Car accident insurance claims have traditionally involved extensive, time-consuming paperwork, manual investigations, and back-and-forth phone calls between the policyholder and the insurer. Now that has all changed due to the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
An increasing number of modern car accident claims are being processed by the power of AI and machine learning technology. It enables insurance companies to process car accident claims more efficiently, while giving car accident victims and their attorneys faster access to documentary evidence, such as damage assessments, photos, and case evaluations.
The Traditional Claims Process
For decades, most car accident insurance claims followed a similar step-by-step process after an accident occurred. The traditional steps were as follows:
1) The driver reports the accident to their insurance company
2) The claims adjuster comes out and evaluates the damage.
3) The claims adjuster takes photographs of the damage.
4) The claims adjuster calculates repair or replacement cost estimates.
5) The claims adjuster reviews police reports.
6) The claims adjuster interviews witnesses.
7) The claims adjuster determines the liability level of the policyholder.
This entire process could take anywhere from days to weeks because each step is a manual task that requires a scheduled time to complete it. Not only that, but the policyholder must rely on the integrity of the claims adjuster to give them an honest estimate of how much their claim is worth.
Unfortunately, the traditional claims process is often compromised by human error, constant delays, incomplete documentation, or even an intentionally dishonest claims estimate. The good news is that AI has the ability to prevent or eliminate many of these issues with the traditional claims process.
The AI Claims Process
Many insurance companies are using AI technology to make the claims process easier for both the policyholder and claims adjuster. Although AI doesn’t eliminate the need for manual human-based work, it does streamline and automate many of the repetitive tasks from the traditional process.
Here is an example of the steps of the AI claims process:
1) The driver opens their insurance company’s mobile app on their smartphone.
2) The driver begins the claims process through the app as an AI chatbot or virtual assistant guides them and ensures all the required information is submitted.
3) The driver takes photos of the car damage with their smartphone and uploads the photos to the app.
4) The AI automatically scans and evaluates the pictures to detect all the damaged parts and the specific types of damage, such as dents, broken lights, scratches, scrapes, cracks, etc.
5) The AI automatically calculates a cost repair estimate based on its assessment of the damage by comparing it to the images and the details of thousands of other claim cases.
6) A human claims adjuster may still obtain witness statements, medical records, police reports, and documents of the insurance policies. But they will let the AI analyze these documents rather than manually reviewing them using optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) technologies.
7) The AI will obtain vital information much faster, such as names, dates, accident details, and other important facts that the claims adjuster needs to know or would have overlooked from a manual review.
The AI can usually conduct its full claims assessment and generate its claims estimate within days after the accident. The estimate will include a value of the vehicle damage, medical expenses, lost wages, personal injuries, and other legal factors and liability costs.
Of course, a human claims adjuster will review the AI’s assessment results to confirm their legitimacy. That is why a policyholder should have a human legal professional working with them to ensure the human claims adjuster remains fair with them.
Why You Should Still Contact a Car Accident Lawyer to Protect Your Claim
There is no doubt that AI is transforming the way car accident claims are handled. Claims adjusters now use AI to streamline the process of conducting visual assessments, making case comparisons, and calculating repair estimates. It relieves the backlog of claims cases for the insurance companies, while giving policyholders faster responses to their claims.
However, a policyholder should still have an experienced car accident lawyer working with them throughout the entire claims process. Even though insurance companies can make the claims process faster and easier with AI, the claims adjuster will still do everything possible to minimize what they have to pay out on a claim.
A car accident lawyer can protect the rights of the policyholder by ensuring their insurance company pays the maximum value of their claim. An experienced lawyer will help the policyholder in the following ways after their accident:
- Conduct their own investigation of the crash scene
- Obtain police reports, medical reports, and surveillance footage
- Take witness statements
- Calculate medical costs, rehabilitation costs, lost wages, and long-term pain and suffering compensatory costs.
- Communicate with the insurance company on behalf of the policyholder
- Represent the policyholder throughout the entire claim process, including any court proceedings that are needed.
The car accident lawyer usually conducts their own separate investigation from that of the claims adjuster in order to confirm their results. They will make comparisons between the lawyer and adjuster’s results to confirm the facts and identify discrepancies, regardless of whether using AI or not.
“Not every Fresno car accident claim is as simple as filing against another driver’s policy,” said Narbeh Shirvanian, Managing Attorney at The Shirvanian Law Firm. “While some collisions involve straightforward liability, crashes involving commercial trucks, rideshare vehicles, or uninsured drivers often raise more complex legal and insurance questions that can affect how compensation is pursued. A knowledgeable auto accident lawyer in Fresno can help preserve evidence, protect your rights, and pursue the full value of your losses.”
The Future of Car Accident Claims
AI will likely play a bigger role in car accident claims over the next decade as more technological advancements are made. Car accident claims may eventually be initiated automatically after a crash, while vehicle sensors transmit crash information to insurers immediately. Soon, you could see autonomous driving and real-time accident reporting technology allow AI systems to produce instant assessments and cost calculations for policyholders and their insurers.
