Machines Now Review Your Estimate: Cotality Supplement, XactXpert and How to Write Estimates That Hold Up
On October 28, 2026, Cotality (the company formerly known as CoreLogic) launched Cotality Supplement, a portal carriers can use to take in and process contractor supplements. Its headline feature is a side-by-side variance report that shows every line added, removed or repriced between the original estimate and the supplement.
If you're an independent adjuster, the "original estimate" in that report is yours.
Cotality Supplement is the newest piece of a trend that has been building for a few years: software, not just a desk adjuster with coffee, now reads your Xactimate estimate before anyone pays on it. Here's what the tools do, what's new this fall, and how to write estimates that hold up when a machine goes through them first.
What's new: Cotality Supplement
According to Carrier Management's report on the launch, Cotality Supplement:
- Is a configurable, white-label portal that carriers run under their own brand.
- Lets contractors upload estimates, photos and permit documents in one place.
- Routes each request automatically to the right internal team using rules.
- Produces side-by-side variance reports showing additions, removals and pricing changes between the original and supplemental estimates.
- Connects to carrier estimating platforms to support "low-touch" processing of eligible supplements.
A sponsored Cotality piece in Claims Journal the next day made broader claims about how slow and costly manual supplements are, including that 40% to 60% of exterior and roof claims need a supplement. Those are Cotality's own figures, so read them as marketing, not industry data.
What it means for you: Supplements are where adjusters and roofers clash most. A portal that automatically compares the roofer's estimate with yours line by line, and keeps that record, turns every gap in your original scope into a visible, countable item. A supplement that adds drip edge, starter and ice and water shield you left out doesn't just cost the carrier money. It shows up in a report with your file number on it.
The other machines already reading your estimate
Cotality's launch is new, but automated review isn't. Here's what is already in carrier workflows.
XactXpert: rules checked as you write
Verisk introduced XactXpert in April 2023. It's a rules engine inside Xactimate that checks each line of an estimate against the carrier's guidelines while it's being written. Verisk says it ships with more than 1,000 pre-written rules, that carriers can customize them or request new ones, and that it cuts review from days to minutes. That last part is Verisk's claim.
If a client uses it, you may see flags before you ever upload. Those flags reflect that carrier's guidelines, which aren't always the same as the next carrier's.
XactAnalysis and XactAI
XactAnalysis is where many carriers receive, track and report on assigned estimates. The one AI change we could confirm there is assignment summaries, which condense loss notes and instructions into a short brief. We found no public release notes showing an AI desk-review feature inside XactAnalysis as of late October 2026, so we're not claiming one.
Inside Xactimate desktop, XactAI's Line-Item Advisor suggests up to three line items when you describe a situation in plain language. We covered it, along with pricing and the Android phase-out, in XactAI one year in. It helps you write, but the same idea of software that "knows" which item fits also works in reverse: anything that can suggest the right line can notice when one is missing.
Verisk data inside general AI assistants
On May 5, 2026, Verisk released connectors that let its data be used inside Anthropic's Claude, including an XactRestore connector that gives restoration contractors conversational access to Verisk pricing and estimating data. On its July 29 earnings call, Verisk management said a claims-related connector was already in use at an unnamed top-10 carrier.
What it means for you: Carrier desk teams can increasingly ask plain-English questions of claim and estimate data instead of pulling reports. "Show me this adjuster's roof estimates where the supplement added more than 20%" is the kind of question that gets easier to ask. We don't know which carriers are doing that or how, but the tools exist.
Performance data on adjusters
In its 2026 outlook, Crawford predicted more straight-through processing of simple claims and said TPAs will be expected to provide data-driven visibility into how their adjusters perform as a standard part of the service. Put that next to variance reports and rules engines, and your estimates become a dataset as well as a set of individual files.
How to write estimates that survive automated review
None of this calls for a new style of estimating. It calls for the habits good adjusters already have, applied every time instead of most of the time.
1. Scope the whole job the first time
The most expensive line on a variance report is the one you missed. On roofs, that usually means the accessories: drip edge, starter, ridge, ice and water shield where code requires it, flashing, vents, steep and high charges. On water losses, it's the mitigation and equipment lines that get left off when the mitigation company bills separately.
Templates and macros help here because they load a tested group of items the same way every time. You delete what doesn't apply instead of trying to remember what does. Our Ultimate Roofing Bundle for Xactimate (13 roofing macros) is built for exactly that, and the roof pitch chart and multiplier table covers the measurement side.
2. Make every line traceable
Rules engines check whether a line is allowed. People check whether it's supported. For each line that isn't obvious, the file should show why it's there:
- A photo of the condition, labeled to match the line item.
- The measurement or calculation behind the quantity.
- A short note for anything that departs from the carrier's guidelines, such as a code requirement, a manufacturer instruction or a matching issue.
If XactAI writes your photo labels, read and correct them. An auto-generated description that doesn't match the line item is the kind of mismatch a reviewer or a machine will catch.
3. Follow the carrier's guidelines, and document the exceptions
Automated rules are usually a version of the carrier's written guidelines. Know each client's guidelines on overhead and profit, steep charges, waste, matching and tear-off layers. When the facts require you to go outside them, say so plainly in the notes and attach the support. An exception with a reason is a judgment call. An exception without one looks like an error.
4. Be consistent across files
Once estimates are compared at scale, inconsistency stands out more than any single mistake. Two similar roofs, written a week apart, with different waste factors and different accessory lines will draw attention. Use the same macros, the same note structure and the same photo order on every file.
5. Write closing notes for a reader who wasn't there
The desk reviewer, the variance report and the AI summary all start from what you wrote. Spell out what you inspected, what you found, what you included and what you excluded, and why. We went deeper on this in our piece on closed-without-payment scrutiny, and the same principles apply to paid claims.
A quick pre-upload checklist
| Check | Why it matters in automated review |
|---|---|
| Accessory and detach/reset lines present (or deliberately excluded with a note) | Most common source of supplement variances |
| Quantities tie to the sketch or measurements | Mismatched quantities are easy for software to flag |
| Photo labels match line items | Supports each line; catches bad AI labels |
| Guideline exceptions explained in notes | Rules engines flag them; notes justify them |
| Same macros and note structure as your other files | Consistency holds up when files are compared at scale |
What to watch
- Which carriers adopt Cotality Supplement, and whether contractors start citing its variance reports in disputes.
- Verisk's product updates. On its July call, management listed estimating recommendations among the capabilities it plans to extend across the Xactware suite. Watch for anything that moves from suggesting lines to scoring them.
- State rules on AI and imagery in claims. At least 13 states have bulletins or statutes on insurer use of aerial imagery, a common theme being that it shouldn't be the sole basis for an adverse decision, and more regulators are asking how carriers use AI (see our rundown of the AI claims rules). When a human has to stand behind a decision, that human is often you, so your notes need to show your reasoning.
Automated review won't decide whether a roof is damaged. It will make it obvious when an estimate is incomplete, inconsistent or unsupported. Write every file as if it will be compared with every other file you've written, because increasingly, it will be.