Erie sees the future through Google Glass

In late October 2014, four adjusters from the Erie, Pa., office and four from Pittsburgh were selected to participate in the pilot program. Two from each office were material damage adjusters and two were property adjusters. The pilot ran through February 2015, and the adjusters were asked to use Google Glass in their day-to-day activities, primarily to take photos.

"The initial feedback was that it was easy to use," said Erin Parker, a claims branch manager with Erie. "They got a lot of positive feedback from the policyholders, who thought it was a great idea. They loved the innovation the company was showing."

Parker says that while the technology was easy to use, there were some drawbacks since there wasn't a zoom or flash, which limited their inspection capabilities in some instances. However, Briody says these could be addressed in the next version of Glass.

"A lot of the things we found to be issues with the first version will probably be resolved in the future," Briody says. "There are items that you can buy off the shelf like a light and an application that allows the camera to zoom in, but we decided not to go that route. We wanted to wait and see what Google has to offer."

Jeremy Sloan, a software engineer with Erie concurs. "We have not heard anything directly from Google on what will and won't be included in the next version of the Glasses, but based on third-party reports we think a lot of these issues will be addressed in the new version."

Erie is one of a handful of companies working with Glass at Work and the team is flying to California to meet with Google's engineers in a few weeks to share their experiences and find out how their information will impact the next version of Glass.

Google Glass has major applications in the medical field, where a number of pilot and full-scale programs are underway. Glass is being used in surgery and as part of the interviews between physicians and patients. "People like that it allows their doctors to look them in the eye and have a conversation with them instead of looking down at a tablet or a file," Sloan explains. "People feel better about the experience and more engaged, and that the doctors are listening to them."

The same sort of experience is also important for Erie. "The goal for Erie is not to lose the human touch," he adds. "We want our customers to feel connected to us."

Briody says their pilot confirmed this was the case. "One of the key differentiators between Erie and other insurance companies is we don't want to lose the human touch, and Glass allows us to keep that face-to-face interaction the whole time," she says. "Policyholders have wanted to check them out themselves and we encouraged that. It's important to keep the human touch and Glass allows that because of its function." Adjusters can look at the insured while gathering information instead of using a camera or tablet and looking away from the customer.

Erie adjuster Greg Emke demonstrates how Google Glasses can be used to investigate a claim. Photo courtesty of Erie Insurance Group.

 Glasses of the future?

The company chose adjusters who fell into two technology camps – those who were comfortable with it and those who weren't – and Glass worked well for both groups.

Loretta Russ, an Erie claims supervisor, says some of the features worked particularly well. "The head mounted voice activation and wink options were both good options for the operation, and the glasses worked well except for the disadvantages of not having a zoom option or flash."

The technology also allows them to "easily download photos into the standard Erie portal without having to use the traditional tether to download them," she adds. "They could do it with a wireless connection."

The company also looked at features like battery life and monitored for health-related inconveniences like headaches from using the glasses, but none of these seemed to be issues other than learning to adjust to the depth perception of the glasses. They were particularly excited about the voice-activated commands that could be a part of the next generation of Google Glass like telling the glasses to take a photo or download the photos to the computer rather than using a tether.

It seems that Google Glass has a bright future in the insurance industry. "With technology moving so quickly, wearables are around the corner," says Parker. Of course, how soon and in what capacity really depends on Google and how quickly the technology advances, but the team already has some ideas on how Glass could be utilized in the future such as part of a self-guided tour in their technical learning center or even to provide live feedback to an office following a major catastrophe. Imagine being able to stream data back to a branch office immediately following a major loss.

Interestingly, when Google first developed Glass, they didn't consider the application for the insurance industry. "Now we are trailblazers for them," says Briody. Guess Google was lucky she saw the future for insurance in Glass.