The insurance industry can anticipate even more technology to enhance safety, reduce costs, and get families back on their feet faster after disaster strikes. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Over the past decade technology has become increasingly interwoven into our daily lives and work. Back in 2010, tablets, battery-powered cars, augmented reality, smartwatches, consumer drones and smart speakers were hard to imagine.

To say technology has transformed throughout the decade is an understatement.

Drones transform claims

The same could be said of how technology has impacted the insurance industry in the 2010s. It has has enhanced how damage is assessed and claims are adjusted. Aerial imagery and data-capture by drones is now one of the quickest and safest ways insurance companies can estimate structural damage and determine the appropriate claim. Over the course of the last decade, drones have helped reduce the claims adjustment period from 11 days to 5 or 6, almost cutting the time in half.

In order for drones to be fully accessible for insurers, we need to take a step back and mention the regulations that have moved both the drone and insurance industries forward. When the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first developed airspace in the Fifties, it wasn't done so with technology in mind, just airplanes. Drones were unthinkable.

Regulatory leadership

More recently, however, the FAA has made major updates with the Part 107 program and Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC). The Part 107 program provides a license for commercial pilots to fly drones, increasing the drone pilot pool from a couple of thousand to over 120,000 in the U.S. and expanding the amount of pilots for insurers to hire. LAANC opened up roughly 25% to 30% of airspace for temporary clearance within restricted airspace, say five miles of a local airport.

LAANC has enabled insurers to rely on drone pilots 99% of the time. Reliability in insurance is important, especially when a disaster strikes.

Drones and disaster

Throughout the decade, commercial drones have helped communities devastated by natural disasters — such as Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, and wildfires in California — receive their claims faster. By leveraging a drone service provider, such as DroneBase, insurers can hire and dispatch a trained local pilot to capture the structural damage from above. With tens of thousands of addresses to assess, drone operations companies help expedite claims and allow clients to get back to whole quicker.

Additionally, drone technology has vastly improved over the decade, which enables adjusters to have higher resolution images and data. The drones today are much more reliable with safety features such as obstacle avoidance, extended battery life, and better cameras. More advanced drones are also more affordable for drone pilots to purchase, which allows them to spend less investing in the hardware to have a better result.

Looking to the future

Looking ahead to the 2020s, I anticipate that technology will continue to augment the insurance industry with both drones and artificial intelligence. Just as technological enhancements have made TVs and computers more affordable, advanced sensors for drones are also more affordable. Even earlier this year, companies would have to shell out $25,000 or more for a thermal flight. However, just as the democratization of technology has opened the door for better phones, cameras, and computers, the thermal drone flights of tomorrow will be more cost effective. Thermal often provides an instant, causal analysis of problems with an asset. For example, this will allow insurers to provide a quality assessment of a roof to find cracks or damage to HVAC units.

Artificial intelligence is often a buzzword carelessly thrown around; however, I believe it will have a significant impact on the insurance industry in years to come. It will help guide adjusters to make better informed and faster decisions, highlighting issues so they can take the appropriate action. I believe AI will be our friend in insurance.

It's clear a lot has changed since 2010. I look forward to seeing more advancements in technology, and therefore more technology for insurers to leverage to enhance safety, reduce costs, and get families back on their feet faster throughout the 2020s.

Dan Burton (dan@dronebase.com) is the founder and CEO of DroneBase, a global drone operations company based in Santa Monica, Calif., that provides businesses with aerial information to make better, real-time decisions about critical assets.

These opinions are the author's own.

See also:

Special Reports /

How this decade's tech changed the insurance industry

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