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Editor’s noteThis is the first in a series of ongoing challenges to the insurance industry, including traditional carriers and insurers using modern technology.
When people are told that Alex Hartson is a claims adjuster for a large insurance company, they probably don’t react much in social situations. But when he mentions his second career as a commercial drone pilot, he’s sure to raise interest and questions.
Hartson is one of 700 professional drones trained and employed by Travelers Insurance at the cutting edge of claims processing. They fixed the previous claim and lost ladders, measuring tapes, Polaroid cameras and other arcane tools. With drones, experts like Hartson can measure, assess, and report on roof damage, barn and chimney damage and tearing, and many other property claims without ever leaving terra firma.
“So we’re flying every single one of our property inspections as long as there’s no airspace restriction. And this becomes even more useful when there’s a safety threat to the home or a structural threat, being able to put something up in the sky or physically try to find something that’s downed power lines. Trees through rooftop spaces and natural objects.”
“It’s a tool at our disposal, if it helps us in terms of efficiency or what we need in terms of security [policy holders] It gives them a good look at what’s going on with the property and they’re going to consider it their first choice,” Hartson said.
Travelers, for example, has a proprietary geospatial tool that goes along with its drone strategy, which can be used to compare high-quality photos of nearly the entire country with photos taken after disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes or wildfires.
By embracing technology solutions like drones, Travelers is joining other legacy insurers that are working to bring new and innovative features to a business that’s been around for centuries and hasn’t changed much since its inception.
Partly due to consumer demand for an Amazon-like service experience and partly due to a perceived — yet real — threat from young insurtechs to disrupt the industry, traditional insurers are exploring new consumer-friendly high-tech. Tools. Artificial intelligence, data mining, analytics, even virtual reality glasses are bringing the dusty old insurance industry into the technological age.
Travelers, for example, has a proprietary geospatial tool that goes along with its drone strategy, which can be used to compare high-quality photos of nearly the entire country with photos taken after disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes or wildfires.
AI provides claim information
“We have an AI program running in the background that tells us all kinds of things like how many speculative claims we have, whether customers with more serious injuries have had less serious injuries,” said Jim Wucherpfenig. , property claims by vice president of travelers. “So even before claims are filed, we have a good idea not only of how many claims we will have, but how severe the incident will be for our customers.
Travelers, Wucherpfenig said, is going to roll out another program of internal claims to fix what external technology assessment programs do. And contractor maintenance is combined with referral programs.
“You know, in today’s supply and demand and price inflation, what clients are looking for is, ‘Who can fix this property for me?’ “And so we have another completely digital platform that we can offer to give contractors to customers in their area who will complete the work for the estimate we wrote.”
Travelers has partnered and invested in Aloft, a Silicon Valley software company, in the FAA-approved federal government’s Low Altitude Permit and Notification Capability Program, a collaboration between the FAA and industry.
Drone pilots fly and maintain aircraft and manage drone data. With each flight, data – including telemetry, video, photos, clearances and battery life – is automatically uploaded to the secure cloud, insuring real-time views of the entire fleet. It gives the company a single source record for all critical data points associated with the drone program.
‘More digital skills to come’
“We see a lot more digital capabilities to connect with the customer and give them the technology they need to have a relationship with us,” Wucherpfenig said. There’s a lot we’re working on right now and testing and kicking the tires.
Automating the entire insurance process is a goal for many insurers, but some say they have been slow to invest in and build new technology systems. Even now, many computer programmers, software writers, and other high-tech companies claim that the insurance industry is our market. But when asked to provide the names of companies or people who use their products, they refuse.
However, most analysts believe that consumers desire efficiency, speed and convenience in their dealings with insurance companies, so they participate for no other reason than to maintain their market share.
Technological innovation can act as a recruitment drive for an industry that needs to attract young talent to the field.
“It’s really changed our dynamic where it’s happening,” Hartson said. “I recently interviewed someone who was applying for a technical specialist position in our claims department, and they mentioned that they met someone who said they were a drone pilot because they joined our property team. That sparked a lot of interest, and it’s really a neat tool that we’ve been offered.”
Doug Bailey is a journalist and freelance writer based out of Boston. He can be reached [email protected].
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