Turn handwritten field reports into searchable data

Overview

Turn handwritten claims and inspection forms into structured data that staff can search.

Posted by

Insurance group · Harare

Location

Harare (remote work possible)

Sub-theme

AI & Digital Transformation

Team size

2–6 people

Pilot budget

US$10,000

Applications close

31 Jan 2027

• OCR
• NLP
• Workflow

The problem

Background

The insurer’s assessors fill in paper inspection and claims forms in the field, mostly by hand and often in a mix of English, Shona and Ndebele. The forms are scanned and filed as images.

What's going wrong

Finding a past claim, or spotting a pattern such as repeat claims on the same vehicle, means someone reading scanned images one by one. Claims take weeks longer to process than they should.

What we need

A strong solution will:

• Extract key fields (policy number, dates, amounts, vehicle details, assessor notes) from scanned forms.
• Handle handwriting and notes that mix languages.
• Flag low-confidence fields for a person to check.
• Make past claims searchable.

Constraints

• Customer data cannot leave the insurer’s approved cloud region.
• Final decisions stay with human assessors.
• Must connect to the insurer’s document system by export or API.

Deliverables

By forum week, matched teams are expected to bring:

1. A working extraction pipeline tested on the sample forms.
2. Accuracy results for each field.
3. A simple search screen for claims staff.
4. A seven-minute pitch for forum week.

How teams are evaluated

Applications and final pitches are scored by the challenge owner and the ZBIF secretariat on:

• Fit to the problem30%

  Does it solve the problem as the challenge owner describes it?

• Technical feasibility25%

  Can the team build and run it with the resources available?

• Cost and scalability20%

  Is it affordable to pilot, and to roll out if the pilot works?

• Team capability15%

  Does the team have the skills and time to deliver?

• Local impact10%

  Jobs, skills or value it keeps in Zimbabwe.

Who can apply

• A registered ZBIF innovator account: innovators, consultancies, technologists, university teams or freelancers.
• At least one team member based in Zimbabwe.
• Able to attend forum week in Bulawayo on 27–28 April 2027 if shortlisted.
• IP ownership and pilot terms are agreed between your team and the challenge owner in the Deal Room.

Timeline

1. 5 Oct 2026 Challenge posted We are here
2. 31 Jan 2027 Applications close
3. Within 3 weeks Matching results sent to teams and the challenge owner
4. Until mid-April 2027 Build phase, with mentor and challenge-owner check-ins
5. 27–28 Apr 2027 Live pitch and Deal Rooms at forum week, Bulawayo

Data and resources

Shared with matched teams after signing a simple data-use agreement.

• 2,000 scanned forms with typed transcriptions Anonymised test set
• Claims operations lead as point of contact Fortnightly check-in