In a market where motorists have long braced for days of waiting and repeated inspections just to validate a fender-bender, the promise of same-day clarity now reads less like a slogan and more like a plausible standard delivered by a smartphone. Lasaco Assurance Plc introduced FastClaim, an AI-driven vehicle assessment tool designed to compress motor insurance timelines by turning photo uploads into near-instant evaluations. Instead of relying solely on scheduled visits and human surveys, the system analyzes images for damage classification, parts mapping, and cost estimation. Crucially, it also supports pre-loss inspections at policy inception, establishing a digital baseline that later anchors post-loss decisions. That dual role tied underwriting and claims together, improving consistency while giving customers a faster, more transparent path from incident to settlement.
How FastClaim Reframed Motor Claims
The core change hinged on workflow: when a policyholder submitted photos, FastClaim assessed severity, identified repair paths, and flagged anomalies, cutting manual back-and-forth and enabling adjusters to focus on complex cases rather than routine checks. This shift raised inspection accuracy and tightened underwriting discipline, since the same AI logic that documented vehicles on day one reappeared after an incident to verify losses and capture variance. As a result, decision latency narrowed from days to hours, a material gain in a country where traffic and logistics often slow traditional surveys. Moreover, data-backed assessments reduced disputes by grounding outcomes in consistent criteria, which, over time, helped stabilize pricing and strengthen customer trust. The approach also mirrored a broader move across insurance toward AI-first, customer-centric claims anchored in speed, fairness, and auditability.
What To Watch As Adoption Scaled
The next phase depended on sustained performance: coverage of diverse vehicle models, resilience against low-light or poor-angle photos, and alignment with repair ecosystem data all defined real-world value and guided training. Collaboration with garages and adjusters expanded part catalogs and labor rates, while privacy-by-design practices shaped confidence in image handling and model governance. For policyholders, the practical implications were straightforward—faster surveys, fewer repeat visits, and clearer rationales for payouts—yet operationally the lift spanned process redesign, staff upskilling, and vendor integration. Framed this way, FastClaim positioned Nigeria’s motor segment to benchmark digital claims at scale, and it signaled that consistent, explainable AI could set expectations for underwriting quality. If early returns held, incremental enhancements and broader channel access became the logical next steps.
