Texas-based Solera is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) estimating system to 25,000 automotive repair and bodyshops in Europe and North America.

Bodyshops using Qapter will have the ability to empower non-skilled damage appraisers to create estimates in under three minutes. The AI-based estimating system should help repair shops shorten key-to-key times, manage operating costs and deliver a better repair experience.

Intelligent, accurate, estimating is an essential part of the full claims workflow. Solera’s approach combines data and repair science to detect damaged parts and recommend repair operations and times based on scientific research. Assisted by a patented image capture technology, this intelligent estimating system lets non-skilled users submit photos and generate a repair cost estimate in just under three minutes.

“Solera’s product approach to AI and machine learning makes it possible for repair shops to introduce photo-based estimating as a simple release upgrade,” said Evan Davies, chief technology officer of Solera. “The solution is ready to produce accurate estimates for light to medium damage cases, allowing estimators to concentrate on more complex cases.”

Qapter’s AI pre-estimates also improve triage decisions in complex cases. For bodyshops that operate as part of a network, Qapter can increase the accuracy of routing decisions and reduce the need for vehicles to be moved between sites.

“With Qapter, we are ensuring the complex cases are allocated as early as possible in the claims process to the right repair team,” said Leontine Sitters, director of Belgian bodyshop chain Schadenet, “which ultimately saves us valuable time and cost and improves customer satisfaction.”

Qapter intelligent estimating will be available within existing workflows, making any new features instantly accessible and seamless with little disruption.

“Solera’s approach to pre-integrate AI in Qapter meant we were able to start a pilot in just four weeks,” said Jörg de Groot, business process manager at Schadenet. “This allowed us to spend time training the team and getting ourselves used to this new way of working.”

Solera customers using Qapter will have intelligent estimating enabled as a feature through a simple upgrade path.

Solera specialises in risk and asset management data and software, helping companies across the automotive and insurance ecosystem adhere to the high standards of data privacy, security and integrity to support connectivity across the vehicle value chain. Its products bring together customers, insurers and suppliers, empowering smarter decision-making through service, software, enriched data, proprietary algorithms and machine learning.

The company is active in over 90 countries across six continents, processing more than 300 million digital transactions annually for over 235,000 customers and partners.