The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services has approved ZestyAI's Severe Convective Storm suite, including the proprietary Z-HAIL™, Z-WIND™, and Z-STORM™ models.
The approval comes as Michigan contends with rising weather-related insurance losses.
According to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), the state has experienced over $5 billion in insured storm damage since 2019, with hail and straight-line winds accounting for the majority of claims. In 2024, a series of intense summer storms alone caused more than $1.2 billion in insured losses.
ZestyAI’s AI-driven platform predicts the likelihood and severity of claims from severe convective storms at the individual property level by analyzing the interaction of local climatology with property-specific characteristics. In contrast, most risk assessment models today rely on broader territory or ZIP code-level evaluations, overlooking critical property-level factors.
Each model is built and validated on extensive real-world claims data and delivers transparent explanations of the key drivers behind every risk score, helping carriers make more accurate underwriting and rating decisions.
Key capabilities include:
- Z-HAIL: Predicts hail damage risk and claim severity using property-specific attributes like roof complexity, historical losses, and accumulated damage, identifying which homes are most likely to file a claim, even within the same neighborhood.
- Z-WIND: Combines AI-generated 3D analysis of roof condition, complexity, and potential failure points with local climatology to deliver pivotal insights into property-specific wind vulnerability and severity.
- Z-STORM: Predicts the frequency and severity of storm damage claims, including hail and wind, examining the interaction between climatology and the unique characteristics of every structure and roof.
“As severe weather becomes more frequent and costly, insurers need tools that keep pace with evolving risks,” said Bryan Rehor, Director of Regulatory Affairs at ZestyAI.
“This approval gives Michigan carriers access to precise, property-level insights that support smarter underwriting and help reduce preventable losses.”
Michigan's approval marks the 17th state to embrace ZestyAI's Severe Convective Storm suite, reflecting increasing regulatory confidence in AI-powered risk models that deliver actionable insights while supporting industry-wide resilience efforts.