The value of premiums underwritten with the help of computer vision and other AI technologies will grow nearly 1,500% to $20 billion by 2024*
Today, 40% of customers will look for a new insurance company after filing a homeowners claim due to a disconnect between the amount they thought they were covered for versus the amount their insurer is willing to pay. A new generation of AI-enabled, visual remote inspection tools are designed to change that by enabling homeowners, commercial property owners and others to do their own contactless property inspection using a mobile app and the camera on their smartphone. Using computer vision, these solutions capture, catalog and assess the interior and exterior of a property, as well belongings within the property, saving hundreds on the cost of a home inspection. When integrated with Guidewire, solutions like those provided by Flyreel can equip insurers with the most comprehensive interior and exterior dataset available, helping them understand the unique risk associated with insuring a property so they can price accordingly.
Who?
Flyreel provides what it calls “Total Property Understanding™” for underwriting, loss control, and claims. Founded in 2016, this Denver, CO-based company’s smart digital self-inspection assistant is designed to eliminate the need for conducting in-person inspections—a major plus during the pandemic. As users scan the property with their smartphone camera, Flyreel’s proprietary computer vision technology automatically documents critical property data like hazards, risks, features, materials, and more. Flyreel’s AI assistant can even react and respond to data collected by the policyholder, adapting and customizing conversational workflows based on unique attributes in real-time so that insurers get the intel they need to optimize the underwriting experience.
What is the value proposition?
Flyreel is currently scoping out integrations to both PolicyCenter and ClaimCenter. (Full disclosure: Guidewire is an investor in Flyreel).
The combined benefits of the Guidewire platform and Flyreel will arm insurers with the data and intelligence they need to cut costs, properly price risk, improve operational efficiencies, and increase customer satisfaction and retention.
As part of the underwriting process, Flyreel’s smart digital assistant guides the user through a property inspection using the camera on their smart phone and a dedicated app. As the user pans the device across the interior and exterior of the property, Flyreel uses computer vision to automatically identify and record features, contents, and other details relevant to the underwriting process.
Onscreen prompts guide the user where to go, and even ask for help establishing that the user is physically at the property by taking a photo of the address in front of the house or mailbox and correlating that through Google Maps.
When integrated to PolicyCenter, data captured using the Flyreel mobile app can be automatically piped into PolicyCenter, and can potentially be utilized in the following ways:
QUOTE: By prefilling Flyreel data into our quote screens, less manual input is required by the agent or underwriter during the quote process. This improves both the speed and accuracy of the quote and submission process.
RATING: Flyreel data can also be augmented with core platform and external data sources and leveraged in our rating engine to calculate a more accurate and personalized premium.
RISK: This data can also be consumed by our underwriting rules engine (see below) to determine if a risk is insurable, and under what circumstances.
What is the opportunity?
The insurance market and consumer expectations are shifting dramatically, propelled by the dynamics put into play by the pandemic, new technical innovations, and quite frankly, customer demand. The simple fact is, customers expect consumer-grade product experiences and insurance offerings that protect and support them in ways that are no longer viable using broad risk pooling, zip-code underwriting, and other assumptive approaches.
As it stands now, 55% of tech-savvy and 43% of non tech-savvy consumers say that personalized products and services influence whether they’ll stay with their insurer. And according to a recent survey, 68% of consumers say they expect insurance companies to increase their ability to serve customers remotely.
The ability of AI and computer vision technologies to enable insurers to facilitate remote property inspections at scale, identify risks, and price coverage to meet the specific needs of the customer is a win-win for everyone.
*https://iireporter.com/global-ai-insurance-premiums-to-exceed-20b-by-2024-juniper-research/
Want more details?
Watch this video for a demonstration of how the Flyreel smart digital assistant enables customers to do their own remote property inspection using a mobile app and the camera on their smartphone so they get the coverage they want, at the right price for the risk.