Auto-Owners Insurance is a Fortune 500 company that provides automotive, home, life, and commercial insurance to nearly 3 million policyholders in 26 states. They have been headquartered in Lansing, Michigan since 1917, and are represented by 48,000 licensed agents.

In the insurance world, training new associates is a process that can take a lot of time and manpower. There are many details about insurance that are important for employees to know. Traditional training practices are informative but lack hands-on experience and can be unengaging.

From the Ground Up VR provides an enhanced training experience through a virtual reality video game, creating a new way for property claims associates to learn and engage with Auto-Owners’ policy. This software accelerates and personalizes the training process by enabling associates to navigate educational content at their own pace without the need for a human teacher.

Our software places users into a realistic virtual reality house. Associates navigate through the home and are tasked with discovering and identifying common building materials that are integrated into the environment. As the user finds items, information about relevant Auto-Owners insurance policies is displayed. After materials are collected, the game then asks the associate to use those materials to construct a home. Through these objectives, associates experience the process of building a home while also learning the basics of insurance, resulting in an informed and well-rounded employee.

The Unity game engine is used to model and represent the virtual environment. The game logic is implemented in C#, providing functionality and interactivity. The Meta Quest 3 VR headset is used by the player to access the virtual reality environment.