Driving Impact in the U.S. Property Insurance Industry with Engineer Sathish Kumar

Artificial Intelligence has reinvented efficiency and accuracy in almost every industry one can think of. It has the power to substantially cut costs and remove human error from operations. The latest change in this A.I. wave comes in the property insurance industry  –  an industry where A.I. is dramatically impacting the future of work. Some of the domains in the property insurance industry, including underwriting, renewals, claims, and more, rely heavily on manual work.

Almost all of the processes in the property insurance industry involve manual property assessments, which are done by professionals. These assessments are time-consuming, costly, and prone to human errors. Technologies powered by A.I. are redefining the systems and processes of the traditional ways of working.

How do Property Inspections Work in The Property Insurance Industry?

Every property has a lifecycle that starts when a dwelling is built and undergoes a period of occupancy usage after construction. During this period, the property is usually sold, repaired, incurs damages, insured multiple times, mortgaged, and other events. In almost all of these events, professionals assess the property for numerous factors, which include home visits.

During these visits, a professional collects measurements, assesses the current state of the property and determines the value of materials and labor costs, cites any involved risks, and determines the repair and/or replacement costs, among other activities. This assessment process costs the property insurance industry billions of dollars each year apart from countless human errors.

The previous ways of working, however, are now completely changing with A.I.-powered technologies. Senior Computer Vision Engineer Sathish Kumar Katakuri at MIT startup Hosta a.i. , has developed cutting-edge proprietary technologies that can fulfill all of the above requirements just by using normal pictures clicked on a smartphone – no need for an app, special hardware, or specialized knowledge.

Revolutionary Patented Technologies for Remote Property Assessments

The technologies developed by Sathish and the team are a complete game changer for insurance carriers, realtors, home buyers, contractors, and numerous other professionals linked to real estate assets. With a few images of a property from a regular smartphone, one can extract detailed floor plans, comprehensive details about materials, structures, measurements, 3d models, and more. This means anyone can obtain detailed property plans and documents without any technical know-how. Companies do not have to spend billions on assessments or wait weeks to assess properties.

There are numerous use cases for such a novel solution, including:

• Insurers looking to underwrite a new policy with automatic assessments, as well as
• Claims processing
• Risk assessments
• Assess a property’s value in the cases of mortgage and lending
• 3D models, detailed floor plans, and other essential technical building drawings for home improvement platforms

What other companies leverage this A.I.?

Enterprise companies are already using the A.I. technology, which is helping them reduce an astounding 80% in turnaround times and 80% in costs with lower property estimates. The benefit of reducing human error and ease of operations comes on top of these reductions.

Core Logic’s claims estimating platform called Claims Connect integrates with this technology solution to improve the insurance experience for consumers and insurers so as to accelerate the claims approval process.

Guidewire’s initiative, the Insurtech Vanguards, partners with the startup team to help their Property & Casualty Insurance customers identify innovation leadership, that can add value to the Guidewire platform where the technology solution complements the automation of claims segmentation workflows at First Notice Of Loss (FNOL).

Openly, a premium homeowners insurance platform can now process claims without ever sending someone on-site to access the property, which smoothens the claims experience and improves accuracy.

Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence Contributions of Sathish Kumar

Sathish Kumar Katukuri is a Senior Computer Vision Engineer and has headed numerous research and development initiatives based on artificial intelligence and computer vision. He plays a crucial role in developing technologies for interior property assessments. These technologies have helped replace manual inspections with automated assessment information.

Sathish graduated from Arizona State University (ASU) with a Masters in Computer Engineering focusing on Computer Vision and Machine Learning. His inclination towards A.I. and visual computing started long ago. While, as a researcher, he developed an innovative A.I.-based solution that enables anyone to create professional photographer-level images without the knowledge of professional photographer skills. Another of his inventions was a low-cost DIY VR headset that allows researchers to validate their research work in simulated environments.

Since joining the MIT team, he has led numerous scientific explorations. These explorations have helped solve some of the biggest challenges in perception and deep learning applied to the built environment.

The Future of The Property Insurance Industry

Sathish Kumar and the team are all set to change how things work in the property insurance industry. The solutions can potentially save billions of dollars and countless hours for insurance companies and property buyers. The team is now working on further improving the artificial intelligence, making the experience effortless for integration with property and casualty insurers, and other enterprise businesses to easily collect property data and create estimates.

We would get to see the changes that the A.I. solution brings to the industry in the next few years and how traditional systems transform – just like how A.I. has changed other industries.