

Composable platforms allow insurers to plug into these ecosystems effortlessly. For instance:

• A health insurer can integrate wellness programs, telehealth partners, and wearable data through APIs, creating new risk-based pricing models.
• A motor insurer can collaborate with connected car platforms and roadside assistance providers—offering real-time risk monitoring and instant claims processing.
• A life insurer can connect with financial advisors, wealth platforms, and lifestyle apps to deliver holistic financial wellness offerings.

This shift transforms insurance from a “reactive product” to a proactive service - one that grows as the ecosystem grows.

Research by The Geneva Association found that among major insurers surveyed, about 73% cited “expanding market reach” and 87% cited “enhancing customer experience” as top motivations for ecosystem participation.

Additionally, McKinsey’s Global Insurance Report 2025 notes that connected insurers can achieve up to 25 - 35% faster time-to-market and 20% higher partner-led revenues.

The Composable Advantage

1. Speed to Market: New product launches or feature updates no longer take months. With modular components, insurers can quickly compose new solutions from existing services.
2. Customer-Centric Innovation: Composable platforms empower insurers to create microjourneys tailored to specific segments - SMEs, gig workers, or digital-first customers, without disrupting existing systems.
3. Operational Agility: When market conditions or regulatory norms change, only the relevant microservices need updates. This keeps operations lean and responsive.
4. Partner Integration at Scale: Ecosystem success depends on how fast and seamlessly you can onboard partners. Composable design ensures that integration is a configuration task, not a coding challenge.
5. Scalable AI Enablement: AI thrives on data and integration. Composable platforms provide the connectivity fabric needed for intelligent automation, embedding AI into processes like claims triage or fraud detection.

Why Now?

Three converging shifts make composable transformation not just relevant but urgent for insurers:

• Cloud Maturity: Cloud-native platforms now support composable design at enterprise scale.
• Open Ecosystem Mindset: Partnerships with insurtechs and non-insurance players are now mainstream.
• AI and Data Explosion: AI-driven insights need connected systems to realize their potential.

Gartner predicts that by 2026, more than 80% of large insurers will have adopted composable architectures to accelerate innovation and reduce legacy dependency.

In other words, the technology, the market, and the mindset have finally aligned. What’s missing is execution.

Executing the Shift

For insurers looking to make the move, here’s what best practice looks like:

1. Start with a Coreless Vision: Don’t begin by replacing your core. Instead, decouple the experience layer first, build composable front ends that sit above legacy systems. This reduces risk and delivers quick wins.
2. Adopt a Capability-Based Approach: Define capabilities (like “quote management” or “policy servicing”) rather than systems. This helps in identifying what can be made modular.
3. Invest in a Strong Integration Layer: APIs, event-driven architectures, and orchestration tools are the backbone of composability. Without them, modularity becomes chaos.
4. Empower Business-Led Experimentation: Low-code and no-code tools enable business teams to compose experiences faster, reducing dependence on IT.
5. Measure Ecosystem Outcomes: Don’t just track internal KPIs. Measure how connected your ecosystem is - number of active integrations, partner-driven revenue, or ecosystem retention rates.

The Road Ahead

According to the Geneva Association (2024), over 80% of insurers surveyed are already engaging with technology companies to build digital platform ecosystems.

That’s a clear signal. The connected insurer isn’t a future vision. It’s a current imperative. Those still running monolithic systems risk being outpaced by digital natives who were born composable.

By embracing composable platforms, insurers can move beyond incremental modernization to ecosystem-led reinvention, where growth is not limited by internal capability but amplified by external collaboration.

Because in the age of intelligent ecosystems, it’s not about owning the entire value chain. It’s about orchestrating it.