Why insurers are taking a bird's eye view of claims
11/08/2024
Insurers and loss adjusters can be some of the first people on the ground following a customer loss but increasingly they’re the first in the sky too, as James Nicholson, chief claims officer at Zurich, explains.
Article taken from original work by Insurance Post, read that article here.
The use of drones has become more commonplace in the industry in recent years, but insurers are increasingly turning to other aerial technologies to help process claims. These tools can free up manpower, but they can also make the job of assessing a claim safer, by eliminating the need for assessors to access hard to reach places.
Recently, a customer of ours on an industrial park had severe damage caused to their roof as a result of a cannabis factory fire next door. We commissioned a drone survey, which sped up the process and aided in assessing the scale of the building and materials involved. This helped us to reach a settlement in just over four months, which is a quick turnaround for a complex loss of this scale. Drones can also help detect potential customer fault or dishonesty. We recently saw a fire in a block of flats with wooden cladding. The footage showed the extent of the damage and that barbecues we restored and obviously used on balconies despite signs prohibiting this.
But perhaps the most unsung use of drone technology is in building resilience post-loss. We commissioned a drone survey after a fire in a block of flats raised concerns around the method of construction. This allowed us to engage with the customer about future risk management and provided the opportunity to review the building regularly as the claim progressed, in a way that the odd photo wouldn’t have been able to.
However, drones are no longer the only eyes in the sky that insurers can use. Technology has moved beyond drones to include satellite imagery and low-level aerial imagery. These solutions are more effective when it comes to widespread damage but also have a place before a loss.
Where insurers have widespread exposures, such as in an area devastated by a natural catastrophe, satellite and low-level imagery can play an important role in triaging claims.
The Greek wildfires were a perfect example of this and a case study for how insurers can use eyes in the sky to align resources. In that case, houses separated by a matter of meters were either destroyed or not damaged at all, and insurers quickly used satellite imagery to identify who needed help and who didn’t.
These technologies can also be used to record a project over a period of time. For example, they can monitor the values at risk on a construction project so that premium can be allocated more accurately over the lifecycle of a project. Insurers can also use these tools to survey major infrastructure so that all parties have an accurate idea of what was there before a loss. This allows us to revisit those surveys when a claim is made, especially in cases of suspected fraud.
Of course, using these tools is not appropriate for every claim, and there are some downsides. Drone pilots are generally not insurance professionals, meaning they must be carefully directed.
There are also flight restrictions and privacy concerns to consider. As part of a robust and varied toolkit, however, these technologies can significantly reduce the time it takes to assess a claim while ensuring safety and helping to prevent fraud.
