Often insurance schemes take a long-time to process, and a contributor to this is the need for an insurance company to pay a visit. There is also the added complication of fake claims or claims relating to damage by causes not covered in an insurance policy. To streamline the process for claims relating to building damage, Technology Review notes how some insurance companies are sending over drones to take a look.
Reported in the Wall Street Journal, adjusters are deploying drones to undertake inspections of outer structural damage to business premises and homes. This relates to claims relating to storm damage, fires, lightening strikes and so on. This saves the need to send a person out to make the assessment. This saves time, especially when the properties that require inspection are in remote areas.
One such company deploying drones is Liberty Mutual. The vice president of claims innovation, Lily Wray, told the Wall Street Journal that something that would take many hours is now reduced to a matter of minutes. Not only are drones faster, they can also be more accurate than a human inspector through the use of advanced imaging.
The company also highlights health and safety as a reason for drone use on its website: “Liberty Mutual uses drones for rooftop inspections because they’re safer than using a ladder and sending someone up on the roof.”
The application of drones is another sign of ‘insurtech’ disrupting the insurance sector. Other technological applications include the application of artificial intelligence image recognition software to assess damage in vehicle damage claims; and chatbots to automate the claims procedure. These types of technologies are presented in the Digital Journal article “Rapid growth forecast for insurtech in 2018.”
