(Image source: CCC.)
CCC Information Services Inc. (Chicago) has introduced an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven solution for vehicle collision estimates, which the vendor characterizes as the world’s first such in-production solution. CCC places the new solution within a broader “Smart Suite” of telematics- and AI-powered products that its says together deliver the first end-to-end digital claims experience for insurers and their policyholders.
The new offering, CCC Smart Estimate, uses CCC’s estimating logic and AI photo analytics capabilities to pre-populate an estimate with suggestions for human estimators to review, edit, and advance. Through the process, the vendor explains, Smart Estimate AI and human estimators learn from each other, creating fast and ever-smarter auto physical damage (APD) estimates over time.
Jason Verlen, SVP, Product Management, CCC.
Smart Estimate applies CCC’s estimating logic and AI to vehicle collision photos to predict repair requirements and suggest estimate lines, including parts likely required to complete the repair. The vendor says that Smart Estimate can be implemented easily by insurance customers of CCC ONE Platform services and the guided nature of the solution enables new estimators to be trained and productive easily and quickly. Guided estimating parameters are customizable to align with individual insurer business rules, according to CCC.
“Many other industries are already benefitting from AI, and now it’s the insurance industry’s turn,” comments Jason Verlen, Senior VP, Product Management, CCC. “Vehicle complexity and rising repair costs along with increasing consumer expectations for service are necessitating real change. CCC’s Smart Claims suite, culminating with Smart Estimate, flips the switch on a 100-year old process, presenting an opportunity for insurers to achieve operational excellence while delivering a modern, differentiated claims experience to policyholders.”
CCC’s Smart Suite for Claims
Smart Estimate completes what CCC calls the industry’s only AI-guided, end-to-end digital claims experience. The vendor details the Suite solutions and process as follows:
- For telematics-enabled vehicles connected to the CCC ONE Platform, crashes can be detected instantly, alerting insurers in real time when their policyholders have experienced an accident, ending a century-old reactive process. Telematics-based crash data also offers a precise view of accident dynamics.
- Insurers can then digitally engage their policyholder through video chat and send a link for a mobile app to help drivers capture and submit accident information immediately and quickly using CCC’s Quick Estimate solution.
- CCC Smart Total Loss uses a single photo to help an insurer determine in real time and with a high degree of accuracy whether a vehicle is repairable or a total loss.
- The Damage Detection solution uses AI to detect vehicle damage automatically and visually depict that damage using CCC’s unique heat maps.
- Virtual Inspection makes claim assets—such as AI photos and heatmaps—immediately available and easy to use resulting in fast, convenient, and highly confident desk inspections.
- CCC Smart Audit delivers additional efficiencies by applying photo analytics and AI to flag line-level outliers and intelligently route appropriate claims for re-inspection.
- Smart Estimate combines photos and AI with estimating logic to pre-populate suggestions in a baseline estimate.
“Our system processes 100K auto claims a day and the solutions in our Smart Claims suite can significantly reduce the time and cost associated with managing these claims,” adds CCC’s Verlen. “By leveraging the technology most of us carry in our pocket, insurers can now interact with policyholders digitally, offering a better, self-directed and personalized claims experience.”