(Image source: GIC homepage.)
MS&AD (Tokio), the global insurance holding company for brands including Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, has selected with Geosite, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider of business intelligence solutions using spatial data, to provide a software platform that uses aerial imagery from the Geospatial Insurance Consortium (GIC, Boulder, Colo.) to streamline major claims following large-scale catastrophes such as typhoons and torrential rains.
Rachel Olney, CEO and Founder, Geosite.
“High-resolution aerial imagery is increasingly used in the U.S. and Europe to more quickly assess damage and settle claims with lower costs but Japan has struggled to obtain aerial imagery of large areas,” explains Rachel Olney, CEO and founder, Geosite. “This initiative puts extremely high-resolution imagery—down to 7.5cm—directly into the hands of claims managers to better serve customers impacted by extreme weather events and lower costs.”
As part of MS&AD’s engagement with Geosite, GIC will take and provide aerial imagery throughout Japan, and Geosite will build a software platform to analyze and integrate the images and data. MS&AD will then utilize the application in its insurance products, offering new solutions to accelerate claims settlements getting customers back on their feet faster, all while reducing costs, according to a Geosite statement.
Integrating Innovative Technologies to Transform Insurance Practices
Geosite describes its partnership with MS&AD as a cornerstone in the insurer’s larger vision of integrating innovative technologies to digitally transform insurance practices, such as using spatial data to enable early payment of insurance claims for large-scale natural disasters. Images taken by GIC before and after a given disaster will also help provide new solutions that contribute to disaster prevention and mitigation, the vendor says. The initiative also dovetails with MS&AD’s ongoing efforts toward the early payment of insurance claims for large-scale disasters such as typhoons and torrential rains by utilizing various data and digital technologies.
In Nov. 2020, MS&AD’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance made a strategic investment in InsurTech homeowners insurerHippo, (San Francisco) as a first step in the long-term domestic and overseas development of insurance products and other insurance services utilizing data and state-of-the-art technology.