The organizations reinforced their long-term commitment to empowering P&C insurance carriers with data and AI models with extended collaboration
Jun 23, 2021 | 4 min Read
Chicago, IL, & Oakland, CA, June 23, 2021: Today ZestyAI, a leading technology company using artificial intelligence (AI) to assess climate and non-catastrophe risk at the individual property level, announced it has extended its strategic alliance with Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, to better serve clients through data and artificial intelligence (AI) models. This comes on the heels of the California Department of Insurance’s (CDI) historic approval of two underwriting and rating filings that include Z-FIRE™, ZestyAI’s AI-driven predictive model for wildfire risk assessment. This is the first filing based on an AI model ever approved by the CDI.
The recent filings that used the model, which was independently reviewed and evaluated by Aon’s catastrophe risk experts, illustrate that next-generation artificial intelligence models are being successfully approved by a regulator. Z-FIRE™ enhances insurers’ risk selection and rate setting, while understanding the impact of climate change on wildfires and in turn their portfolios. Equally, consumers benefit from transparency by seeing how renovating and upkeeping their properties can impact their ZestyAI wildfire score and ultimately improve their overall insurance experience.
Initially forming their strategic alliance in 2019, the expanded relationship between ZestyAI and Aon is focused on the accelerated deployment of AI and Machine Learning (ML) applications that help P&C insurance carriers close the property data gap they face today. The goal is to improve the carriers’ risk selection and rating for both personal and commercial lines of business, while helping obtain the full value of these data-driven decisions in their reinsurance transactions. Aon and ZestyAI have also broadened their collaboration to develop AI models for additional perils, such as severe convective storms (e.g., hail) and flood.
Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI, said: “A deep understanding of every property is key to an equitable and stable insurance market. As the need to better measure climate risk increases, we are constantly refining our models and developing new ones and working with Aon greatly accelerates the adoption of these data-driven solutions. We’re proud to doubling down on our alliance with Aon to help carriers across North America improve every aspect of the underwriting, rating and reinsurance process.”
“We’re committed to helping clients leverage emerging technologies to advance their strategic initiatives, from increasing the availability of insurance to address the underserved, to allowing for better risk segmentation, ultimately resulting in higher transparency for reinsurance treaties,” said George deMenocal, CEO of Aon’s U.S. Reinsurance Solutions. “Our collaboration with ZestyAI is part of Aon’s technological evolution to deliver new products that meet clients’ needs today and tomorrow, in a transparent and efficient way. The recent approval of ZestyAI’s model by the CDI further validates the future potential of AI-driven predictive analytics and the power of these collaborations.”
For more information on ZestyAI visit www.zesty.ai, and for more information on Aon visit www.aon.com.
About ZestyAI
Increasingly frequent natural disasters have impacted communities and drove $2.2 Trillion in economic losses over the past decade. ZestyAI uses 200Bn data points, including aerial imagery, and artificial intelligence to assess the impact of climate change one building at a time. ZestyAI has partnered with leading insurance companies and property owners to help them protect homes, businesses and support thriving communities. ZestyAI was named Top 100 Most Innovative AI Company in the world by CB Insights in 2021 and 2020, and Gartner Cool Vendor in Insurance by Gartner Research in 2019.
About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE: AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.
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