With tech like security cameras, automatic locks, interactive doorbells, and more, homeowners are making safety a priority in their homes. The future of home insurance will prioritize these types of smart home products to increase a home’s overall safety. “As the insurance industry starts to look at [smart home technology] more and more, I think it will become a part of every house,” Dave Wechsler, vice president of growth initiatives at home insurance company Hippo, told Lifewire over the phone.
How Smart Home Tech Keeps You Safe
Although most people think of a safe home as being safe from theft or break-ins, there’s more insurance-related safety that smart home technology can help us with, especially in preventing insurance claims from happening in the first place. “A huge part of insurance is a kitchen fire or a washing machine breaking and spilling water everywhere,” Wechsler said. “In these instances, the insurance company loses money and the customer loses money, and things they care about.” The smart home tech that can help save on your insurance isn’t necessarily your smart doorbell or Alexa home assistant. Wechsler thinks there are many commercially available smart products that will become more widely available to homeowners, and can aid them in potential insurance losses. “We are seeing products now that can hear a water leak, tell you how far away it is, and what direction it’s coming in,” he said. “These are not far-fetched products.” He sees other ways that smart home tech can help homeowners with their insurance in products that monitor electrical arcing to catch an electrical fire before it happens, stove sensors that stop a stove fire from spreading, and even wireless presence detection embedded in a home’s Wi-Fi.
The Future of Home Insurance
Wechsler said smart home tech could change the old ways of homeowner’s insurance to help people get better discounts and rates on their insurance policies by dramatically reducing the risk of loss. “We will see a lot of insurance companies begin to embrace smart home tech in the next few years,” he said. “Insurance companies will see that they can price you like a safer consumer and change your rates because you use smart home technology—sort of like how the auto industry offers safe driver discounts.” Wechsler said some older and more established insurance companies wouldn’t be as open to coupling smart home tech with homeowner’s insurance as Hippo is. “[Some home insurance companies] are really interested in [smart home technology], but a lot of them have other objectives right now and see this as five years out, but I think they are missing the boat,” he said. Hippo partners with various smart home companies, such as ADT, SimpliSafe, Kangaroo, and Notion, to give its customers cheaper insurance rates if they integrate this tech into their home. Hippo’s approach to combining smart home tech with home insurance is ultimately the future of insurance, says Wechsler. “I’m very confident that in the next year or two, consumers will start asking their insurance companies why they aren’t giving them tools to make their home smarter and safer,” he said. “Consumers will really see and take advantage of this new level of safety.”
