Claims Adjuster Training: Gut Calls Can Be Taught

“You just know” is not a process.

Contributed by Chris Stanley, Founder of IA Path

Can claims adjuster training replace years of experience? It can teach the judgment veterans rely on, and faster than many hiring managers think.

The objection I hear most is familiar: “This job is about nuance. You need a gut for it.” I agree. But what is a gut call?

What a Gut Call Really Is

A gut call is pattern recognition happening below the surface. The brain weighs data, inputs, and context in seconds, then lands on a decision before we can explain it.

That isn’t magic. Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Gary Klein concluded that reliable intuition depends on a predictable environment and the opportunity to learn its regularities. Experience alone doesn’t guarantee an accurate gut call.

If gut is learned, it can be taught. The Fossil Workforce learned it over years in the seat. We don’t have years anymore. A quarter of claim adjusters are expected to retire by the end of 2027.

The Fist Rule: Turning Instinct Into a Process

When my father-in-law taught me to write auto damage estimates, I shadowed him for six months. During that time, he couldn’t explain how he knew how many hours to write for damage to a panel. He had seen the pattern thousands of times.

Eventually, he showed me the Fist Rule: cover the damaged area with your fist, and count how many fists it takes. That’s how many hours to write. A veteran will point out that estimating is more complicated than that. Of course it is. When I began teaching other people, I added another rule: “Creases Cause Increases.” A crease, whether it follows a body line or comes from the damage, makes a panel harder to repair. If there’s a crease, double your number.

That helped new appraisers turn a five-hour estimate for a 12-hour dent into a 10-hour estimate. Was it as good as my father-in-law or the technician? No. Was it close? Yes.

If gut decisions are subconscious, organizations should make the thinking behind them conscious and teachable.

Why “You Just Know” Fails

We’ve been so spoiled by the Fossil Workforce that we never built out our thinking as an industry. We haven’t documented how we want people to think or make decisions. We just tell them to make good ones.

“You just know” isn’t a process, and it isn’t as consistent as we think. A noise audit at one insurer found a median 43% difference between two adjusters’ payout estimates for identical claims.

Gut without process isn’t culture. It’s a melting pot of quick reactions. That doesn’t work for a new hire, and it doesn’t work for AI either.

Four Parts of a Renewable Workforce

A Renewable Workforce replaces the experience companies once hired with a system that produces it. Fossil talent is finite. Once it retires, it’s gone. Renewable talent can be developed on demand. It takes four parts:

• Process. Write down how your best people decide. Rules like the Fist Rule and “Creases Cause Increases” turn a veteran’s instinct into steps a new person can follow on day one.
• Technology. Claim simulations give new people practice with realistic files, photos, and calls before they work with a customer. A 2020 meta-analysis in higher education found simulation-based learning among the most effective ways to develop complex skills. A digital operating system can keep the process at their fingertips, and AI can help identify processes and next steps.
• Mentorship. A mentor can answer the scenario-specific questions no manual covers. Ongoing mentorship helps new hires keep sharpening their skills. Structured development works: 93% of registered apprentices stay employed after completing their program. One veteran can mentor many people. At IA Path, three mentors currently support 1,000 auto adjusters and appraisers.
• Partnership. Training and hiring should agree on the standard up front. Partners set a clear contribution standard, and graduates who meet it step into seats ready to contribute. People will invest in themselves and choose this industry when they can see a career ahead.

In IA Path’s experience, a new person can contribute in as little as one to four weeks, depending on the role, then keep sharpening their skills through a year of mentorship. The same approach can help current employees move into roles they haven’t held before.

What a Repeatable Process Produces

At IA Path, we’ve helped people move into auto collision and claims roles from backgrounds in nursing, homeschooling, law enforcement, and restaurant work. Some were recent high school graduates. They didn’t arrive with five years of experience. They arrived with a process, a mentor, and a partner willing to give them a seat.

Stop waiting for someone who “just knows.” Start building people who know why. Fossil talent is found. Renewable talent is made.

Missed Part 1? Read why the adjuster talent pool is shrinking and who could replace it.