Technology Partnerships Key to Insurance Industry’s Exit from `Stone Age:’ Aviva CEO

The insurance industry is “generally in the stone age,” and partnerships with technology companies are the way forward, according to Aviva Plc’s chief executive officer.

His company, the U.K.’s second-largest insurer, is working with Tesla on how to insure driverless vehicles, Mark Wilson said in an interview Monday with Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg Surveillance. Aviva is also looking into artificial intelligence and big data, he said.

“The new future is partnerships,” Wilson said. “You need those skill sets, you need to blend them together.”

Aviva last year teamed up with Hillhouse Capital Management and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to develop a Hong Kong company focused on digital insurance. In his interview, Wilson said Aviva’s dividend will probably grow at a double-digit rate “for the foreseeable future.”