Property and casualty insurer MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings will adopt Tractable’s artificial intelligence (AI) solution across Japan in a bid to fast-track auto claims and speed up recovery for policyholders.

The move could potentially save its adjusters 360,000 hours per year, it claims.

It includes the Japanese insurer MS&AD’s two subsidiaries – Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI) and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance (ADI).

The move will mean that policyholders in Japan will have vehicles returned to them faster than they were previously.

Alex Dalyac, co-founder and chief executive at Tractable, said: “It’s inspiring that one of the world’s leading insurers is making a bold move into the future with Tractable.

“By deploying our AI across Japan, MS&AD will enable its policyholders to benefit immediately from cutting-edge technology that shortens the claims cycle by weeks.”

Lost time

Often with auto insurance claims, time is frequently lost scheduling visual appraisals of the damage – this may happen multiple times throughout the claim life cycle.

However, using Tractable’s solution which captures images with AI and converts them into instant appraisals allows the insurer and repairer to move claims forward immediately, accelerating the process by as much as two weeks.

It uses computer vision to examine photos of car damage as a human would but in near-real time. It has been trained on photos and human repair decisions across millions of historical accidents.

Long-standing challenges

Keiji Goto, general manager for technical support, claims division at MSI, said: “By applying Tractable’s market-leading AI, we will be able to solve long-standing challenges to the claims cycle, such as how to accelerate supervisor approval of work carried out by our appraisers.

”We’re excited by the standard of the AI and its capacity to help us make better, faster decisions for our customers.”

Including Japan, MS&AD operates across more than 40 countries, and its core units – MSI and ADI have extensive foreign auto operations in Asia, the Americas and Europe.

MS&AD claims to be the fifth-largest P&C insurer globally.

Tadashi Yamanaka, staff general manager in the claim’s administration department at ADI, added: “Tractable’s AI will change how insurance claims are processed. As a result, drivers across Japan will see a faster response time to their claims, proving ADI’s commitment to delivering the best possible service.”

To date, Tractable’s AI has processed over $1bn in auto claims for insurers such as Ageas UK, Covéa, and Talanx-Warta.