Advanced Driving Instructor Qorus-NTT DATA Innovation in Insurance Awards 2026

For years, telematics has delivered a largely analytical experience to clients and drivers: scores and retrospective summaries that tell drivers what went wrong, after it has already happened. The burden of change has remained with the customer, who must interpret complex data and translate insight into action. Advanced Driving Instructor reimagines this relationship entirely. It embeds predictive risk models directly into the driving experience, identifying repeat behavioural patterns and intercepting them in real time through targeted interventions. By detecting both location-specific habit zones and broader behavioural drift, and distilling these signals into a clear, prioritised objective at a time, it removes friction, cognitive overload and guesswork. The system does the heavy lifting, analysing longitudinal telematics and claims data, prioritising marginal risk, calibrating incentives and delivering just-in-time guidance, so that safer driving becomes intuitive rather than analytical. In doing so, Advanced Driving Instructor transforms telematics from a reporting mechanism into an intelligent behavioural operating system, redefining what customers experience when they engage with motor insurance. 

Concept and objectives: 

Analysis of more than a decade of telematics and claims data revealed two dominant risk patterns: 

• Context-bound risk loops at recurring locations (“habit zones”), and 

• Broader behavioural tendencies emerging over time. 

Advanced Driving Instructor distinguishes between these patterns and applies the right intervention model. Geospatial clustering identifies habit zones and triggers just-in-time audio prompts before drivers reach their personal hotspots, while behavioural-trend models assign focused, time-bound goals tailored to the behaviour with the highest risk-reduction potential. 

The core objectives are to: 

1. Shift telematics from measurement to real-time intervention 

1. Personalise and simplify behaviour change through one actionable goal at a time 

1. Align behaviour change with insurance economics through calibrated rewards 

Reasons behind the innovation: 

Discovery Insure pioneered behaviour-linked motor insurance through Vitality Drive, our proprietary programme that measures 5 key driving behaviours and incentivises safer driving through points and tiered status bands, which translates into cash back for clients. This platform has generated deep longitudinal insights over a decade into the link between driving behaviour and claims outcomes. Advanced Driving Instructor builds directly on this foundation, embedding predictive modelling and real-time intervention capability into the existing ecosystem. It shifts the experience from scoring to intelligent behavioural support. 

This system was created to meet our clients need for clarity and ease-of-use on their journey to becoming better drivers. Drivers typically overestimate how good their driving is, and most available telematics programmes remain retrospective, placing the cognitive burden on clients to interpret their driving ability/scores and determine how to improve. Advanced Driving Instructor is the next step in providing clients with a defined path to improving their behaviour, presented in personalised, achievable and actionable goals. These goals are further enhanced with personalised in-app messaging driven by LLMs with client-specific data and features, ensuring that improvement feels clear, attainable and motivating to everyone. Using our models, complex behavioural analytics is translated into a single clear objective at a time, delivered through behavioural science backed tone and messaging styles, designed for maximum impact. The outcome is a significant reduction in cognitive load, making it feel easier and more achievable for drivers to improve their behaviour. 

State of Competition 

No other insurer globally currently provides a personalised, AI-driven, real-time behavioural coaching solution comparable to Advanced Driving Instructor. Competing insurers and telematics programmes describe how a client has driven – but do not influence how they drive in the moment and proactively shift behaviour to better driving. In contrast, Advanced Driving Instructor introduces a new class of behaviour-shaping technology. Advanced Driving Instructor integrates a driver’s unique behavioural patterns, personalised goals, proactive habit zone alerts and a reward ecosystem, creating a level of personalisation and real-time guidance not available in other market offerings. 

Sources of Inspiration: 

Advanced Driving Instructor was driven by Discovery Insure’s commitment to creating meaningful safety outcomes and creating a nation of great drivers and safer roads for all. Advances in AI and behavioural science – especially around timely, personalised nudges – demonstrated that intuitive, context-specific guidance could materially improve driving behaviour. Advanced Driving Instructor applies these principles at scale, combining deep data, predictive modelling and cutting-edge behavioural science to make better driving accessible to every client.  

Departments Involved: 

Several departments were involved in the development and implementation of Advanced Driving Instructor, including Product Development, Marketing, Technical Marketing, Systems and IT teams, Business Architecture teams, Discovery Telematics Services, Business Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Operations Intelligence, UX/UI Design, Finance, Vitality Drive teams and Partners teams. 

Main results so far: 

Though recently launched, early signals show strong traction. In the first cycle, 88,000 personalised goals were assigned with R2.7 million ($165,000) in rewards available, 1.9 million coaching messages and 900,000 push notifications were delivered, and 21% of driving goals were achieved over an 18-day window. App utilisation increased by 10% post-launch, 51% of clients viewed their Advanced Driving Instructor guidance, and those who did achieved significantly higher success rates (approximately 49% relative uplift for mid and lower status drivers, 24% for higher status drivers). Sentiment was also strongly positive (3,100 “thumbs up” vs 290 “thumbs down”). These early indicators demonstrate a strong behavioural architecture with the potential to scale meaningful safety impact. Important to note that by clients improving their driving behaviour it unlocks even more rewards on the main Vitality Drive programme