Openly uses claimtouch to speed homeowners contents claims pricing

A narrow AI bet that solves a stubborn claims problem

Openly’s latest claims move is not about flashy automation for its own sake. It is about one of the most tedious parts of homeowners losses, the contents inventory, and the slow, manual pricing work that follows when a claim includes a full house of personal property.

That is why the carrier’s integration of claimtouch, also known as Claims Touch, matters. Instead of trying to automate the entire claim at once, Openly is using AI where the friction is highest: turning scattered, messy information into a structured inventory that can be priced faster and reviewed more consistently.

Why contents claims are such a hard fit for traditional workflows

Contents handling has long been inconsistent because the input is inconsistent. One claimant sends a typed spreadsheet, another uploads photos, and another writes items on paper after a loss. Openly’s system is designed to accept photos and handwritten lists, then convert that unstructured material into structured data that adjusters can work with.

That shift matters because it changes the adjuster’s job. Claims Journal describes the tool as helping adjusters move from researching replacement values across different websites to verifying information that has already been organized. In a large-loss claim, that can shorten cycle time, reduce repetitive work, and ease the friction that often builds when policyholders are waiting for a contents payout.

How Openly is using claimtouch in practice

Openly has spent roughly nine months integrating claimtouch to address contents inventory creation and pricing in large-loss claims. The company publicly announced the partnership on February 24, 2026, saying the goal was to automate personal property claims valuation and improve both settlement speed and pricing accuracy.

The appeal here is practical, not abstract. If a claimant can send a link, build an inventory, upload photos, or even translate handwritten notes into a usable dataset, the adjuster starts from a cleaner file. That gives Openly a more controlled way to price personal property losses while reducing the amount of time spent chasing item-by-item replacement values.

Openly’s approach also fits its broader identity. The insurtech was founded in 2017, is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and has built a reputation for speed, including quote generation in as little as 15 seconds. Its claims work now shows the same preference for speed, but in a much messier setting where accuracy and documentation matter as much as efficiency.

April Stone’s role in redesigning the workflow

The project is being driven inside claims by April Stone, Openly’s senior director of claims. Stone brings 20 years of insurance experience and has held senior roles at Sedgwick and Liberty Mutual Insurance, which gives her a background in both large-scale claims operations and the operational pain points that come with them.

That experience shows in the way Openly is framing the rollout. Rather than treating claimtouch as a magic button, Stone is positioning it as part of a redesign of the large-loss contents process. The company sees the new capability as a foundation that can support broader end-to-end work later, but only after the pricing and inventory step is stabilized.

The bigger AI reality inside claims

Openly’s project is useful precisely because it is modest. A Sedgwick report cited by Claims Journal estimated that 58% to 82% of insurers use AI tools in some form, but only 12% have fully mature AI capabilities and just 7% have achieved scalable AI success. That gap explains why so many carriers are still stuck in pilot mode, or using AI on isolated tasks instead of across the whole claim.

The same reporting also noted that adjusters overwhelmingly believe AI still needs human oversight. Openly’s contents workflow reflects that view. AI can structure the inventory, suggest values, and strip out some of the manual search work, but a human still has to verify the file, assess reasonableness, and push back when a submission looks inflated or incomplete.

Why guardrails matter as much as speed

The promise of faster settlement is real, but so are the risks. Contents pricing is one of the easiest places for overconfidence to create bad results, because the data is often incomplete and the gap between a fair value and a generous one can be wide. If the system prices poor inputs too confidently, it can create claimant frustration, reserve problems, or unnecessary disputes.

That is why Openly’s use case should be read as a verification tool, not an autopilot. AI can reduce adjuster burden by doing the repetitive sorting and lookup work, but the carrier still needs trained people to review the output, question outliers, and keep the human side of the claim intact. In that sense, the best guardrail is not just a policy rule, but a workflow that assumes judgment still matters.

Training, staffing, and the changing adjuster role

Openly has been talking publicly about this shift beyond the claimtouch partnership. In a May 7, 2026 post, Gina Reyes said automation is taking over routine tasks while the adjuster role is becoming harder in the places that still require judgment, empathy, and pushback against inflated claims.

Reyes also cited Deloitte findings that average adjuster attrition runs around 20%, onboarding costs range from $8,000 to $10,000 per hire, and underprepared adjusters can contribute to indemnity payouts up to 20% higher than those handled by more experienced teams. That makes the case for better tools more than a technology story. It is a staffing and economics story, because every hour saved on rote contents pricing can be redirected toward training, review, and the claims that really need experienced handling.

Openly’s growth strategy around the workflow

The contents project also fits into a larger corporate pattern. On April 22 and 23, 2026, Openly said it closed a growth investment round and expanded its long-term reinsurance partnership with Allianz Re. Related coverage said the company had more than 60,000 agent partners across 24 states, and that the new capital would support expansion into additional states and broader product development.

That matters because claims technology does not live in isolation. Openly is growing its agency channel, extending its geographic footprint, and modernizing operations in discrete pieces rather than trying to automate everything at once. The contents workflow is one of those pieces, and it is revealing because it shows how a carrier can use AI in a way that is narrow, measurable, and operationally useful.

Openly’s claimtouch integration is less a headline-grabbing leap than a disciplined step forward. It tackles a painful part of homeowners claims, improves the shape of the data before pricing begins, and leaves room for human judgment where it still counts. In a market where AI adoption is widespread but maturity is thin, that kind of practical restraint may be the real advantage.