“It’s a lot easier to come up with a new product than it is to change the existing ones,” said Matt Woodall (pictured), president and senior claims specialist at Royal Claims Services Ltd.
Royal Claims Services was one of The Top Insurance Claims Carriers in Canada. See the full list of winners in the 5-Star Claims special report.
That gap - between how fast risks emerge and how slowly the industry adapts - has only widened. Clients now face a barrage of new exposures, yet insurers still lean heavily on legacy policy frameworks. Cyber coverage stands as a rare exception. “Cyber was maybe an add-on... but now it’s its own sector. It’s a mandatory product,” said Woodall. “For us, it’s mandated to a relatively high limit in most of our contracts.”
But faster coverage evolution hasn’t made claims handling any simpler. A single incident can activate property, casualty, crime, and cyber lines, often involving multiple carriers. That complexity risks gridlocking the claims process - unless brokers structure coverages intelligently upfront. “A good broker is invaluable,” Woodall emphasized. “They need to understand the business and make sure they’ve purchased the appropriate coverages.”
As for clients saying they can’t get insured? “You can get insurance for anything in this industry,” he said. “It’s just whether or not you want to pay the premium.”
Woodall is pushing for practical innovation - measured and fast-moving, not flashy. “One of the things I’ve pushed for a lot is trying to iterate and implement in incremental and small stages,” he said. Large-scale tech overhauls often collapse under their own weight. “We’d be 10 years in and two years behind,” he noted. “With the pace things are moving, a two- to five-year plan is usually outdated by launch.”
To counter that, Royal Claims has adopted two-week sprint cycles across tech, marketing, and leadership teams. “Not every project can be delivered in two weeks, but you can break it down into pieces that can,” he said. The result: faster results, less fatigue, and ongoing momentum.
Still, tools alone won’t fix the deeper challenges. When it comes to claims, technology can assist - but it can’t replace judgment. “Claims is a culmination of expertise,” Woodall said. “It’s virtually impossible to teach an AI how to sort through all the details... how to realize this is the claim you just need to pay and move on.”
AI, in his view, is just that - a tool. It can accelerate processing, but only if the data is clean. That’s a problem. “Without good data, we’re not going to have good AI,” he said. An estimated 82% of insurance data is unstructured - locked in PDFs, handwritten notes, scans, and emails. “Honestly, I think that figure is probably low,” he added.
Drones, however, are already delivering tangible value. “The best use case I’ve seen for drones is on hail claims,” he said. “It’s a lot safer and a lot quicker than sending someone up a ladder.” Tools like Matterport 3D scans and DocuSketch are also proving their worth in streamlining contractor estimates - automating floor plans and dimensions in seconds.
But he draws a sharp line between what’s useful and what’s hype. “A lot of what I’ve seen falls more on the cool side than the beneficial,” he said.
At the end of the day, claims success still comes down to execution. “Read the policy,” he said. “It’s the contract that we’re adjusting the claim on.” Too many adjusters skip this step - especially with complex or hard-to-place risks. “It’s 100 pages and often boring, but it’s the most important thing we can do.”
That, paired with managing expectations, is how claims move forward. “If we can explain to the insured - this is your policy, this is what it’s going to cover - then overdeliver, that’s how we keep everybody happy.”
Woodall is building a roadmap for practical change - step by step, sprint by sprint. “If we make a little bit of change every six months, we can stay ahead,” he said. “But if we wait five years, we have to completely revamp everything.”
