Reports & Research

The insurance industry has been grappling for years with the skyrocketing losses caused by wildfires. As ZestyAI unveils its annual Wildfire Season Overview, we can see that insurers are in a pivotal position to navigate the ongoing threat.

Wildfire Risk Isn’t Going Anywhere

While we are currently experiencing a brief reprieve from the wildfire devastation of the last few years, the ongoing threat of wildfire remains at an all-time high.

Extreme snow and rainfall across the West in 2023 have led to wetter-than-normal conditions that have acutely reduced the risk of wildfire. However, wetter conditions lead to vegetation growth, so despite 2023 presenting lower wildfire risk, the resulting vegetation accumulation, combined with persistent drought conditions in future years, will likely result in extremely high losses in the coming years. In fact, heavy rainfall has preceded many of the most severe wildfire years ever recorded in California.

Heavy rainfall has preceded many of the most severe wildfire years ever recorded in California.

Preparing for Future Wildfire Seasons

With high wildfire activity on the horizon, what steps can insurance companies take now to prepare for future wildfire seasons?

Here are three essential strategies:

1. Leverage Data for Better Understanding

Research by ZestyAI reveals that wildfires ravage 87% more land during drought years compared to non-drought years. With the western US still experiencing a megadrought that is the worst in over a millennium, it’s critical to understand the data and risks involved.

Not all homes face high risk. For the remainder, detailed property risk insights can highlight areas requiring risk mitigation. Integrate property-specific wildfire risk data into the underwriting and renewal process. This year is also an excellent opportunity to review a complete portfolio using an AI-powered wildfire risk assessment tool like Z-FIRE.

2. Educate and Empower Property Owners Through Transparency

Technology, particularly satellite/aerial imagery and artificial intelligence, can shed light on wildfire risks. Insurers can use this technology to assess the risk reduction measures that policyholders have implemented and understand how a property might withstand a wildfire.

This information is invaluable for educating homeowners and insurance agents. By knowing the specific actions that can be taken to reduce risk, such as clearing brush or using fire-resistant materials, both insurers and homeowners can be better prepared for wildfires.

3. Choose a Technology Partner Wisely

ZestyAI's Z-FIRE has set a benchmark by integrating loss data from over 1,500 wildfires and employing cutting-edge technology to derive insights on each property. By combining aerial and satellite imagery with machine learning and cloud computing, ZestyAI created Z-FIRE, a highly detailed wildfire risk assessment model.

Z-FIRE has been adopted by leading insurance carriers in every single western US state.

In 2022, Z-FIRE demonstrated remarkable performance. Its integration of data through machine learning and computer vision models has established Z-FIRE as a potent tool in wildfire risk assessment for both underwriting and rating.

Make Informed Decisions with Z-FIRE

Using Z-FIRE, insurance carriers, MGAs, and reinsurers can get access to actionable insights developed from detailed property-level risk factors. While wildfire losses may be inevitable, understanding in detail how individual properties contribute to average and tail risks is a large step forward.

The specific time and location of a wildfire is nearly impossible to predict. However, Z-FIRE can give carriers an assessment of the preconditions for that fire, and describe in detail the factors which contribute to it. Knowing, not guessing, which properties fall into a high-risk category is more important now than ever. We look forward to helping our customers through this fire season and many to come.

Z-FIRE Stands Alone in Compliance

Z-FIRE has been developed in partnership with top carriers and has been included in successful filings in California and many other western states. As regulators continue to push for additional transparency and accuracy in how insurers treat wildfire risk, AI-powered solutions provide a clear advantage because of their interpretability and sensitivity to changing conditions.

In 2023, California began requiring insurers to provide discounts based on mitigation measures, and in 2024 Oregon is poised to establish similar requirements on communications to homeowners. All of these changes create a burden on insurers, but those who can adapt to the new regulatory environment by leveraging knowledgeable partners like ZestyAI will have an advantage over competitors. AI is part of the solution, helping address climate risk and maintaining the insurability of properties across the US.

Download ZestyAI's 2023 Wildfire Season Overview 

ZestyAI has released its annual Wildfire Season Overview for 2023. This comprehensive report combines insights from recent wildfire events, prevailing drought conditions, and cutting-edge advancements in artificial intelligence to assist insurers in effectively managing wildfire risk.

Download ZestyAI's 2023 Wildfire Season Overview

Here are some key findings from the report:

A Chance To Prepare While Wildfire Fuels Accumulate

Despite a brief respite from recent wildfire devastation, the current threat remains high. Over the past decade, wildfire risk has notably increased, particularly in California. However, the occurrence of extreme snow and rainfall in the West during 2023 has temporarily reduced the risk due to wetter conditions.

It's important to note that vegetation accumulation and ongoing droughts will likely lead to substantial losses in the coming years. California remains highly susceptible to losses and significant vegetation growth. This temporary relief in 2023 creates an ideal opportunity for insurers to review the risk technologies they have in place and embrace innovative solutions to prevent future losses.

No Role for Drought in Underwriting

Drought is indicative of fire intensity, but not losses. Although drought is an important factor in seasonal wildfire risk, the presence of drought shouldn't drive underwriting. Instead, insurers should look at property-specific solutions that consider wildfire risk over the lifetime of a policy.

Research has shown that this year's heavy rainfall may be a leading indicator for severe wildfire years to come. A comprehensive understanding of buildings, vegetation, and mitigation methods at the property level is necessary to effectively manage future wildfire risk.

A comprehensive understanding of buildings, vegetation, and mitigation methods at the property level is necessary to effectively manage future wildfire risk.

Using Advanced Models to Adapt to Changing Risks & Regulations

AI-powered risk models play a key role in mitigation. Insurers who write business in wildfire states have found increasing value in AI-powered wildfire risk models as they offer actionable risk insights, adapt quickly to changing climate risks, and comply with all regulations.

Over the last year, several western states have begun to implement new regulations for insurers in response to the changing risk environment. Discounts and transparency for mitigation efforts and property-specific decisions may become an industry standard as they have in California and Oregon.

What This Means for Insurers

In evaluating wildfire risk, many analyses tend to focus on the number of fires and the size of the area they burn. However, what really matters to insurance companies and property owners is the loss of structures and what can be done to mitigate those losses.

For example, those providing insurance in California might be surprised to learn that despite smaller losses in 2022 compared to 2021, the total national count of acres burned and fires ignited in 2022 actually exceeded that of 2021. This mismatch between yearly wildfire activity and the number of structures lost suggests that wildfire losses are not simply dictated by wildfire activity.

The most significant factor is not how many fires start, or how far they spread, but the potential resilience of every structure and what the communities and homeowners have done to prepare for wildfire exposure. Research from ZestyAI and IBHS shows that for a more precise understanding of potential losses, insurers need to zoom in on individual properties. They should consider a structure’s location, building materials, surrounding vegetation, and efforts taken by the surrounding community to prepare for wildfires.

Modern wildfire risk tools like ZestyAI's Z-FIRE do just that. They analyze individual property features and measure the impact of those features on the probability of loss. They also factor in nearby vegetation, community preparations, local infrastructure, and the lay of the land. This property-centric approach doesn’t try to predict exactly what a wildfire will do. Instead, it gives valuable information on how and why properties might be damaged by wildfires.

These models don't just offer a simple risk score, but also help explain what makes a particular property vulnerable and what steps can be taken to protect it.

 
Find out more, including how Z-FIRE performed in 2022, in this year’s Wildfire Season Overview.

Download ZestyAI's 2023 Wildfire Season Overview

San Francisco, CA, April 19, 2023 – Today ZestyAI, the leading provider of climate and property risk analytics solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI), and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) released new research examining catastrophic losses from severe convective storms, particularly hail. The study focuses on hail-driven losses in property and casualty insurance.  

Hail losses are a persistent problem for property insurers’ risk management efforts. Historically, carriers have focused on intense events to predict hail risk, with supporting data confined to storms with hailstones larger than one or two inches. The study Small Hail, Big Problems, New Approach shows high concentrations of small hail are more important than previously thought, pointing to an opportunity to broaden data sets to account for the cumulative effect all hailstorms have on a roof’s susceptibility to damage over time, leading to a claim. 

This new research shows all hail needs to be accounted for when modeling and ultimately understanding losses. Using data from all hail events, not just those with hail that meet the severe criteria of one inch or greater, allows carriers to consider valuable data on smaller hailstone impacts. Additionally, insurers can integrate climate and materials science to better understand hail frequency and severity. Research suggests using this new approach could perform as much as 58 times more accurately than looking at events with large and very large maximum hail sizes alone, allowing carriers to more effectively assess hail risk, achieve more profitable underwriting and open up ratings to previously avoided areas.  

“As we’ve learned more about hailstorms, we've discovered storms that produce large concentrations of small hail are more common than we thought, and despite causing less individual damage than a single large hailstone, small hail, especially in high concentrations, is likely a meaningful contributor to the loss we see each year from hail,” said Dr. Ian Giammanco, managing director of standards and data analytics at IBHS. “Experiments also show large concentrations of smaller hailstones cause degradation to the asphalt shingles, specifically dislodging large amounts of granules. Once enough granules are lost, the underlying asphalt material can become more susceptible to aging and weathering. Repeated exposure to these types of hailstorms can shorten the life of an asphalt shingle roof and increase the damage caused by large hailstones in the next storm.” 

“Hail losses are a persistent problem for property insurers’ risk management efforts,” said Attila Toth, founder and CEO of ZestyAI. “Three of the nation’s five largest publicly-traded P&C carriers mentioned hail as a key concern in 2022 financial reports. Greater losses have brought attention to hail risk, and the insurance industry needs better approaches to solve this problem.” 

“Three of the nation’s five largest publicly-traded P&C carriers mentioned hail as a key concern in 2022 financial reports. Greater losses have brought attention to hail risk, and the insurance industry needs better approaches to solve this problem.” 

Hail risk can be especially costly to insurers because, unlike other catastrophic perils like hurricanes and wildfires, it can be difficult to identify the storm that caused a hail claim. As a result, insurance carriers could be forced to raise overall premiums or introduce high deductibles to compensate for the added costs.

As climate and materials science have developed, more data has become available providing  improved hail risk evaluation options that can lead to better decisions at earlier stages of the policy life cycle. Other benefits could include more profitable underwriting, a greater ability to rate previously-avoided areas and significantly reduced loss ratios.

For the complete ZestyAI and IBHS research paper visit this page.
 

About ZestyAI

ZestyAI offers insurers and real estate companies access to precise intelligence about every property in North America. The company uses AI, including computer vision, to build a digital twin for every building across the country, encompassing 200 billion property insights accounting for all details that could impact a property’s value and associated risks, including the potential impact of natural disasters. Visit zesty.ai for more information. 

About the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)

The IBHS mission is to conduct objective, scientific research to identify and promote effective actions that strengthen homes, businesses and communities against natural disasters and other causes of loss. Learn more about IBHS at ibhs.org. 

### 

For more information, contact:

Linsey Flannery

Director of Communications, ZestyAI 

linsey@zesty.ai 

416-939-9773 

Mary Anne Byrd

Communications Director, IBHS

mbyrd@ibhs.org

803-669-4216 

Reinsurance rates are spiking to an all-time high. Fitch estimated a 20-60% rate increase for cedants in the overall property reinsurance market at the January 1st renewals.¹ Terms and conditions are also tightening - many reinsurers are limiting their cedants to much higher attachment points², or exiting CAT-exposed lines altogether

The main drivers for uptick in reinsurance rates

Our research has found three drivers underpinning the trend:

1. Devastating CAT losses, particularly from secondary perils

59% of all CAT losses come from secondary perils³, and those losses have caused major shifts in the reinsurance landscape. Howden estimates that global property CAT reinsurance rates were up 37% at the January renewals⁴.

2. A new urgency to improve return on capital

“When the cost of capital is equal to the rate of return, something has to change.” - Aditya Dutt, CEO of Aeolus Capital Management⁵. The reinsurance industry has underperformed since 2017, with an average return on equity of just under 5%⁶. Poor underwriting performance was a key driver, with an industry average 101% combined ratio over the same period⁷. Reinsurers are poised to use the tightening market as a chance to improve performance, with Fitch forecasting a 4pp underwriting margin expansion for reinsurers in 2023⁸. Unfortunately for primary insurers, Goldman Sachs predicts that the same tightening market will create significant volatility for cedants⁹.

3. Value erosion in reinsurer investment portfolios

Macroeconomic factors are driving significant unrealized investment losses for reinsurers, particularly on fixed income portfolios due to rising interest rates. Aon estimates that these investment portfolio losses drove a 17% decline in global reinsurance capital across the first 9 months of 2022, with some players reporting equity value losses as high as 40-50% over that period¹⁰. Reinsurers will look to shore up these losses with better underwriting performance, which likely means tougher rates for primary carriers.

How property insurers can improve their odds with AI-powered predictive climate and property risk platforms

These factors mean that primary insurers can expect challenging reinsurance negotiations at the June 1st renewal deadline, particularly on property lines. However, new AI-powered predictive climate and property risk platforms can improve the odds for property insurers in three areas:

1. Rapid improvements in risk mitigation

Implementation-free portfolio reviews can quickly drive major loss ratio improvements.

2. Turn the tables of CAT risk screening in your favor

Improving data quality can lead to more favorable stochastic model portfolio screens, particularly with insight about the roof.

3. Enter the room as a leader in cutting-edge risk practices

Showing the same commitment to new technologies as industry leaders can help cedants build a better case.

Conclusion

With the right mitigation action and a cutting edge view of portfolio risk, cedants can navigate the upcoming 6/1 renewal successfully.

Learn more about how an AI-powered predictive climate and property risk platform can help you.

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Sources

1 & 8 - Fitch, Reinsurers’ Underwriting Margins to Expand by 4pp in 2023

2 & 3 - Gallagher Re, Gallagher Re Natural Catastrophe Report 2022

4 - Howden, Howden’s renewal report at 1.1.2023: The Great Realignment

5 - AM Best, Reinsurance: Roundtable Discussion on Renewals and What 2023 May Hold

6, 7 & 10 - AON, Reinsurance Market Dynamics

9 -  Reinsurance News, Hard market to increase volatility for primary insurers: Goldman Sachs

San Francisco, CA, September 20, 2022 – ZestyAI, the leading provider of property risk analytics solutions powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), has developed a 180-day playbook to support insurance carriers as they work to meet the Mitigation in Rating Plans and Wildfire Risk Models regulation expected to be adopted by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) before year-end. The playbook reflects the company’s unique ability as the only comprehensive solution in the marketplace to help insurers meet or exceed every single requirement in the new regulation — meeting 100 percent compliance inside the tight 180-day window.

On September 7, 2022, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced he had submitted the department’s insurance rating regulation recognizing wildfire and safety mitigation efforts made by homeowners and businesses, to the California Office of Administrative Law for final approval. This first-of-its-kind regulation will require all insurers in California to refile their existing rating plans on an aggressive 180-day timeline. 

“Eight of the ten most destructive wildfires in California’s history have occurred in the last five years,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI. “While the new wildfire regulations will have a significant impact on California’s insurance industry, adapting to this peril is key to having a sustainable insurance ecosystem in California. As the leader in property-specific wildfire risk assessment, we have offered input at each step of this process. We are here to support admitted carriers with a turnkey solution complying with every single requirement as they navigate this process and work to meet the new regulations.”

The new wildfire safety regulation requires insurance companies to consider the structure of a home, its surroundings, and community-level mitigation. Insurers with concerns about the regulation can reach out to ZestyAI to get a complete explanation of how the regulations will impact them. This includes access to the 180-day playbook, which breaks down the regulatory compliance process into an orderly roadmap that addresses all three major challenges that insurers will face:

• Operational — The process of rapidly integrating new data sources, educating the public on how wildfire mitigation affects insurance policies, and a framework for a compliant appeals process.
• Rating — How to weight property-specific characteristics, including those with and without historical loss data, in rating plans as well as guidance on mitigation credits.
• Filing — Carriers who use a rating plan reliant on traditional wildfire models without property-specific information will need to overhaul their rating framework. Relying on multiple approved rate filings, ZestyAI has developed a comprehensive filing toolkit that can support carriers at every facet of the filing process.

ZestyAI’s Z-FIRE™ model has quickly become the leader in property-specific wildfire risk assessment. Using AI algorithms trained on more than 1,500 wildfire events across 20 years of historical loss data, Z-FIRE™ provides a level of detail that is of essential value to both the insurer and the homeowner.

The model was the first AI model ever approved as part of a rate filing by the CDI and the second wildfire risk model. It has been widely adopted across the Western U.S., where its use has been approved for both underwriting and rating. During 2021's APCIA Western Region Conference, CDI representatives expressed that the agency’s familiarity with Z-FIRE™  means in future filings the focus will be limited to the carrier's specific use of the model, not the details of the model itself, potentially greatly expediting the reviews of carriers using the Z-FIRE™ model.

ZestyAI’s Z-FIRE™ considers features such as topography and historical climate data in combination with factors extracted from high-resolution imagery of the property itself and its surroundings, including homeowner and community mitigation efforts, to provide both neighborhood and property-specific risk scores. 

A significant advantage to insurance carriers is that they can use these data elements to communicate with homeowners on what specific actions can be taken to lower their property’s risk, such as upgrading building materials and cutting down surrounding dry brush or overhanging vegetation. The impact of mitigation efforts can be significant. A joint study by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) and ZestyAI, which studied over 71,100 wildfire-exposed properties, found that property owners who clear vegetation from the perimeter of their home or building can nearly double their structure's likelihood of surviving a wildfire.

About ZestyAI

ZestyAI offers insurers and real estate companies access to precise intelligence about every property in the United States. The company uses AI, including computer vision, to build a digital twin for every building across the country, encompassing 200 billion property insights accounting for all details that could impact a property’s value and associated risks, including the potential impact of natural disasters. Visit zesty.ai for more information.

Download Report

Today, ZestyAI released its 2022 Wildfire Season Overview. Each year, ZestyAI prepares a comprehensive overview to help guide insurers based on recent wildfire events, persistent drought conditions, and advancements in artificial intelligence for managing wildfire risk.

If it seems like wildfires are burning at all times of the year, it's not just you. Very destructive events, like last December's Marshall Fire, are occurring in months not typically associated with high wildfire danger. Those who study wildfires, including ZestyAI, have begun to start thinking in wildfire "years" instead of wildfire "seasons'. Strong wildfire years, with 10+ million acres burned, have quickly become the new normal. The last 10 years have been the worst on record for property and casualty (P&C) insurers when it comes to wildfire. 8 of the top 20 fires in California history, and more than half of the acreage burned by them, occurred in just the years 2020 and 2021.

What can insurers do to prepare themselves for persistent wildfires?

• Understand the Data: Instead of sticking with decades-old approaches, assess wildfire risk at the property level.
• Continue to Bring Transparency and Education to Homeowners: Insights from AI-based wildfire risk models may be passed on to homeowners and agents, enabling a much better understanding of wildfire risk.
• Find the Right Technology Partner: Aerial and satellite imagery, machine learning, and infinitely scalable cloud computing resources were combined to build the most granular wildfire risk assessment model (Z-FIRE™). Using Z-FIRE™, ZestyAI can accurately estimate an individual property’s wildfire risk, plus highlight the key property-level factors that contribute to that risk.

Click here to download ZestyAI's 2022 Wildfire Season Overview.

ZestyAI offers insurers and real estate companies access to precise intelligence about every property in North America. The company uses AI, including computer vision, to build a digital twin for every building in North America, encompassing 200B property insights accounting for all details that could impact a property’s value and associated risks, including the potential impact of natural disasters. Visit https://zesty.ai for more information.

After years of working with leading insurers, one reality has become undeniable: enterprise data quality is one of the biggest hidden risks in the industry. 

The Problem: Carriers Don’t Trust Their Own Data

Data enters the system at the quote stage. That means it often comes directly from agents and policyholders—well-intentioned, but subjective. Did the policyholder really know the exact roof age? Did the agent catch the secondary structures in the backyard?

Inspection resources are limited, and most carriers can’t validate this information at scale. The result is a house of cards: data that looks complete in the policy system, but is riddled with blind spots and inconsistencies.

And even when the data is accurate in the moment, it quickly decays. Structures are living assets, meaning:

• Roofs degrade.
• Weather events roll through.
• Families expand, renovate, and change how they use the property.
• Secondary structures, pools, trampolines, and solar panels appear overnight.

The underwriting file that was “clean” at binding can be outdated and incomplete by renewal. Over time, carriers lose confidence that they have a real view of risk. 

The Six Dimensions of Data Quality

Data quality isn’t one thing—it’s multidimensional. For carriers, the challenge is ensuring property data is:

• Accurate: Correct at the point of use, not just at intake.
• Complete (and unbiased): Captures all risk-relevant details, verified against independent sources so fields aren’t left blank, misstated, or skewed by incentives.
• Consistent: Aligned across systems, from quoting to claims.
• Valid: Structured to meet business and regulatory rules.
• Timely: Refreshed when things change, not years later.
• Unique: De-duplicated, with a single source of truth.

By this standard, most carrier data today is falling short.

From Data Quality to Data Integrity

Data quality is foundational, but it’s only part of the picture. True data integrity comes from combining accurate data with the right context and continuous observability.

That means not just having the right roof age or square footage, but knowing whether that data has changed, and whether it aligns with other signals in the environment. It means having a complete, transparent, and continuously updated picture of every property.

 The ZestyAI Solution: Verified, Transparent Property Data

At ZestyAI, we built our property intelligence platform to solve exactly this problem. By unifying multiple independent data streams—and applying AI to synthesize them—we deliver property data that carriers can trust.

Here’s how we do it:

Imagery + Computer Vision

We ingest aerial, satellite, and terrestrial imagery, then apply over 90 proprietary computer vision models. These models don’t just “see” a property; they interpret it. That means extracting hard-to-get details like:

• Roof condition and penetrations
• Yard debris and overhanging vegetation
• Secondary structures and solar panels

This creates a dynamic, objective record of what’s on the ground, property by property.

Geospatial and Hazard Data

Context matters. We overlay geospatial layers to understand how a property interacts with its environment, including wildfire exposure, flood risk, and more.

Building Permits

Using large language models (LLMs), we extract and synthesize the real changes reflected in building permits: bathrooms added, kitchens renovated, roof replacements, solar installations. Permits reveal what’s changed, not just what was once approved.

Market and Public Records

We enrich the picture with MLS transactions, tax assessments, climatology, topography, and infrastructure data. Together, these data sources confirm and contextualize what imagery and permits reveal.

Standards and Designations

We integrate authoritative designations, such as IBHS Fortified™ standards, to validate resilience features.

Each data source adds a layer of verification. Together, they create a comprehensive, continuously updated property record that carriers can rely on.

 
Why This Matters: Enterprise Data Quality Transformed

When carriers bring ZestyAI data into their systems, the impact is immediate:

• More Accurate Underwriting and Rating: Quote data is validated against independent sources. That means fewer surprises at claim time, more consistent rating, and appropriate premiums.
• Change Detection and Accurate Renewals: Our models detect what’s changed since policy inception, leading to smarter renewal decisions, more proactive outreach to policyholders, and reduced leakage.
• Better Reinsurance Negotiations: Clean, transparent data helps carriers secure the right terms, conditions, and pricing from reinsurers—because they can prove their book is based on verified risk, not guesswork.
• Operational Efficiency: By replacing guesswork and manual inspection with AI-verified data, carriers reduce expenses and focus resources where they matter most.
• More Accurate Customer Communications: Data quality isn’t just about pricing and underwriting. It’s about trust. Verified property details enable carriers to send personalized, timely, and accurate communications.
• Renewal notices, policy updates, or even hurricane prep guidance land with credibility because they reflect the customer’s real property. That strengthens engagement, reduces confusion, and builds long-term retention. 

The Bottom Line

Carriers can’t compete in today’s market with messy, decaying data. Enterprise data quality is no longer a “back office” concern. It’s a competitive edge.

ZestyAI’s property intelligence platform solves the problem at its core: by continuously verifying property data with imagery, geospatial science, permits, and AI-powered interpretation.

That’s how carriers build trust in their data. That’s how they write better risks, renew smarter, negotiate stronger, and communicate with customers more effectively. 

Want to see how ZestyAI can transform your enterprise data quality? Contact us for a demo.

ZestyAI today announced a new partnership with Applied Home National Underwriters to adopt ZestyAI’s full suite of regulatory-approved models and property insights in support of more accurate underwriting, pricing, and portfolio management across its U.S. property insurance operations.

This includes peril-specific models for non-weather water (Z-Water™), wildfire (Z-Fire™), hail (Z-Hail™), wind (Z-Wind™), and severe convective storm (Z-Storm™). It also includes property insights that combine aerial imagery, building permits, and parcel-level data to identify risk-relevant features such as roof condition, vegetation overhang, and secondary structures.

ZestyAI’s models use proprietary AI trained on billions of data points, including aerial imagery, parcel-level attributes, building permits, climatology, and real-world loss data, to deliver precise, property-specific risk intelligence that supports confident risk selection, loss ratio improvement, and more robust concentration management across perils.

Brian Voorhees, Chief Operating Officer, Applied Home National Underwriters, said:

“ZestyAI’s AI-powered risk models offer the kind of granular, verified intelligence that strengthens risk evaluation across a broad spectrum of perils, from climate-related threats to non-weather water.”

“This partnership deepens our commitment to innovation and precision in underwriting and portfolio management.”

“Applied Home National Underwriters is known for taking on complex risks with clarity and conviction,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI. “We’re proud to support that with trusted, property-specific insights that help sharpen underwriting, align pricing with true risk, and strengthen portfolio performance.”

In property insurance, roof age is one of the most critical factors in assessing risk. Yet too often, carriers rely on self-reported or agent-supplied data that is incomplete or inaccurate.

ZestyAI’s recent analysis of 500,000+ properties revealed widespread discrepancies in reported roof age. The result? Mispriced policies, unexpected losses, and operational inefficiencies that impact the bottom line.

As climate volatility grows and reinsurance pressure intensifies, overlooking the true condition and age of a home’s largest, most exposed surface is a risk no carrier can afford.

What’s Inside

• Uncover the biggest myths and blind spots in roof age records.
• Understand why traditional data sources, like claims systems and permits, fall short in providing accurate roof age.
• Learn how a multi-source verification strategy, combining aerial imagery, permits, tax records, and AI, offers a blueprint for improvement and 97% national coverage.
• Explore why roof age is a predictor of losses across multiple perils, not just wind and hail.
• Discover the one-two punch of verified roof age and real-time condition insights, delivering a complete view of risk, even for young roofs with hidden problems.
• Align your roof age data with growing regulatory expectations, particularly in states like Florida.

Access the Guide.

ZestyAI has secured regulatory approval to use its AI-powered Severe Convective Storm models in underwriting and rating in Nebraska and Kansas. The move greenlights Z-HAIL™, Z-WIND™, and Z-STORM™, for use in property-level hail and wind scoring, giving carriers more transparency and precision in two of the nation’s most storm-prone states.

2024 Loss Trends Highlight Urgency

Kansas recorded 495 major hail events (≥1 inch) in 2024, the second-highest total of any U.S. state. Nebraska saw 100 confirmed tornadoes, the most in over 20 years. According to 2024 NAIC reporting, Nebraska posted the highest loss ratio of any state at 135.74%, while Kansas ranked 13th at 67.98%, evidence of the severe financial pressures facing insurers in the region.

Why Property-Level Intelligence Matters

ZestyAI’s Severe Convective Storm models analyze the interaction between localized climatology and property-specific characteristics, such as roof condition, design, and complexity, to predict the likelihood and severity of hail, wind, and storm damage claims. In contrast, many models still rely on broad ZIP code or territory-level risk assessments, missing critical property-level signals.

Each model is trained and validated on extensive real-world claims data and provides clear, transparent explanations of the key factors driving each score, enabling more confident underwriting and rating decisions.

Capabilities of the ZestyAI SCS Suite

• Z-HAIL: Predicts hail damage risk and claim severity using property-specific attributes such as roof complexity and accumulated damage to identify which homes are most likely to file a claim, even within the same neighborhood.
• Z-WIND: Analyzes AI-generated 3D roof condition, complexity, and potential failure points alongside local climatology to deliver pivotal insights into property-specific wind claim vulnerability and severity.
• Z-STORM: Assesses 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.

“Securing approval in the storm epicenter of the U.S. reflects both the transparency of our models and our alignment with rigorous regulatory standards,” said Bryan Rehor, Director of Regulatory Affairs at ZestyAI.

“It gives carriers the confidence to use precise, property-level hail and wind insights where they’re needed most, supporting risk-aligned underwriting and pricing in markets facing escalating storm losses.”

ZestyAI’s Severe Convective Storm models are now approved for use in over 20 states across the Great Plains, Midwest, and U.S. South—regions most impacted by hail, wind, and tornado losses.

VYRD, a Florida-based homeowners insurance company focused on delivering stability and protection in a challenging coastal market, has partnered with ZestyAI, the leading provider of AI-powered property risk analytics, to gain deeper visibility into property condition and risk exposure across its book of business.

By leveraging the ZestyAI platform, VYRD gains access to advanced risk insights that help identify vulnerabilities contributing to hurricane-related losses, such as roof degradation, overhanging vegetation, and yard debris. These insights support more accurate underwriting, proactive portfolio management, and better visibility into changing property conditions over time.

VYRD is using two core capabilities of Z-PROPERTY: Digital Roof applies AI to high-resolution aerial imagery to assess roof complexity, materials, and condition, highlighting structural vulnerabilities before they become claims. Location Insights evaluates the broader parcel, surfacing risk factors like vegetation overhang, yard debris, and secondary structures that can amplify storm losses or drive claims severity.

“Staying ahead of risk requires strong partnerships and smarter data,” said David Howard, President and CEO of VYRD.

“ZestyAI’s ability to deliver timely, property-level insights helps us strengthen our understanding of exposure across the homes we protect and continue delivering on our promise of dependable coverage for Florida policyholders.”

Z-PROPERTY helps VYRD assess properties at scale, surface emerging risk patterns, and make more informed decisions across the policy lifecycle. This partnership extends VYRD’s tech-forward, policyholder-first strategy—using trusted data not just at point-of-quote, but throughout ongoing portfolio management.

“Florida is one of the most unforgiving insurance markets in the country,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI. “VYRD is taking a proactive, data-driven approach—using AI to uncover hidden property-level vulnerabilities, strengthen portfolio decisions, and build resilience where it matters most.”

Property insurers are under growing pressure to do more with less. The risks are increasing, regulatory expectations are rising, and the margin for error keeps shrinking. In regions where wildfire, hail, and wind are intensifying, the question becomes even more urgent: how can carriers continue writing business in high-exposure areas while managing loss ratios and navigating compliance?

The challenge becomes even more complex when the homes involved are in remote locations. These properties are often far from city infrastructure, difficult to inspect, and lack consistent, structured data. That’s the reality one regional carrier faced.

Their book included thousands of rural properties, many of them manufactured homes on private land across states like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, as well as other regions they serve nationwide. Each presented its own underwriting hurdles, from ambiguous fire protection data to increased storm exposure and aging roof systems.

To remain active in these areas and grow responsibly, the team knew they needed a more precise way to evaluate risk at the individual property level. Broad rules were no longer enough, and legacy models designed for urban density offered little support.

The Manufactured Home Challenge: Rural, Exposed, and Hard to Inspect

Standard Casualty has specialized in insuring manufactured and modular homes for decades, serving policyholders across a wide range of states, including Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. It’s a segment that brings unique challenges, particularly when it comes to visibility and data.

“Many of the properties we insure are located in rural areas with little to no street-level data,” said Rick Smith, Underwriting Manager at Standard Casualty.

“Some are difficult to geocode. Others are so remote that a physical on-site inspection can be challenging or expensive.”

In states like Arizona and New Mexico, many homes fall within or near the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where wildfire exposure is increasing. In Texas, hail and wind are persistent threats. And across all markets, aging structures and outdated roof data complicate rating and eligibility decisions.

The team recognized they couldn’t rely solely on fire zones or broad peril maps. They needed more nuanced, property-specific data to support confident decision-making at scale.

Getting the Full Picture, Even Without a Site Visit

“One of the big innovations for us is the availability of aerial photography,” Smith explained. “We’re seeing a lot more of our risks located in remote areas. They’re either very difficult to find or it’s very expensive to do an on-site inspection. Aerial photography really solves that problem for us.”

Using ZestyAI’s platform, the team now accesses high-resolution aerial and oblique imagery, property-specific peril scores, and roof condition insights, without always requiring physical inspections.

ZestyAI works with all the major aerial imagery providers, giving underwriters access to a broader range of coverage and more recent images than any single source could offer. That means more properties are visible, more clearly, and more often.

“We can actually accomplish through aerial photography what we can do through an on-site inspection, at a fraction of the cost, which is really important for us."

If a structure is misidentified or not aligned, underwriters can reposition the property tag themselves.

“With the ZestyAI platform, it’s very easy."

We can simply move the identifier tag with our mouse onto the correct building, click a button, and it automatically reruns the scoring and the evaluation,” Smith said.

Aerial views also improve their ability to assess roof condition and wildfire vulnerability. “Sometimes the current photo may have been taken late in the day, and there are shadows on the roof. We can back up to a photo taken six months earlier and get a clearer picture of what’s going on.”

Risk Differentiation at the Parcel Level

ZestyAI’s approach stood out by combining hazard probability with structure-specific vulnerability.

“For every peril — wildfire, hail, or wind — we now get two things,” said Smith. “First, the probability of the event occurring at that location. Second, the expected severity if it does."

"That allows us to say: these two homes are in the same neighborhood, but only one is truly high-risk.”

This dual scoring model,  based on climate science and property characteristics, allows the team to evaluate each property on its own merits. “That kind of granularity is really a game changer for us in terms of underwriting,” Smith added.

Beyond Underwriting: A New Frontier in Rating and Renewal

ZestyAI’s insights also support dynamic pricing and renewals. Rather than relying on static or annual updates, risk scores adjust continuously based on the most recent information available — from new aerial imagery and roof condition changes to building permits and property improvements.

“We’re not just using the model once and forgetting it,” Smith said. “The scoring gets augmented, and as a result, the premium gets augmented as well. That means our pricing reflects current risk — not just what we assumed at inception.”

Because the models are approved for use in both underwriting and pricing, Standard Casualty can incorporate granular risk insights into its rating approach, streamlining the process of keeping rates aligned with actual conditions.

“It would take months of actuarial and analytical work to try to get to that level of granularity. And this is happening instantaneously as we renew our business.”

Retention Through Mitigation: A Smarter Approach to Non-Renewals

While many insurers are pulling back or issuing non-renewals in high-peril regions, Standard Casualty has taken a different approach: empowering policyholders to reduce their risk and stay insured.

“We can run the property eight months ahead of renewal,” Smith explained. “If we see wildfire vulnerability, we don’t just cancel. We notify the policyholder, show them what needs to change — defensible space, roof repairs, vegetation removal — and give them a chance to improve. That’s how we retain the risk and still operate responsibly.”

This proactive strategy improves retention, builds customer trust, and advances the company’s mission: improving lives by providing affordable coverage.

“This is the direction we need to go as an industry,” Smith emphasized. “We need to help policyholders understand the importance of mitigation and give them guidance so their costs — and everyone’s losses — are reduced.”

Built to Scale: Regulatory Readiness That Grows With You

One often overlooked barrier to adopting new risk models is regulatory complexity. For Standard Casualty, this was a key factor in choosing ZestyAI.

“We looked at a lot of vendors,” said Smith.

“But ZestyAI stood out because they were already approved in the states we care about and had a clear filing strategy for others.”

That alignment means the team can expand into new markets without rebuilding processes from scratch. The same tools and workflows that support Texas can be applied in Arizona, New Mexico, or future states, streamlining both operations and compliance.

“The Right Tools. The Right Decisions. The Right Time.”

As carriers navigate mounting loss pressure, tighter margins, and rising expectations from regulators and policyholders alike, Smith believes one thing will separate those who retreat from those who adapt:

“ZestyAI gives us the right tools to make the right decisions at the right time. That’s what allows us to write in places other carriers are leaving. That’s how we grow profitably, even in high-risk territories.”