Sydney-based digital imaging firm Nearmap has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) product that it says will provide insurers with increased accuracy and speed to access critical data.

Called Nearmap AI, the product offers datasets constructed from machine-learning models deployed across its high-definition aerial images. The datasets allow users to identify surrounding ground features such as residential building footprints and the characteristics of physical assets such as houses, pools and fences.

“A good example of this is where an insurance carrier is doing underwriting for a property and they want to know what are the risks and it might be associated with the roof type,” CEO and MD Rob Newman told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“The size of the property also makes a difference. Having that information available and extracted automatically using our artificial intelligence is an example of what we are providing to the insurance sector.”

The product was developed after more than three years of research and development.

The company images are already used by many insurers, including in the US.