Accelerating underwriting in jewelry and high value property with authenticity and security

Jewelry underwriting in the AI era 

Underwriting jewelry and high value personal property has always balanced convenience, competitive rates, and accuracy. Today, insurers are moving quickly toward digital-first experiences that clients expect. However, this transformation comes with a new challenge of AI-powered image and document fraud. The latest AI tools can generate hyper-realistic photos, videos, and appraisals in seconds. Fraudsters can fabricate proof of ownership for non-existent items, alter receipts to inflate valuations, or submit synthetic images as evidence in claims. For insurers, this is a serious risk: Underwriting decisions based on falsified evidence can result in costly disputes and inflated or fraudulent policies and claims. 

Addressing this challenge is critical, so insurers face a choice of adding more friction to existing workflows or relying on image and data authenticity to maintain convenience. Adding friction to the underwriting process can shore up security and may involve reverting to arcane methods such as manual appraisals, slower processes, or even in-person adjusters. Or insurers can embrace innovation by leveraging image authenticity and provenance data to secure digital workflows. Authenticated and tamper-proof imagery, combined with trusted appraisals, ensures that underwriting decisions are based on reality rather than AI fabrications.

The impact of authenticity 

Truepic’s Vision platform leverages advanced fraud detection, cryptography, and machine learning to ensure that images and videos captured via the platform are authentic and at a verified time, date, location, and device orientation. Vision runs over 35 authenticity tests on the device and each captured image to ensure accurate information, so insurers can make informed and efficient decisions. 

Truepic partners with many of the world’s leading jewelry insurers and underwriters. 30,000 jewelry underwriting inspections were recently analyzed to measure the impact of image and data authenticity on the process. This random sample represents 30,000 individual instances of insurers using the Vision platform to digitally inspect jewelry or high value personal property items prior to underwriting and binding policies.

Efficiency: Time savings

• Approximately 75.5%, or 22,650 of 30,000 virtual inspections were sent to the policyholder in an average of .37 seconds. 
• Policyholders took an average of 2.4 days to complete each inspection (compared to 7 days prior to using Vision). 
• Total time savings equaled 104,190 days of wait time.

Preventing fraud before it starts

• Approximately 24.5%, or 7,350 of the 30,000 inspections “walked away” from the process. Walk-away inspections occur when the policyholder receives the authenticated virtual inspection link but decides not to perform the inspection and walks away from the policy. 
  
  • Clients report that the majority of walk aways are a result of the policyholder finding a better rate or policy and pursuing a different insurer. 
  • Truepic estimates approximately 10% of the walk-away inspections in this sample, or 735 inspections, to be suspicious and potentially fraudulent. Truepic bases the fraud percentage on industry averages and detailed P&C fraud analysis.
• Of the 22,650 completed inspections, 2.34% resulted in suspicious images flagged by Vision’s fraud detection system, totaling 530 inspections. 
• Truepic estimates that between the walk-away inspections and the flagged completed inspections, the Vision platform helped prevent or stop an estimated 1,265 suspicious and potentially fraudulent policies, or 4.22% of the sample of 30,000. 
• The average policy is approximately $7,500, totaling $9.4 million in fraud prevention.

Customer comment

"Truepic Vision has provided a convenient, less intrusive option to collect photos. When photos are taken through the Truepic Vision app, our Underwriters have a much higher confidence level in their authenticity."
- Bryan Howard, Director of Product Management at Jeweler's Mutual Insurance Company