Munich Re has launched automated damage detection technology to help insurers process claims during natural disasters, especially hurricanes.
Developed in the company’s THE LAB innovation space by its Remote Industries team, the suite of tools includes damage predictions starting four days before a storm; aerial views immediately after; and a machine-learning algorithm for damage assessment. Remote Industries is one of six teams in THE LAB that work with insurer clients and tech partners on new digital solutions.
“The hurricane events from 2016 to 2018 resulted in a high volume of claims, a shortage of adjusters and higher loss adjustment expenses for insurance companies, with claims resolution delayed for many of those who were impacted,” says Roman Buegler, who heads the initiative. “Our new suite of tools utilizes cutting-edge technology to help insurance companies improve the customer experience and free up adjusters to manage serious or complex losses, while allowing rapid settlement of more simple losses.”
Munich Re partnered with the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s Geospatial Intelligence Center to get the high resolution aerial imagery, adding algorithms determined by other integrated models of external data such as weather data, prediction data, property intelligence data, and Munich Re’s claims data.
Buegler says, “More extreme and frequent catastrophe events have unfortunately become the norm, so our industry can’t rely on the way we’ve always responded to hurricanes. Having remote sensing capabilities is a way to step up our game for our insureds at a time they need us most.”
