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Drone adoption offers $9 billion payoff: Deloitte

Drones could save the insurance industry $US7 billion ($9.18 billion) a year through improved data collection and analysis, efficient use of resources and exposure of fraudulent claims.

A Deloitte “insight paper” says insurers lead other industries in their adoption of commercial drones, which can be widely applied across the value chain.

They can be used in the risk engineering and pricing stage to identify property features that may reduce risk profile, and can conduct safer, faster and more efficient site inspections in the post-disaster stage, in dangerous work conditions.

Fraudulent claims cost the industry $US32 billion ($41.98 billion) a year, according to the paper.

Drones can inspect sites the moment a claim is made, and can increase the efficiency of inspections by up to 85%, Deloitte says.

The US Federal Aviation Administration estimates 2.85 million drones will be in use by 2022, with 450,000 used for commercial purposes.

Transparent, relaxed regulations and a growing demand for high-quality data will push more insurers to use them, Deloitte says.