A Birds Eye on Insurance

The insurance industry is increasingly embracing drones for both pre- and post-loss operations, aiming to enhance risk management, streamline claim processes, and reduce operational costs. With applications ranging from personnel safety compliance to post-disaster assessment, drones offer a versatile, portable, and powerful solution for today’s insurance challenges. The results are impactful: for example, in a significant post-fire assessment in France, drone mapping by Dronotec saved an insurance company an incredible AU$10,810,282 after a fire devastated a major vacation spot.

Drones are quickly becoming a go-to tool, allowing inspectors to assess damage with speed, safety, and accuracy.

Let’s explore five key advantages that are driving drone adoption in the insurance sector:

1. Safety & Risk Management
   Drones eliminate the need for human inspectors to navigate hazardous environments, reducing risk and improving personnel safety. By keeping people out of high-risk zones, insurance companies save on the additional costs associated with traditional inspections and safety precautions.
2. Operational Efficiency
   Drones greatly improve the efficiency of assessments. Capable of capturing hundreds of high-resolution images in under twenty minutes, drones can complete inspections in a fraction of the time, significantly reducing operational costs while speeding up the claims process.
3. Real-Time Data Collection
   With drones, insurance teams receive real-time data, gaining instant insights that are crucial for prompt and informed decision-making. This immediacy is invaluable for both everyday claims and large-scale catastrophe response, where time is critical.
4. Enhanced Visual Imagery
   Drones provide high-quality visual data that can be challenging for human inspectors to gather. With their ability to maneuver into tight spots and fly over difficult terrain, drones capture detailed images from multiple angles, supporting thorough and precise assessments.
5. Streamlined Claims Management
   With their accuracy and efficiency, drones play a pivotal role in expediting claims decisions. Their transparent, verifiable assessments improve the claims process for both policyholders and insurers, enhancing customer satisfaction and simplifying claim resolution.

Roof Inspections
Traditional roof inspections, often managed by human teams, come with high costs and operational complexity. Drones excel at reaching hard-to-access areas—tight corners, steep slopes, and unsafe zones—capturing clear, high-resolution imagery that enables quick and accurate assessments. This data-driven approach significantly reduces the time and cost associated with traditional inspections.

Storm Restoration
Storms and natural disasters can devastate properties, creating unique challenges for insurance companies. Drones play an essential role in storm restoration efforts, surveying affected areas and accelerating claims. Equipped with ultra-high-resolution cameras, drones capture detailed imagery of damage, such as roof punctures, fallen trees, flooding, and other critical issues. This level of detail enables faster and more informed decision-making, ultimately improving the support for affected customers and emergency response teams.

For instance, during Hurricanes Florence and Michael in the southeastern U.S., State Farm worked with Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership to obtain a federal waiver for drone use in storm-damage inspections. This waiver allowed drones to be deployed across the country for property damage assessments, demonstrating the growing reliance on drones for post-disaster operations. This collaboration highlights the pivotal role drones play in transforming the insurance industry, enabling companies to manage risks more effectively while serving policyholders more efficiently.

Regulatory frameworks are evolving to support the widespread adoption of drones for commercial applications, particularly in insurance. This positive regulatory climate is paving the way for more organizations to incorporate drones into their risk management and claim assessment processes. For companies considering UAV programs, understanding the regulatory landscape and having a structured implementation plan is critical.