Hurricane Ian flooded houses in Florida residential area. Credit: bilanol/Adobe Stock
Nearly three quarters of property and casualty insurers say the increasing severity of weather is disrupting their business, according to recent survey by Nearmap.
At the same time, respondents largely agree the industry has “blind spots” centered on climate and severe weather, cybersecurity, privacy concerns, emerging risk prediction, fraud, and assessing property risks with technology.
"Every state is now a catastrophe state, and every carrier is now a catastrophe carrier," said Dave Tobias, Nearmap’s general manager of insurance.
"Looking ahead, our industry must accelerate its adoption of technology—not only to price more effectively, but to empower insureds as active partners in risk management,” he added. “By embracing predictive insights and proactive solutions, we can shift from a reactive to a 'predict and prevent' mindset that benefits everyone."
In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, traditional approaches are insufficient, according to the Nearmap survey.
Next-generation risks like severe weather and natural catastrophes, inaccurate property assessments and rising fraud intersect with technology adoption, data management and legacy IT infrastructure replacement, the data showed, with insurance companies often being caught off-guard when these risks collide, creating increased property losses, operational inefficiencies and lower customer satisfaction.
Meanwhile, most P&C insurers recognize the transformative potential of AI-derived insights from aerial imagery, particularly in the face of escalating climate change risks, Nearmap said.
Other key insights from the survey include:
- Sixty percent agree that AI-powered insights from imagery would allow P&C firms to insure once-uninsurable properties.
- Fifty-nine percent believe most P&C insurance will be powered by AI technology, yet only 18% use AI-derived insights from aerial imagery to power their businesses.
- Sixty-six percent say new technologies lower average insurance costs by shifting higher premiums to high-risk consumers.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.