Leveraging AI: The future of claims adjusting - Part 3
AI technology will bring a new process and new efficiency to claims adjusting.
Adjusters have to adapt to whatever is thrown at them, whether it’s from the policyholder, the legal system or from their own employer. Adapting to change is a key skill, especially when it comes to technology, because it is rapidly changing how adjusters handle claims.
Of all the new technology on the horizon, using artificial intelligence (AI) in claims is the most likely to change how adjusters do their jobs on a daily basis.
Assume that your employer implements new AI technology for assessing windstorm damage to roofs. This implementation or any technology initiative can be viewed as a threat to your job or embraced as an opportunity. My advice is to embrace the opportunity! Here’s why:
- Better workflow: AI technology will improve workflow by allowing supervisors to assign claims which need your specific skills. Claims which do not fit your skillset will be handled by someone else. On assigned claims, AI technology will improve decision-making in a timelier manner. Reserving will be more accurate and closure rates should improve.
- Better catastrophe management: AI technology will allow a claim supervisor to triage CAT claims faster and more accurately, thereby eliminating assignments that do not need an inspection. CAT teams will be deployed for shorter periods of time.
- Better adjuster safety: AI technology will make handling roof claims safer. No more wading through bacteria-infested floodwaters to inspect a roof of a building that may not be structurally sound.
- Less time out of the office: If you are on a CAT team, the faster the losses are inspected and resolved, the faster you will return home. Gone are the days of six-week deployments. Reducing time away from the office means a quicker return to normalcy for you and your colleagues.
- New skill set: The ability to use AI technology appropriately is one more tool to add to your skillset, which can enhance your promotability and marketability.
- Happier policyholders: AI technology will allow you to handle claims faster and more accurately, thereby improving customer satisfaction. Lawsuits over roof claims should decrease.
In order to obtain these benefits for AI technology, the adjuster must learn how to use the AI tool correctly. Show enthusiasm for the learning process. Volunteer to be in the pilot program. Do not attempt to make the technology bend to doing things the way you always did them. Suggest ways to streamline the claims handling process that utilizes the new AI technology.
Learn how the technology works. You must be able to explain how technology operates, so policyholders will trust you and the technology. You are the primary contact that policyholders will have with the insurer after disaster strikes. Make sure you can answer their questions and if you cannot, make sure you find out the answer and get back to them.
You must use the technology efficiently so that you can derive all of the benefits the technology has to offer. Do not look back at how these claims were handled in the past. AI technology will bring a new process and new efficiency to claims adjusting.
AI technology is the future of claims adjusting. Embrace the technology and ensure your future in the new claims environment.
Donna J. Popow, Esq., CPCU, (donna.popow@verizon.net) spend more than 30 years in claims before becoming a consultant to the property/casualty insurance industry. She has managed catastrophe operations and written extensively on claim-handling procedures.
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