Kespry, a drone-based aerial intelligence solution provider, announced new capabilities for accelerating the assessment of roof hail and wind damage for residential, multifamily and commercial buildings on Monday.

Equipped with the Kespry solution updated for these new capabilities, insurance adjusters can now make claims settlement decisions in as little as an hour, Kespry said in a statement.

The capabilities include on-site processing of drone-captured roof inspection data, a Virtual Test Square (VTS) to support claims decision-making in minutes, and enhanced automated hail detection, driven by machine learning.

“Touchless claims will rapidly become the industry standard,” said George Mathew, CEO and chairman of Kespry, in a statement, referring to the roof damage claims. “Until now, they’ve been forced to rely on slow and dangerous manual assessments or earlier-generation drone inspections that can take hours to process,” he said.

Faster claims decisions and more accurate automated damage detection “will dramatically lower the cost of claims processes and improve customer satisfaction,” he said.

The statement also notes the general benefits for adjusters who just fly a drone, no longer needing to scale ladders or chalk up roofs.

Kespry listed these new touchless inspection capabilities:

• Faster data processing and mobile tools deliver damage and inspection data within minutes.

“Claims adjusters or roof inspectors can view detailed imagery and data on the state of a roof within minutes of a five- to 10-minute drone flight directly on the same iPad used to plan their autonomous Kespry flight. This critical decision-making data includes a 3-D model of the roof and high-resolution imagery that reveals any damage.”

• Industry-standard damage assessment tools for on-site claims decisions.

Kespry explained that adjusters can generate virtual test squares from their roof inspection data and tag damage directly on an iPad before generating a claims-ready report.

“This replicates the industry-standard model of determining the extent of damage using a 100-square-foot physical sample of a hail-struck roof area,” the statement said.

An added benefit for carriers here is the ability to share all the data and analysis with the claimant while the adjuster is at the customer’s property. The client can “see what the inspector sees and understand the decision-making process.”

• Improved accuracy for automated hail detection.

Improvements to Kespry’s automated hail-damage detection capabilities, driven by a new generation of machine-learning algorithms, provide hail damage analysis of residential homes, multifamily dwellings and commercial buildings where a more in-depth, desk-based assessment is required.

Source: Kespry