Wecome to FS Brew! We are delighted to welcome Siddhaarth Iyer  (Head of Digital for Axa Middle East, to the FS Brew Podcast!    Sidd is a start-up guy turned corporate with a wide experience in creating amazing Digital journeys for customers across industries like Insurance, Agriculture, Healthcare, Government & Procurement tech. Sidd has been a Digital-tech guy throughout his career with a keen focus on customer/user experience and business innovation. Sidd holds multiple approved US innovation patents in the utility & tech space. In his relatively short 13 year career, products built by him have reached by more than 3mn users across multiple countries.   Sidd on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddiyer/ Questions:  First of all, we like to understand more about how our guests get into their chosen profession. So tell us, how did you get into insurance?     How has COVID impacted your business in the ME? You dont have to take about numbers of course   We can see a renewed focus on Health and Life from your marketing efforts. Is that reflective of the customer demand for Health/ Life products? What are the business drivers unique to the UAE market in terms of products, customer choice, and regulations?   What do you think is the future business model for insurers in the UAE, considering several established players, aggregators and insurtechs in this space plus with the changing regulations?     Can you speak more about what it would take to succeed in Digitally Transforming an incumbent insurance company in the UAE market? What has been your experience to date   Who do you consider as your competitor in the market, and how do you go about differentiating your brand in this space?    What are the channels that you are using for acquiring customers and why?    Tesla announced in 2019 that it is launching its own auto insurance. What happens when this kind of manufacturer-led program becomes more prevalent?     What are your views about the partnership between insurance companies and insurtech space in the Middle East? Is it a matter of competition or collaboration?    Would you say that the sun is setting on the agency model to deliver UX designs to clients like AXA, considering this expertise has moved largely in- house? Team structure for digital. What are the top 3 digital metrics that you monitor closely when it comes to digital sales? What are the top 3 metrics that you monitor closely to track ROAS or mROI?    - Considering ‘digital’ as a space is ever evolving, how do you personally remain at the front of these changes? Can you give us some examples of technology adoption (such as IoT, blockchain, ML, AI) for AXA’s digital business especially in the bancassurance space?  Before we end, is there a message that you would like to send to anyone from the insurance industry in the UAE (outside of Axa /GIG). It could be a personal message or a business one...   Listen to this episode to know more. As usual, please leave us your comments, likes and shares.  Check out more at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fs-brew   Video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/lrMacY5Ape8 #insurance #funding #dubaibusiness #uaebusiness #insurancebroker #insurtechs #financialservices #insurtech #fsbrew #interview Renjit Philip: Newsletter: ⁠https://www.onemorethinginai.com⁠ Socials: Twitter / X: @renjitphilip LinkedIn:  ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/renjit-philip⁠ Vidya Veerapandian: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidya-veerapandian/⁠