Insurance cos bet big on drones - Times of India

Hyderabad: The general insurance industry that has been deploying several tech tools to improve service delivery, is now betting big usage of drone technologies to speed up the process of risk assessment, monitoring, damage assessment and record keeping, among others to bring in efficiencies. Sanjay Datta, chief (underwriting and claims), ICICI Lombard General Insurance, pointed out that as insurance regulator IRDAI moots changes in norms for surveyors to ensure speedy settlement, the usage of emerging technologies such as drones can reduce claim settlement time. Datta explained that drone technologies can be used in instances where insurance companies' personnel either find a location very difficult or risky to access. Besides, if there is a higher cost involved in sending staff to a location, especially in cases where choppers need to be pressed into services (like in the case of natural disasters), drones can be a better option. "The biggest advantage is that drones are able to capture images in a standardised manner that human beings cannot. One can analyse and act accordingly based on the images," he said.