Stratospheric, AI-enabled robotic cameras on balloons could help you get your insurance claim check faster
The task for insurance adjusters is enormous in the wake of back to back hurricanes Helene and Milton, which caused catastrophic damage across several southern states. For decades, these adjusters have used the same methods to assess property damage after natural disasters. They visit individual properties and use small airplanes with high resolution cameras to view damage to roofs, structures and neighborhoods. The planes speed the process and help prioritize specific claims.
New technology, however, using drones, artificial intelligence and weather balloons aims to modernize and accelerate that process. Near Space Labs, a Brooklyn, New York-based startup, invented “Swifts,” or stratospheric, AI-enabled robotic cameras that fly on weather balloons. Space Labs is using Swifts to assess property risk, but by next year, they will be deployed to assess damage from climate-related disasters.
“With our balloons and our Swifts, insurance companies are able to get access to information right after the catastrophe and assess the damage and pay out claims within days instead of weeks and months,” said Rema Matevosyan, CEO of Near Space Labs.
The giant weather balloons fly twice as high as airplanes cruise. The cameras provide high-resolution imagery over thousands of square miles, according to the company.
“Our balloons capture what 800,000 drones would with one flight,” Matevosyan said. “An airplane would be flying in a snake like pattern, back and forth, back and forth for weeks to capture the data that we can capture within hours. This means that we can be faster, better and cheaper for our customers.”
And it’s not just for use after a storm. Insurance and reinsurance companies, like Swiss Re, are using Near Space to help them understand and price risk. The imagery of specifics, like roof characteristics, surrounding vegetation and defensible space are all fed into customer AI datasets. That part is especially attractive to investors.
“If you are actually going to be able to use AI to do risk analysis, you need a cheap, abundant source of imagery, and we believe that at least over the next decade, Near Space is probably the cheapest way to do this,” said Shaun Abrahamson, Managing Partner at Third Sphere, an investor in Near Space Labs.
In addition to Third Sphere, Near Space Labs is backed by Crosslink Capital, Wireframe Ventures, IAG Firemark Ventures, Toyota Ventures and Leadout Capital. It has raised $24 million in funding.
Near space has flown more than 1,000 commercial missions to assess risk, but it is still ramping up its operations for disaster response. Matevosyan said that by next year it will have scaled to a point where it can react to major climate disaster events immediately. The entire Swift system fits in a suitcase and can be shipped to operators anywhere.
“The way our operators launch our platforms is you flick a switch, you attach it to a helium balloon and let it go. Everything else happens autonomously,” she said.
CNBC producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to this piece.
Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi speaks at the opening night of the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 2024.
Rodin Eckenroth | Filmmagic | Getty Images
Intuit shares fell 6% in extended trading Thursday after the finance software maker issued a revenue forecast for the current quarter that trailed analysts’ estimates due to some sales being delayed.
Here’s how the company performed in comparison with LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: $2.50 adjusted vs. $2.35 expected
- Revenue: $3.28 billion vs. $3.14 billion
Revenue increased 10% year over year in the quarter, which ended Oct. 31, according to a statement. Net income fell to $197 million, or 70 cents per share, from $241 million, or 85 cents per share, a year ago.
While results for the fiscal first quarter topped estimates, second-quarter guidance was light. Intuit said it anticipates a single-digit decline in revenue from the consumer segment because of promotional changes for the TurboTax desktop software in retail environments. While that will affect revenue timing, it won’t have any impact on the full 2025 fiscal year.
Intuit called for second-quarter earnings of $2.55 to $2.61 per share, with $3.81 billion to $3.85 billion in revenue. The consensus from LSEG was $3.20 per share and $3.87 billion in revenue.
For the full year, Intuit expects $19.16 to $19.36 in adjusted earnings per share on $18.16 billion to $18.35 billion in revenue. That implies revenue growth of between 12% and 13%. Analysts polled by LSEG were looking for $19.33 in adjusted earnings per share and $18.26 billion in revenue.
Revenue from Intuit’s global business solutions group came in at $2.5 billion in the first quarter. The figure was up 9% and in line with estimates, according to StreetAccount. Formerly known as the small business and self-employed segment, the group includes Mailchimp, QuickBooks, small business financing and merchant payment processing.
“We are seeing good progress serving mid-market customers in MailChimp, but are seeing higher churn from smaller customers,” Sandeep Aujla, Intuit’s finance chief, said on a conference call with analysts. “We are addressing this by making product enhancements and driving feature discoverability and adoption to improve first-time use and customer retention.”
Better outcomes are a few quarters away, Aujla said.
CreditKarma revenue came in at $524 million, above StreetAccount’s $430 million consensus.
At Thursday’s close, Intuit shares were up about 9% so far in 2024, while the S&P 500 has gained almost 25% in the same period.
On Tuesday Intuit shares slipped 5% after The Washington Post said President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” had discussed developing a mobile app for federal income tax filing. But a mobile app for submitting returns from Intuit is “already available to all Americans,” CEO Sasan Goodarzi told CNBC’s Jon Fortt.
Goodarzi said on CNBC that he’s personally communicating with leaders of the incoming presidential administration.
On the earnings call, Goodarzi sounded optimistic about the economy.
“Our belief, which is not baked into our guidance, is that we will see an improved environment as we look ahead in 2025, particularly just with some of the things that I mentioned earlier around just interest rates, jobs, the regulatory environment,” he said. “These things have a real burden on businesses. And we believe that a better future is to come.”
WATCH: H&R Block, Intuit shares fall after report Trump administration is considering a free tax-filing app
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