In a recent news release, The Climate Corporation (Climate) and NAU Country Insurance Company, a QBE Insurance subsidiary, announced a platform agreement. They hope the partnership will provide value by making it easier for farmers and their agents to perform crop insurance reporting and will enable farmers to use their data to reduce errors in the reporting process. Increasingly, AgTech vendors are using data to work with insurers and empower farmers to better combat risk.
Predicting vehicle breakdowns, pests, crop disease, and Mother Nature’s general mood is a task that keeps many insurers, and farmers, up at night. Technology is helping, but many would argue that pricing these types of risk is closer to an art than a science. AgTech InsureTechs—like Growers Edge Financial, Understory, senseFly, and Skyglyph—use data to combat uncertainty and provide complex views of agricultural risk to carriers or sell insurance themselves. AgTechs pump data into their engines, aggregating from numerous third-party sources and collecting information on weather patterns, moisture levels, and wind speeds. Drone/satellite imaging and IoT devices that measure water management and pesticide application help provide a fuller picture of what it means to farm for a living.
Some insurers are using this information to process claims with fewer touches, identify profitable niche markets, optimize premium prices, and provide an overall better service. While it is clear that data can work wonders for the internal efficiencies of a company, there are external functions for it as well. AgTech firms are helping give data back to the farmer, rather than just using it for the insurer’s own analytics—similar to what is being done with telematics in auto insurance. This fosters a partnership with policyholders, meaning risk is mitigated and fewer claims are filed. Identifying “win-win” situations helps bridge the gap between insurer and customer, leading to a new kind of relationship that drives value beyond just indemnification and results in improved engagement and satisfaction.
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