Geospatial Analytics in Insurance
29 Apr 2021
Dear Reader,
Insurance industry is slowly embracing remote property intelligence as a quick, dependable, and cost-effective alternative to relying on estimates based datasets. COVID-19 lockdowns and corresponding physical-distancing protocols have double-downed the need to rethink underwriting.
High-resolution aerial imagery can reveal the underlying risks of the properties and add to the details in application data for underwriting purposes. According to a report by Markets & Markets, the global geospatial imagery analytics market size is expected to grow from $6.9 billion in 2020 to $27.9 billion in 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 32.1% during 2020-2025.
Insurers are likely to increase the use of geospatial analytics to take advantage of the latest in AI & ML advancements to allow for automated damage classification by combining this with location information such as an address and other information like the extent of damage. Pre and post-disaster imagery also will provide intelligence needed to expose insurance fraud.
Companies such as CAPE Analytics provides instant geospatial property intelligence for buildings across the USA and have now expanded to Canada. When integrated with Guidewire, Cape Analytics and Betterview offer insurers improved visibility and actionable insights into damage or risk so they can more accurately price, underwrite and adjudicate commercial and personal lines.
InsitePro by Intermap is a cloud-based software solution that brings together all the necessary data and analytics for underwriting natural catastrophe risk. Detailed elevation and terrain knowledge provides critical data giving underwriters the ability to expand portfolios and reduce risk exposure.
Under GOI’s crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), agencies will be conducting large-scale pilot studies for technology-based gram panchayat level yield estimates, using Geospatial Analytics.
Skymet in India is opening up its 10-year geospatial proprietary farm-level data repository through a digital platform ‘SkAlgeo’. It can help the banking and insurance sector to create programmes after evaluation of crop risks using different indices. Some banks are using a digital lending solution built using the SkAlgeo platform to assess the risk profile of the farmers.
The pace of change has been augmented by the industry’s need for quick decision making, driving down costs and optimizing the customer experience. We believe, geospatial analytics can help insurers make more accurate underwriting decisions, help reduce losses and assess claim payouts judiciously.
Credits : Akhil Handa,Aparna Anand
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Floating Farms
Dear Reader,
Tap a button on your phone and hop into the shower; walk downstairs 15 minutes later, and you have a fresh pot of coffee waiting for you. This is no longer just a fantasy for many people. The rise of the internet of things has allowed us to control remote appliances with just a tap of the touchscreen. Until now, the scale of these processes has largely been limited to personal devices: anything from brewing a pot of coffee to warming up your car on a frosty morning. But what if we could grow food for thousands of people, with that same tap of a button with “Smart Floating Farms”.
Forward Thinking Architecture a Barcelona based firm’s design comprises a multi-level agricultural farm that can be constructed, pushed out to sea, and left to work mostly on its own. The farm is designed to operate on three levels: a bottom level containing wave barriers, an aquaculture fish farm, a slaughterhouse, a packing facility and desalination plant; a second tier for hydroponic and aeroponic food production; and a rooftop level having skylights to let in light and photovoltaics to provide the energy required to power everything.
Each level is roughly 750,000 square feet – with enough room to grow up to 8.1 tons of vegetables and 1.7 tons of fish per year. The architects estimate that this would cover the project’s expenses within 10 years. And since the farms are modular, a few or many of these structures could be grouped together to provide enough food for entire communities, especially those located in areas without arable land, or with a population so large it overwhelms its food supply capabilities. And unlike other forward-thinking agricultural techniques like urban farming, it spares valuable land space for alternate uses.
The world population is predicted to grow from 6.9 billion in 2010 to 8.3 billion in 2030 and to 9.1 billion in 2050. By 2030, food demand is predicted to increase by 50% (70% by 2050). The main challenge facing the agricultural sector is not so much growing 70% more food in 40 years, but making 70% more food available on the plate. To meet this ever growing demand, new agricultural techniques must be developed.
Floating Farms envisage making the farming process autonomous, placing the structures on top of the water allows the farms to adapt to rising sea levels and avoid flooding issues common to traditional agricultural techniques. While this strategy may seem outlandish, it actually has a long and successful pedigree, having been employed for centuries by Bengali farmers as a response to dramatic changes in water level during flood seasons. The farmers construct beds in lakes and rivers using several layers of bamboo and water hyacinth, fill them with semi-decomposed aquatic plants and then seed. The beds are tethered to the lakebed to prevent them from floating away. As a result production rates have increased manifold compared to existing land-based practices.
However, the true innovation of the Smart Floating Farms project is in taking non-traditional farming techniques and combining them with already-existing technologies. Jan Willem van der Schans, a senior researcher at Wageningen Economic Research who specialises in urban farming and circular economy issues, said such floating farms could be the future for sectors of agriculture such as fruit and vegetables in parts of the world.
As the architects acknowledge in their design statement, the project “is not meant to solve all of humanity’s hunger problems or to replace existing traditional agriculture.” One project alone will not save the world, but embracing the technologies available to us is a great start towards tackling these issues. If only it were as easy as the touch of a button.
Credits : Akhil Handa ClintJames
HR Tech
Every organization needs to onboard good talent, retain, engage them and work with them to increase efficiency and productivity. Huge amount of time and money is spent to search, select, interview and hire the perfect candidate. Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML) integration into human resources (HR) practices make organizations better as AI applications helps the HR Team to analyze, predict and diagnose for better decisions. According to a report published by Grand View Research in February 2020, the human resource management market is anticipated to reach $38.17 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 11.7 % from 2020 to 2027.
Delhi based startup, ReferHire, has created a peer-to-peer (P2P) networking platform to bring together organisations and those seeking newer career opportunities. Jobseekers have to identify the companies they are interested in and then ReferHire introduces them to peers in those organizations. These peers help job seekers in placing their application internally in the organisation and assist during the recruitment process.
Culturro, Gurugram-based startup has developed an Artificial Intelligence-based NLP bot platform Agnya which helps companies to build the right workplace experience and identify the drivers. It recommends actionable insights for HR heads and also influences behaviour modification in individuals to create the desired workplace experience. Post action, it constantly monitors the progress.
Bengaluru-based Equiv.in launched AI tool which aims to solve talent assessment and hiring while keeping diversity in mind. Equiv.in is exclusive for women, differently-abled individuals, members of the LGBTQ community and army veterans where the jobseeker can sign up with AI Equiv tool. Some of its clients include Indeed, ThoughtWorks, Infosys, Societe Generale, Microsoft and Blackrock.
Similarly, 19th Mile has developed Analytics-driven automated sales coaching system that provides personalized, data-driven coaching to sales representative. The app tracks individuals’ daily sales activities using data from its inbuilt mobile CRM or from the organization’s CRM and uses it to intelligently coach users towards meeting their specific sales targets.
On the other hand, HireSure.ai uses blockchain technology to store employment-related records. Its predictive tools use AI to offer insights related to employee compensation and offer acceptance behaviour, which helps companies increase their offer-to-join ratio. This brings down hiring costs by up to 50 %.
Hiring is a challenging process in any organization and if not addressed efficiently they end up losing good candidates. There is also rapid evolution in business dynamics and therefore several startups are using new age technologies to fill up these gaps.
