Schadensdokumentations-KI für Schadensregulierer, offline im Außendienst

Claims files are built from observations, and observations decay faster than anyone admits.

You inspected a storm-damaged roof at nine, a burnt-out kitchen at eleven, a vehicle at two, and a commercial water loss at four. By seven those four jobs are competing for the same slot in your head. You still have the photographs, so you write from them, which means you write what the camera happened to catch rather than what you noticed at the time.

The difference shows in the specifics. "Significant water damage to ground floor" could describe half the losses you handled this month. "Water line consistent at roughly 300mm around the whole ground floor, hall flooring already cupping at the joins, escape appeared to originate at the failed flexible hose under the utility sink, photographs 12 to 19" is a record. It tells a supervisor or a reviewer three months from now what you saw and why you concluded what you concluded.

That matters because the file is what a settlement decision rests on. A human being makes that decision, and they make it better with concrete facts and worse with adjectives.

So why does anyone still write at 7pm? Because typing on a phone while wearing gloves, holding a torch, and balancing on a loft ladder is close to impossible, and because the alternative most tools offer needs a signal the site does not have. The write-up gets deferred by default, not by choice.

The places where losses happen are the places where connectivity dies.

Flooded basements sit below ground. Underground car parks are concrete boxes. Rural properties have one bar on a good day. Steel-framed warehouses and plant rooms block everything, and after a major storm the mobile network is often the second casualty after the power. This is not a rare inconvenience for a field adjuster, it is a standing condition of the job.

A cloud dictation tool fails at exactly that moment. It needs to send your audio to a server and wait for text to come back, so with no connection you get a spinner, a queued recording, or nothing. Some tools buffer and upload later, which helps, but it also means a recording of a customer's home is sitting on the phone waiting to travel.

On-device AI is the plain answer. It means the artificial intelligence runs on the phone or laptop you are holding rather than on a company's servers. Four things follow, and all four matter on a loss site. It keeps working with no connection, because there is nothing to wait for. It is private, because the audio and the note never travel to a third party. It does not change under you when a vendor updates a hosted service. And it costs the same whether you dictate twice a day or forty times, because nobody is metering server time.

Yaps is a voice assistant that runs on your own device. For claims work it does four concrete things, and all four happen locally.

It turns speech into clean text anywhere. Press the Yaps hotkey (on desktop the key is Fn, and on Android it is the dictation button on the Yaps keyboard) and talk the way you would describe the loss to a colleague, restarts included. Recognition runs on the device, in about 25 spoken languages that are detected automatically, which helps when the policyholder next to you switches language halfway through. It works across every app, so you can speak into a note, an email to the handler, or a free-text box in a form. The dictation feature page covers the mechanics.

It cleans up the ramble on the device. Cleanup is on by default and runs locally. It strips filler words and false starts, fixes punctuation and capitalisation, and turns a spoken list into a real list. So "right, so, ground floor, um, water line about, call it three hundred mil, sorry, consistent three hundred all the way round" arrives as a clean sentence you would paste straight into the file.

It keeps everything in a private searchable vault. Notes land in a local vault you can search without a cloud index of your caseload. They support checklists and kanban boards as well as plain text, so an inspection round can be a checklist you walk every time, and a week of jobs can be a board with a card per claim. Everything exports to Markdown and plain text. The voice notes feature goes deeper.

It syncs between your phone and your laptop. Vault syncing is a premium feature that pairs your own two devices with a QR code and moves notes over your local network or an encrypted peer-to-peer link, not through a central server. The description you spoke in the hallway is waiting on the laptop when you sit down to write the report.

One more piece needs a precise boundary, because people assume wrongly about it. If you hold an audio file you recorded yourself, lawfully and with consent, the Yaps Studio editor imports that file and transcribes it offline into text or an SRT subtitle file. On Windows and macOS desktop, Studio can also identify different speakers in that recording: it is optional and off by default, you install a small speaker identification pack (about 32 MB) once from the Features screen and switch the toggle on before transcribing, and it runs on the device. That feature is not available on Android or Linux.

What Studio is not is a bot that joins a call. Yaps does not sit in your video call with the policyholder, does not record conversations automatically, and does not transcribe live. It works on a recording that already exists on your machine, and whether you may make that recording at all is a consent question governed by your jurisdiction and your carrier, not by a software setting.

The loop below adds a couple of minutes on site and removes the entire evening write-up.

1. Set up before the first job. Install Yaps on Android, where there is a free tier, or on Windows, macOS, or Linux, where you get a 7-day free trial. Prove offline capture to yourself once, in airplane mode.
2. Build the inspection round as a checklist. The same order every time is what stops a room, a service, or an outbuilding being quietly skipped on a busy day.
3. Open every note with the same fixed header. Claim reference, date and time, address, who is present, access and conditions. Boring, consistent, and the reason search still works in six months.
4. Speak each observation where you observe it. Extent and measurements, what appears affected, and photograph numbers as you take them. Specifics, not adjectives.
5. Capture the policyholder account separately. Their words go in their own note, marked as their account. To record audio of a statement, get consent first and follow the rules where you are.
6. Sync to the laptop and write the report. Dictate the narrative around your captured facts, then copy the clean text into the carrier's system, because Yaps does not connect to one.

That question sorts the options faster than any feature list. A claims file holds a named person, their address, the state of their home, and sometimes the reason their life went wrong this week. Hold the on-device approach against the two things most adjusters reach for instead.

Read the integration row as an honest trade rather than a defeat. Yaps has no connection to any claims management, policy administration, or estimating platform, so the output is clean, paste-ready text you copy into the field your carrier gives you. If automatic write-back is a hard requirement, a tool built into that platform is the right answer for that step, and your on-site capture can still stay local.

The rows above it are where the on-device approach earns its place. A tool that never uploads your audio cannot leak it, cannot retain it after you delete it, and cannot fail on you in a concrete basement because a server was unreachable.

The detail that decides a claim is usually noticed on site and lost by the evening. Capture belongs where the loss is.

Yaps

Claims documentation is not one task. It is a handful of recurring formats, and voice capture suits some of them much better than others.

The loss description. The core narrative of what happened and what it did to the property or vehicle. It is the document that most rewards being spoken on site and most suffers from being written from photographs.

The scope walk. Room by room, elevation by elevation, item by item. Run it as a checklist and dictate against each line, so areas with no damage are recorded as checked rather than left ambiguous.

The policyholder account. What the insured told you about the sequence of events, kept in its own note and labelled as their account rather than your finding. That separation pays for itself the first time a version of events changes.

Contents and damaged item lists. Speaking a list of items, makes, models, and apparent ages is far faster than typing it, and cleanup formats a spoken list into an actual list.

Mitigation and next actions. What has been done to prevent further damage, what the policyholder was asked to do, and what you have to chase. Drop those into a checklist while you are still standing there, and see turning voice notes into action items for the wider habit.

Handover notes. The most undervalued document in claims, and the one that depends most on detail living in one person's head. Talking a handover out loud is faster and more complete than typing it.

For adjacent field work that is not claims-specific, our guide to engineering and maintenance documentation covers site reports and defect logs, and the property professional workflow covers viewings and condition notes.

Claims decisions carry legal weight, so precision about limits matters more here than a long feature list.

It does not assess, estimate, value, or adjudicate anything. Yaps does not price a repair, calculate an indemnity, apply a policy wording, decide coverage, score fraud risk, or recommend an outcome, and it performs no automated decision-making about people or claims. It writes down what you said, in clean text. The judgement, and the accountability for it, stay with you and your carrier.

There is no integration with any claims or policy administration system. No connector, no sync, no automatic write-back into a claims management, policy administration, or estimating platform. Yaps produces structured, paste-ready text you copy across, and notes export to Markdown and plain text. That is a genuine limitation, and it is also why no second vendor ends up holding your claims data.

It does not join calls, and recording people is a consent question. Yaps has no meeting bot, does not sit in a call with a policyholder or a contractor, and does not transcribe live. If you have recorded a statement lawfully and with consent, Studio transcribes that audio file offline. Consent requirements vary by country and by state, your carrier and regulator will have rules on top, and using Yaps changes none of that.

Speaker identification is desktop only, on Windows and macOS. Separating voices in a recording you already hold works there after you install a small optional pack and switch it on. It is not available on Android or Linux, and it never means Yaps joined the conversation.

There is no iPhone or iPad app yet. Yaps ships on Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux today, plus a Chrome extension for saving web pages into your vault. iOS is coming soon, so if your field team is issued iPhones, this workflow is not available to you yet.

Read-aloud voices are English speakers in practice. Yaps includes text-to-speech with 18 voices on desktop and 2 on mobile, which is useful for hearing a long report back while you drive between jobs. If you need documents read aloud in many languages, a multilingual cloud reader is the more honest fit.

None of this is legal, regulatory, or insurance advice. Follow your carrier's rules on documentation, recording, and the use of personal devices, and whatever your regulator requires where you work.

Start with Yaps for the capture layer of claims work. The loss description is the document that most depends on being written at the moment of observation, and the site is exactly where a cloud tool stops working. Speaking it on device closes the gap between what you saw and what got recorded, without putting a recording of somebody's home on a server you do not control.

Two places where something else wins. If your process depends on notes writing themselves into a specific claims platform, use a tool built into that platform for that step and keep the field capture local. If your team is entirely on iPhone and iPad, wait for the iOS release.

For everyone else the change starts on the next job. Walk the loss, speak what you see, and let the evening write-up become an edit rather than an act of memory. The offline dictation use case covers what keeps working when the connection does not.

What is the best app for insurance adjusters documenting claims in the field?

Yaps is the strongest default for field capture, because dictation, cleanup, note storage, and search all run on your own device and keep working with no signal. That matters in basements, car parks, and rural properties where a cloud tool simply stops. It runs on Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you need notes writing themselves into a specific claims platform, use a tool built into that platform for that step.

Can I dictate an insurance claim report with no internet connection?

Yes. Yaps turns speech into text on the device itself, so dictation, cleanup, saving, and local search all work in airplane mode or with no signal at all. Nothing is queued for upload and nothing waits for a server. Prove it once by switching the phone to airplane mode and dictating a test note before you rely on it at a property.

Does Yaps assess, estimate, or value a claim?

No, and this is a deliberate line. Yaps does not price repairs, calculate indemnity, apply policy wording, determine coverage, score fraud risk, or recommend an outcome, and it performs no automated decision-making. It is a documentation tool that turns what you say into clean text. Every assessment and decision remains yours and your carrier's.

How do I document a site inspection by voice?

Build the round once as a checklist that mirrors the order you walk a property, then open every note with the same fixed header: claim reference, date and time, address, who is present, and access conditions. Speak each observation where you observe it, including extent, measurements, and photograph numbers. Keep the policyholder account in a separate labelled note, then sync to your laptop and write the report from the captured facts.

Can Yaps transcribe a recorded policyholder statement?

Yes, if you already hold the audio file and recorded it lawfully with consent. The Yaps Studio editor imports the file and transcribes it offline into text or an SRT subtitle file, with nothing uploaded. It works only on files you already have, because Yaps does not join or record live calls.

Do I need consent to record a policyholder statement?

In many places yes, and the rules vary by jurisdiction, so treat this as a prompt to check rather than an answer. Recording a conversation requires the other party's consent in many countries and in a number of United States states, and your carrier and regulator may require more on top. If you intend to record, tell the policyholder, get their agreement, and follow your own rules. Nothing here is legal advice.

Does Yaps integrate with our claims management system?

No. There is no integration, connector, or automatic write-back to any claims management, policy administration, or estimating platform. Yaps produces clean, paste-ready text that you copy into whatever field your carrier's system provides, and notes export to Markdown and plain text. If write-back is a hard requirement, use a tool built into that platform for that step.

Are my claim notes stored in the cloud?

No. Notes are stored locally on your own device in a searchable vault, and the audio of your dictation is never uploaded to be turned into text. If you enable premium sync, notes move between your own phone and laptop over your local network or an encrypted peer-to-peer link paired with a QR code, rather than through a central server. Your carrier's retention and disclosure obligations still apply to the record itself.

How much does Yaps cost for a field adjuster?

On Android there is a free tier, so you can start on your phone at no cost. On desktop, meaning Windows, macOS, and Linux, there is no free tier: you get a 7-day free trial and then a paid subscription. The plans are Pro at $15 a month and Max at $25 a month. Starting the desktop trial requires an account, which governs access and billing rather than where your notes go: dictation, cleanup, and search still run on your device.

Does Yaps work on iPhone or iPad?

Not yet. Yaps ships on Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux today, plus a Chrome extension for saving web pages into your vault, and the iPhone and iPad app is coming soon. If your field team is issued iPhones, this workflow is not available to you yet.

Can Yaps identify who is speaking in a recorded statement?

On Windows and macOS desktop, yes, within limits. Studio can optionally identify different speakers in an audio file you already hold: you install a small speaker identification pack (about 32 MB) once from the Features screen and switch the toggle on before transcribing, and it runs on the device. It is off by default, not available on Android or Linux, and it never means Yaps joined a live conversation.

Can Yaps read a claim file or policy document aloud?

Yes, with a caveat worth knowing. Yaps includes text-to-speech with 18 voices on desktop, eight of which work offline, and 2 voices on mobile, which suits hearing a long report back while driving between inspections. The shipped voices are English speakers in practice, so if you need documents read aloud across many languages, a multilingual cloud reader is the more honest fit.