Is AI Technology Controlling My Connecticut Car Accident Claim? FAQ

When a negligent driver injures you in a Connecticut car accident, you expect immediate action from their liability insurer. You think you know the process. The insurance adjuster investigates the accident, evaluates your injuries, and eventually negotiates a settlement. You never stop to think, “Is AI technology controlling my Connecticut car accident claim?” If you haven’t considered this, you probably should. For many insurance companies, AI car accident claim technology is behind the scenes, telling the adjuster what to do.

If you’re struggling with injuries due to a negligent driver’s actions, you deserve personal claim attention and fair compensation. As car accident attorneys, we understand this doesn’t always happen when technology makes critical claim decisions. 

Despite past legal challenges to claim evaluating software, insurance companies have upgraded their original technologies with AI-powered enhancements. While you can’t stop this trend, we believe you should know the basics. Our claim technology FAQ can help you better understand AI claim systems so you can take steps to protect your legal rights. 

What is AI claim technology?

Insurance companies have often been secretive about claim-technology involvement in claim resolutions. Now that AI is everywhere, it shouldn’t surprise you that DXC, the claim technology leader, has incorporated AI features into their software versions. Other tech companies have done the same. 

Based on the proliferation of algorithmically underwritten policies, automated car repair estimates, and App-based claim submissions, it’s likely that insurers have been using AI-powered technologies for years. Just like its software predecessors, AI claim solutions rely on big data, algorithms, and technologies similar to those we now encounter every day. These insurance systems automate a number of traditionally human tasks:

• Policy rating and underwriting functions
• Risk management analysis
• Property claim estimates
• Vehicle damage appraisals
• Liability analyses 
• Medical reviews
• Injury evaluations
• Settlement projections 

Insurers have multiple motives for defaulting to technological systems instead of human professionals. Technology operates more efficiently, minimizes human staffing issues, doesn’t demand a salary or vacations, and rarely needs downtime. 

These reasons make sense from a business standpoint. Still, if AI technology is generating lowball offers for your injury claim, the insurer should tell you how they arrived at their settlement figure. At least you’ll have a frame of reference for fighting back. 

How does AI claim technology work?

If you’re familiar with Artificial Intelligence systems such as Open AI’s Chatgpt or Google’s Gemini, you already know that AI technologies are large language models. LLMs use machine learning to gather data for its vast store of information. When you prompt an LLM to answer just about any question, in most cases, it takes seconds to provide an answer. 

An AI’s perspective

The LLM, Gemini, describes its functioning using a simple metaphor, “…a Large Language Model (LLM) like me is a massive library with books on every topic imaginable, an SLM is a specialized bookstore focusing on a specific genre.” 

Tech developers are training small language models (SLMs) on massive amounts of claim-specific data. SLMs learn accident scenarios, injuries, legal issues, prior settlement results, etc. With this store of knowledge, they can function as specialists in car accidents, liability claims, and other claim specific fields. 

Do insurance adjusters have a role in Tech-driven claim processes?

When an insurance company uses claim software or AI-powered technologies, you probably won’t notice anything unusual. Although they won’t necessarily make in-person contact, a human still investigates your claim. They still contact injured claimants to ask questions relevant to their car accident, injuries, medical bills, and disabilities. They obtain medical documentation and discuss pain, suffering, lifestyle changes, and other non-economic damages.  

This seemingly normal process changes once you provide all the information the insurance company needs. Where an insurance adjuster, manager, or claim committee would previously evaluate your claim, technology plays a pivotal role. It provides solutions based on its training and its data input. The process involves many factors, but here’s a simple explanation. 

• The initial step prompts the adjuster to answer hundreds of claim-related questions. 
• The system uses acquired information to analyze their input: claim trends, injury codes, diagrams, etc. 
• When prompted to do so, it provides a liability analysis, injury evaluation, settlement ranges, and other formerly human conclusions.
• The adjuster uses the generated information to negotiate a settlement. 

Artificial intelligence capabilities can make this process even faster and simpler. AI can automate previously human input tasks. It can “read” and analyze medical documents for diagnoses, medical codes, physician comments, medications, and any other available information. 

In some situations, even experienced adjusters fill primarily a data input role. When interviewed for a newspaper article, one experienced claim department employee commented that technology was turning claim adjusters into “keyboard slaves.” 

What are the disadvantages to an AI tech-driven claim process?

With AI-powered technologies, a novice can handle claims without extensive training or understanding the process. This can help insurance companies reduce claim backloads and maintain efficient workflows. These benefits may allow insurers to reduce staff and consolidate their operations. 

Technology adheres to the garbage in, garbage out rule

A system can only generate an outcome based on the data or instructions it receives. Accuracy can be problematic for an untrained injury claims adjuster who accidentally or intentionally distorts data. Inaccuracies can also occur by omitting relevant information or failing to obtain it. A technologically advanced system can produce reliable outcomes, but only if the data input is reliable. 

• Data inconsistencies: A new employee might not know or understand the required information. This can lead to inaccurate or missing data. 
• Missing information : A new adjuster won’t always know how to obtain the answers to required questions. They may omit or misunderstand information essential to evaluating a claim.
• Unrecognized biases: An adjuster may provide input grounded in biased ideologies. AI (LLMS) is known to produce biased responses due to machine learning from widespread sources. 

Insurance companies can manipulate their AI car accident claim systems 

In the article, “Storm of Money,” insurance claim insiders discussed how insurance companies using Colossus claim technologies manipulated system outputs to produce lower claim settlements. 

• Allstate’s former Colossus expert explained how he helped their Encompass division save millions in claim payments. He used a process  which he called, “turning the knobs.” This output adjustment strategy helped the company’s claim technology systematically reduce injured victims’ settlements. 
• A former Farmers Insurance Group claims adjuster explained how the company set their claim system to reduce recommended claim settlement benchmarks by 20 percent. He believed the process violated insurance companies’ good faith standards and eventually left to work for a plaintiff’s law firm. Farmers sued him for violating a nondisclosure agreement that prevented employees from revealing Colossus-related secrets.

While AI can extract meaningful input from scanned or uploaded materials, an insurer or their employee can opt to withhold documents that confirm complex injury and disability scenarios. Intentional omissions could effectively lower a claim’s value.

Despite these and other obvious issues, insurance regulators found nothing wrong with Allstate’s software adjustments. 

Can AI technology negotiate a settlement without human intervention?

Some AI chatbots can “speak” on demand using a system’s chat, telephone, and audio capabilities. Still, there’s no indication that insurance companies plan to use them for negotiating claims. As many people are still adjusting to the idea of AI’s obvious presence in their daily lives, they view the technology as problematic. Others simply prefer human interactions when dealing with personal issues. 

Insurers likely understand that most injured people would reject the idea of negotiating a claim with an artificial entity. This doesn’t guarantee that insurers won’t use claim-negotiating chatbots in the future.  

Doesn’t AI car accident claim technology sound like an efficient way to resolve Connecticut car accident claims?

AI claim technologies can make the car accident claim-handling process more efficient. Technology offers multiple incentives, most of which enhance insurance company bottom lines. In promoting their claim software to insurance companies, some tech developers cite multiple benefits: 

• Increased speed 
• Claim consistency 
• Efficiency
• Enhanced customer experiences 
• Innovation

At one time, CSC was open about its software’s ability to save insurer claim dollars. Current online marketing strategies don’t mention how insurers use claim-handling technologies to reduce loss payments. 

Coincidentally, their promotion strategies became less boastful about claim savings after CSC settled with plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit. In Georgia Hensley, et al. VS Computer Sciences Corporation, et al, the lead plaintiff sued CSC, Allstate, and over 100 insurance companies, alleging unfair uninsured and underinsured motorists settlements. 

How long have Insurance companies used claim handling technologies? 

For decades, insurance companies relied on technology to help manage underwriting, billing, and data, but humans usually exercised ultimate control. That began to change in the 1990s, when the Australian company, Colossus, created its claim handling software. When insurers found too many payment discrepancies among similar claims, Colossus helped eliminate claim inconsistencies and reduced claim payouts. 

Colossus became an insurance technology leader in the USA

During the nineties, the US insurance industry experienced years of overwhelming catastrophe-related property losses. By the time the California software company, Computer Science Corporation, purchased Colossus, insurers were ready for a technological change. CSC licensed their claim software to Allstate and hundreds of other insurance companies. 

Colossus became an American claim software innovator in the nineties. Under CSC, they offered claim solutions for property and casualty, auto, and other insurance lines. In 2017, CSC merged with the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. They formed DXC Technology, current owner of Colossus and other corporate technologies.  

Colossus remains the insurance technology leader and now markets AI-powered insurance and business systems. A number of other companies have developed similar products. Here are just a few. 

• Enlyte ClaimIQ®
• Verisk Liability Navigator
• Duck Creek Claims Management Software
• Donesafe Injury & Claims Management Software

What is the Connecticut Department of Insurance doing to protect consumers from AI claim technologies?

Previous lawsuits, complaints and consumer advocacy efforts failed to inspire  comprehensive federal or state action. The recent awareness of AI’s visible role in commercial technologies has forced legislators and regulators to reconsider previous positions. 

• In August 2020, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners issued a bulletin outlining its Principles on Artificial Intelligence (AI). 
• In December 2023, NAIC issued an update, “Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems by Insurers,” a model that sets standards for insurance commissioners nationwide.
• In June 2023, the Connecticut Legislature passed Bill 1103. It requires the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services to establish an Office of Artificial Intelligence. It also sets a timetable for specific AI-related actions. 
• On February 24, 2024, the Connecticut Department of Insurance issued a bulletin titled, “Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems by Insurers.” This replaces the department’s prior bulletin on “…big data and avoidance of discriminatory practices…” 

Connecticut’s bulletin mirrors guidelines from NAIC’s December 2023 bulletin. Of key importance is its acknowledgement that Artificial Intelligence and AI systems can present “unique risks, to consumers,” including:

• The potential for inaccuracies
• Unfair discrimination
• Data vulnerability
• Lack of transparency

Connecticut Department of insurance AI guidelines now require that insurers take actions to minimize consumer risks. Additionally, all insurers’ AI-motivated actions must comply with federal and state laws and regulations.

• Insurers licensed to do business in Connecticut must complete an annual Artificial Intelligence Certification form.
• Insurers must prove compliance with AI-related statutes. 
• AI systems must comply with state insurance laws and regulations including the Connecticut Unfair Claim Practices Act
• The insurance department defines tech terms such as algorithm, machine learning, artificial intelligence, AI, AI System, and adverse consumer outcome. 

How will I know if AI technology is controlling my insurance claim?

You should probably assume that the adjuster handling your claim is using some type of AI-enhanced technological support. Insurance company claim operations have kept their technologies undercover for decades. Don’t anticipate that they will ever acknowledge the role AI plays in evaluating your injuries and settling your claim.

Also, never take it for granted that an insurance company will consider your legal rights while handling your claim. Before an insurer uses AI technology to make claim decisions on your behalf, you must take steps to protect yourself.

Contact a Connecticut car accident attorney

If a negligent driver injured you in a car accident, contact a car accident lawyer as soon as possible. When you consult with a legal professional, you can discuss your accident and learn more about your legal options. Once you establish a working relationship, you’ll have a legal advocate to navigate insurance company’s AI-powered claim systems. 

Law firms deal with many insurers. They recognize their increasing reliance on advanced technologies to make claim decisions. They also understand the best practices for presenting injury claims and negotiating to produce a fair settlement for every client.