CIECA Forms Artificial Intelligence Committee

“The CIECA Emerging Technologies committee has been looking into the impacts of emerging technologies on the collision industry, and one of the identified technologies was AI,” said Paulette Reed, technical project manager for CIECA. “As a result, the committee set up presentations with AI experts to learn more about how it is utilized in the industry. 

“We found that one of the most familiar practices is utilizing AI to write estimates of vehicle damage and determining total loss. We determined that a more focused AI committee should be formed to look at all the data and message possibilities with AI in the collision industry.”

The new committee will be chaired by Raj Pofale, founder and CEO at Claim Genius, and Jimmy Spears, head of Automotive at Tractable. Both are active CIECA committee members who have presented at the CIECA CONNEX Conference.

Pofale is a founder and CEO of Claim Genius, an emerging leader of AI-based claims solutions for the auto insurance industry. Claim Genius works with over 15+ global insurers on four continents. Its patent-pending AI technology provides damage estimates using the latest high-performance cloud frameworks. 

Pofale has more than 22 years of experience in the FinTech industry, working for many Wall Street financial firms as a technology leader. Throughout his career, he has built many scalable, enterprise-level platforms with diverse technology stacks. Before founding Claim Genius in 2018, he was head of technology for one of the business units at Nasdaq.  

“AI adoption by the insurance industry is still in the infancy stage, and there is skepticism and perception about the technology,” said Pofale. “The utilization of AI will undoubtedly bring huge efficiencies and cost savings and reduce cycle times. Still, the right level of education and expectation management must be done. With the rapid adoption of AI in the collision industry, it is the right time to have a common framework and best practices that will make the integrations across collision industry platforms easier.”

Spears is head of automotive at Tractable, an applied AI company that uses the speed and accuracy of AI to visually assess cars and homes. Tractable’s AI-powered solutions process more than $2 billion in vehicle repairs and purchases annually, and connect everyone involved in insurance, repairs, and sales of cars and properties. The company was founded in 2014, and its AI is used by over 35 world-leading insurance and automotive companies, including more than 10 of the Fortune Global 500. 

Prior to Tractable, Spears led the USAA auto experience and the USAA global auto physical damage operations and strategy. Before that, he led the strategic initiatives team at Farmers Insurance and worked at Nationwide Insurance. Spears currently serves on many industry committees and is a mentor for the military veterans served by Patriot Boot Camp. 

“AI is having a tangible impact on the collision sector today, as insurers and repairers seek to implement the best in new, cutting-edge technologies across their workflows to become more efficient — both for their own benefit and for their customers,” said Spears. “To get the best out of these new solutions, the sector as a whole will gain from implementing best-in-class data standards, ensuring that all parties are operating to the highest standards possible.”

All industry stakeholders, including CIECA and non-CIECA members, are invited to join the new committee. For more information, click here or contact Paulette Reed at [email protected].