AI Claims, Adjusters Gone Wild—and the FTC Is Finally Paying Attention

The FTC is asking whether AI is creating inaccurate, unfair, or deceptive outcomes. Collision shops, adjusters, technicians, and consumers now have an opportunity to tell them what is really happening inside automated claims systems.
In this episode of Collision Coffee Talk, Kristen Felder explains why AI claims handling is about more than a bad estimate. When automated decisions are combined with inexperienced adjusters, limited authority, performance dashboards, escalation barriers, and pressure to follow the system’s recommendation, the claim result may be effectively designed before a shop ever submits its documentation.
We examine whether heavily automated claim denials could become evidence of procedural bad faith, why right-to-appraisal results in Texas raise serious questions about underpaid claims, and why the FTC’s current request for public comment may be one of the collision industry’s best opportunities to be heard.
Also in this episode:
• Adjusters sharing claims and attacking repair shops on TikTok
• CCC exploring a possible sale or return to private ownership
• Lucid’s financial uncertainty and what certified repairers should watch
• Painting robots and the future of the refinish department
• Equipment sales pitches that may ignore real safety and workflow risks
• GM’s patent involving vehicles exchanging insurance information after a crash
• The release of Kristen’s new book, The Judgment Gap
The problem is not simply whether AI makes mistakes. The larger question is whether claims systems are being designed so that disagreeing with the automated answer becomes harder than accepting it.
Collision Coffee Talk connects the news, litigation, technology, and claims-process decisions shaping the future of collision repair.
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