Over the past decade, technology's impact on the claims side of the P&C industry has been extraordinary. Today, insureds submit high-definition video and audio files and images to support their claims. In theory, this creates more accurate and faster claims processing, all of which should be good news to insurers, who face increased cost pressures due to the abundance of claims filed in the wake of multiple large-scale weather events and COVID-19.

Yet there's a potential dark side to technology. Inadvertent data errors run the risk of sabotaging a claims teams' ability to reduce costs and deliver exceptional customer service. Each claim processed with inaccurate data creates numerous expenses, including overpayments that erode profits, lost staff time that destroys employee morale and legal fees that may escalate quickly. These costs are in addition to the exacerbation claims professionals hear in the voices of the insured when they have to explain what happened.