Welcome to the Future: AI Powered Drone Property Assessments

Kyrah Coker, Vice President of Finance, National Roofing Partners

Kyrah Coker, Vice President of Finance, National Roofing Partners

If 2020 has taught us anything, it would be the importance of adaptation. Technology has transformed countless industries over the past decade, but this past year has made adaptation a necessity for the remaining few. For the roofing industry, that meant the long overdue “automation transformation” needed to happen sooner than expected.

Fortunately, National Roofing Partners has prepared for a socially distanced world through the implementation of our Drone AI program. Two years ago, we partnered with Pointivo to develop a fully automated solution that utilized drones to remotely assess the condition of a property. While we were not the first roofers to use drones, we are the first to address the challenges of scalability and consistency. Now, for the first time, we can quickly review information and provide initial spend projections without the need to send a person on site, which in the current climate has been of great value.

Most finance professionals are familiar with the SWOT analysis process and will understand how difficult it is to ascertain the future ROI of programs like our Drone AI initiative. When we began doing our due diligence, our visionary, Steve Little, predicted a future workforce demand that would require a “think outside the box” mentality when it came to how assessments would be performed. As we continued to vet out the program, our program lead and current NRP President, Deryl Kratzer, worked hand in hand with our partners, Kyle Christmon and the team at Pointivo, to develop our Drone AI inspection program in such a way that it would work anywhere, deliver consistent, actionable data, and most importantly, add value for our partners and clients. As a result, assessments are now cheaper, safer, and more reliable than ever before.

The Drone AI program is enabling stakeholders to make prescribed decisions based on objective data versus reactive decisions based on subjective data. Simply put, we are taking the guesswork out of roofing. Maintenance is planned ahead of time, budgets are forecasted years into the future, and asset owners are no longer caught off guard with unexpected capital expenses.

Furthermore, the Drone AI data will become a core component of our new NRP Care program which aims to renew warranties on aging roofing systems. Rather than requiring a full re-roof to issue coverage, a remote drone inspection will act as a baseline condition report to outline a new 5-10-20+ year plan that addresses pre-existing issues and prescribes future maintenance. Subsequent annual inspections will allow the AI to detect changes and predict problems before they happen. Given the right data, we can provide our clients with what they want: budget predictability.

We might not be able to prevent every leak, but we can prevent the headaches they cause our customers. That is possible when we combine cutting-edge technology with good old fashioned customer service.

As the financial leaders of our companies, it is important for us to constantly listen to our teams for ideas on technology that will set the stage for the future. This forward-thinking attitude will put your company in position to lead in times of drastic circumstances, 2020 being no exception. When developing new processes, ask the hard questions but ask them with an open mind knowing the foundation for tomorrow is being built today.