The insurance industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by growing demand for digitalisation and personalisation. With growing importance of technologies such as telematics, machine learning, big data, deep learning, and data science, insurers are overcoming demographic challenges, low penetration rates, cybercrimes and fraudulent claims. In the last three years alone, there have been over 11,000 patents filed and granted in the insurance industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial intelligence in Insurance: AI-assisted inspection. Buy the report here.
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According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 65,000 patents to analyse innovation intensity for the insurance industry, there are 90 innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
AI-assisted inspection is a key innovation area in robotics
AI technology combines software and hardware that capture and process images to perform tasks such as automatic inspection to detect defects and missing parts and robot guidance to give autonomous robots visual feedback as they move around the working space.
Robotics is helping insurers inspect post-catastrophe areas that are hazardous for human adjusters. For example, Farmers Insurance uses Boston Dynamics’ robot dog for in-field catastrophe claims handling and property inspections. Such robots can relay their findings via video footage in real-time and feature third-party software.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 30+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of AI-assisted inspection.
Key players in AI-assisted inspection – a disruptive innovation in the insurance industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to AI-assisted inspection
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2022) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| SoftBank Group | 182 | Unlock Company Profile |
| State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance | 134 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China | 90 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Clearlake Capital Group | 76 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Alphabet | 59 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Tractable | 23 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Baidu | 16 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Lear | 16 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Mitchell International | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Omron | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| USAA | 14 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Leonard Green & Partners | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Taikang Insurance Group | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Allstate | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Cox Enterprises | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| NetraDyne | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hartford Financial Services Group | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Toronto-Dominion Bank | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Healthy io | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| American International Group (AIG) | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Visa | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Yembo | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Donan Engineering | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Vista Equity Partners | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Nauto | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| International Business Machines | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| CoreLogic | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| ReviverMx | 7 | Unlock Company Profile |
| LyondellBasell Industries | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Mitek Systems | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Loveland Innovations | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Conduent | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Emergent Network Intelligence | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Reynolds and Reynolds Company | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| MiTAC Holdings | 5 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Aon | 5 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | 5 | Unlock Company Profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
SoftBank Group is one of the leading patent filers in identifying vehicle damaged components, server, client, and system. Their method includes creating an identifiable vehicle feature library. While taking a loss assessment photograph, a user can manually enclose a damaged location at the client. The server can recognise the vehicle features in the image, and using those attributes, it can calculate the relative position of the user-enclosed mark. The damaged component is identified, and the related position is further matched in the feature relation library. Some other key patent filers in AI for the insurance industry include State Farm Mutual, Ping An Insurance, Clearlake Capital Group, and Alphabet.
In terms of application diversity, Omron leads the pack, with Healthy io and ReviverMx in the second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Alphabet holds the top position, followed by Vista Equity Partners and ReviverMx.
The leaders in developing technology providing drivers with real-time notifications and warnings about potential collisions for the cars of the future are the key players in the autonomous vehicle industry. However, when it comes to insurance, it will be the insurers, who develop data collection capabilities and integrate technologies such as AI and machine learning, that will be able to target customers more efficiently.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the insurance industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Robotics in Insurance.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
