Guidewire DEVTrails 2026 · Phase 1
Food delivery apps have made life easier for millions of people. With just a few taps, food arrives at our doorstep. But behind that convenience is a delivery partner whose income depends entirely on completing deliveries.
If the rider cannot work, they simply do not earn.
Heavy rain, extreme heat, traffic gridlocks, or even a delivery platform outage can suddenly stop their work. When these disruptions happen, the rider loses valuable working hours and income. Unlike traditional employees, gig workers do not have fixed salaries or income protection.
This is the challenge our team started exploring during Guidewire DEVTrails 2026.
Looking at the Problem Differently
Most insurance products protect things like health, vehicles, or property. But delivery riders face a different kind of risk.
Their biggest problem is not damage or accidents.
It is lost working time.
When a disruption occurs, nothing is broken, but the rider still loses earnings for that period. We wanted to explore whether technology could create a system that protects riders when these situations occur.
Our Idea: GigShield AI
To address this problem, we designed GigShield AI, a parametric income protection platform for delivery partners.
Instead of asking riders to file claims, the system monitors real-world signals such as weather conditions, traffic movement, pollution levels, and platform availability.
If a disruption prevents a rider from working, the system automatically calculates the potential income loss and triggers compensation.
The goal is to remove complex insurance processes and replace them with automatic protection.
Designing Around the Rider
One important insight from our research was understanding how delivery riders actually start their work.
A rider does not check in at an office. Their shift begins the moment they tap “Go Online” in their delivery app.
By combining this timestamp with GPS activity and disruption data, GigShield AI can determine whether the rider was genuinely working when the disruption occurred.
This simple idea becomes the foundation of how the system works.
Building the System
GigShield AI is designed as a mobile-first platform since delivery riders depend entirely on their smartphones.
The mobile application will be built using React Native, while backend services will manage policies, disruption monitoring, and payouts. An AI layer will help analyze risk patterns, adjust weekly premiums, and detect suspicious claim activity.
Real-time data from weather and traffic services will allow the platform to detect disruptions automatically.
Phase 1: Ideation and Foundation
During the first phase of DEVTrails, our focus was on understanding the problem deeply and designing the overall solution.
We explored the gig worker ecosystem, defined our user persona, and planned the system architecture for GigShield AI. This phase helped us turn an initial idea into a structured concept ready for development.
What’s Next
In the next phase of the hackathon, we will begin building the first working prototype of GigShield AI. Our goal is to demonstrate how disruption detection, dynamic pricing, and automated payouts can work together to protect gig workers’ income.
Gig workers play a vital role in our daily lives. Through this project, we hope to explore how technology can provide them with a small but meaningful safety net.
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