Our team had a blast at the 2025 RIA Convention last week, and while we were there we ran into our good friend, Doug Weatherman from Rare Restoration.
While we are working through all of our videos and photos with you all from the event, we thought this was as good a time as any to post this clip from the podcast we got to do with Doug, where we talk about all of the challenges that AI is presenting in the Restoration Industry, and how to be proactive against these struggles.
Keep an eye on our socials to see more about our RIA shenanigans, and if you haven’t watched or listened to this podcast with Doug, go and check out the full video now!
Ben: But I’ll play the devil’s advocate. I get it from the carrier side. Yeah. Because you’re going to have adjusters that have a bias. You’re going to have adjusters that has a relationship with maybe a company. So I see where they’re coming from, but I also can see how ominous they can, this can be to getting paid.
So outside of screaming agent into the phone a bunch of times and trying to get into that, that knowledge is there. What can Restorers do now to really just start moving in the direction of being able to mitigate some of that problem and to make sure that they’re on the up and up on this?
Doug: This is the topic I’ve been given the most thought about, even since Chris and I talked the other day, I’ve been trying to figure out what can we do, right? Because in my opinion, as an industry, we are potentially three to five years behind right now.
As far as what we’re going to be as the, you know, what the other side’s been doing and where we are, we’re three to five years or a large, and I mean, stupid large sum of money to catch back up with the pools. Right?
So then we got to play in the same sandbox is the only thing that I can think of until somebody comes along and there’s some bright gentlemen in our field. And as a general announcement, if any of you guys out there and you know who I’m talking about are these bright gentlemen.
And you think you’ve got an idea for a solution, I am 100% down for the conversation that this is going to require. Because these issues are going to be important. As Restorers, as what we will become as consumers of this technology, we need to request that anything that’s AI generated, adjustments, estimates, anything be flagged and tagged as such.
That this was not done by a human being. A computer did this, whether that computer has the login information because digital employees are already a thing. If this computer has the login for whoever the adjuster is and his name’s on the estimate, there should be an asterisk or something that says that AI wrote this, not this human being who could have potentially site visited and done all this stuff himself.
That’s got to be paramount. And just like in Florida where they just made an actual physical law that whoever changes or adjust anything must have their name on the document, whether it’s an exact estimate or whatever, there’s gotta be a name on the document signifying the person who changed it. And that all happened because 60 minutes made a big deal about it.
If 60 minutes makes a big deal about this, this is the first thing that they’re going to talk about with us to it. Did AI do it or did a human do it? Who’s responsible for the number? You know what I mean? Challenge. We got to challenge anything that’s AI driven as far as denials, especially line item denials, nonpayment denials, requesting the specific algorithm, data source, the historical data, precedent, anything that they used to come to that decision.
Anything that the AI used to come to that decision has to be part of the thing. And if it’s not in the policy language then we must demand, review, even appraisal at that point. Policy based justifications have got to be the most paramount thing. If they can’t justify it in the policy language, we all know as Restorers, then they must pay a bill. If they can’t make a thing in the policy that says they don’t pay a bill, then they must pay the bill. As long as it’s justified, fair, reasonable, all the junk that they always quote to us, right?
Missed the full episode? Click on this link to watch it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwFkk0LyG6M
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Benjamin Ricciardi is the founder of Ironclad Restoration Marketing, A digital marketing agency that specializes in the Restoration and Cleaning industry based in South Florida. Benjamin is the author of The No Bulls**t Guide to Internet Marketing for Restoration Contractors and hosts The Restoration Rundown Podcast, a podcast that is focused on everything related to marketing and owning a Restoration and Cleaning Business. Connect with Benjamin and Ironclad Restoration Marketing on social media for the latest tips and tricks on how to grow your Restoration Business.