THE RESTORATIONHQ
Tech & AI12 stories · updated

Tech & AI

Estimating platforms, AI in claims, Xactimate, and the software land grab.

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AI in the workplace: are your techs still thinking? (operator-adoption debate)
A trade-press piece on "knowledge decay", the argument that over-reliance on AI-generated content erodes critical thinking and expertise inside organizations.
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Insurers are now excluding AI from your own liability coverage
The market is ending "silent AI" coverage.
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Will your next claim be denied by a computer? Regulators are finally asking
The NAIC's AI model bulletin has now been adopted or mirrored by 25+ states, requiring AI-supported claim decisions to comply with unfair-claims-settlement standards.
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The software land grab goes free
JobSight shipped JobSightAI (AI receipt capture, conversational search across jobs).
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The hidden cost of AI (the operator's side of the ledger)
Trade press pushed back on AI enthusiasm, arguing the costs (training, culture, judgment atrophy, error liability) aren't showing up in the vendor demos.
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Xactimate's labor tiers: what actually changed
Detail firmed up on the three-tier labor-efficiency architecture we flagged in May: the new Large Restoration/Remodel tier sits between Restoration/Service and the old "New Construction" setting, which has been relabeled "Total Rebuild or Similar." It requires a 2026-or-later price list.
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Texas regulators just put AI claims-handling on the table
Texas DOI issued a bulletin on AI use in claims, and it surfaced in a Badger-vs-Sigman debate at the NAPIA meeting in Dallas.
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Sedgwick: 2026 CAT season will be harder to model
Sedgwick's report says 2026 catastrophe risk is more distributed and harder to predict, and a talent exodus on the claims side will make losses harder and costlier to manage.
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Capabuild is now "TrueRestore", the rebrand we called
Capabuild, the LiDAR/360 documentation app for restoration and mitigation contractors that TrueBuilt acquired, has rebranded its restoration product to TrueRestore, wiring jobsite capture directly into TrueBuilt's AI estimation engine.
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Carriers are pointing AI at your roof
Carriers are using AI to inspect roofs and inform coverage/claim decisions, and insurance regulators are starting to pay attention to how those models are used.
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Verisk adds a third Xactimate labor-efficiency model
Xactimate moved from two labor-efficiency models to three, adding a "Large Restoration/Remodel" tier meant to bridge service-level work and full rebuilds.
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When AI guesses wrong on the scope, the floor pays
Trade press is raising the failure mode of AI estimating and scoping tools (a wrong AI call on materials or scope causing real damage), even as tools like Rebuild pitch insurance-compliant estimates in 90 seconds via an AI voice assistant.

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