Tractable, the company developing artificial intelligence (AI) for visual assessment and disaster recovery, has launched AI Property, a new solution that assesses damage to buildings caused by hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.

Tracable said AI Property allows anyone with a smartphone to quickly and easily assess the external condition of a damaged property through a mobile-friendly web-based app, by taking photos and submitting them to Tractable's artificial intelligence platform, which mitigates the challenge of having appraisers onsite to assess damage in the wake of disaster. 

The AI, which has been trained on a large database of claims and damaged property, makes an immediate assessment of the amount of damage it sees and relays this to the homeowner's insurer. 

"Climate change is leading to more frequent and severe natural disasters," said Alex Dalyac, co-founder and CEO of Tractable. "Hurricanes leave households without a proper home to live in. By allowing homeowners to immediately self-assess their homes via AI augmented damage appraisal, insurers can intervene faster and at greater scale, to help their customers at their time of greatest need."

Tractable has been working in Japan with MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc. to use AI Property to help homeowners in Japan during the country's 2021 typhoon season. The technology has already been used to process real claims from October's Typhoon Mindulle, resolving them as quickly as in a single day.

After a typhoon, MS&AD policyholders can use the AI to take pictures of high-frequency, wind-related damage to a fence, wall or other outdoor area with their smartphone and send them to their insurer for assessment. In the future, MS&AD and Tractable expect to expand AI coverage to include indoor damage, such as water leakage and smoke. 

For now, MS&AD will use the AI only for wide-area disasters such as typhoons, and the estimates calculated by AI will be verified by humans. Insurers deploying the AI first and over the largest number of cases will see it learn and attain full automation the fastest. 

Since 2014, Tractable has developed AI to accelerate accident and disaster recovery, and over 25 of the world's 100 leading insurers already use its technology to understand damage to vehicles. The company is now applying what it has learned from auto appraisal to understanding property, and has worked extensively with property experts to prioritize the elements of the home where AI can add most value, from standalone external objects, to elements like fences and walls.

About Tractable 

Tractable develops artificial intelligence systems for visual assessment and disaster recovery. Its AI solutions process over $2B a year in vehicle repairs and purchases, and have been deployed by over 25 of the global top 100 insurers across Europe, North America and Asia, helping millions of households recover from accidents faster.