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.

ZestyAI, the leading provider of AI-driven risk analytics for the property and casualty insurance industry, today announced it has secured a $15 million credit facility from CIBC Innovation Banking.

The facility enhances ZestyAI’s financial flexibility and reinforces its strong balance sheet as the company scales adoption of its climate and property risk models, delivering over 31 million property risk assessments in 2024, more than double the volume from 2023, and on pace to exceed 50 million in 2025.

“We’ve built ZestyAI with long-term discipline and a clear mission: to help insurers navigate changing risks with confidence,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI.

“As demand for trusted, property-level risk insights continues to grow, this capital infusion enables ZestyAI to further invest in supporting this rapid growth and become the industry standard for property risk analytics."

Strengthening ZestyAI’s Position for Rapid Growth

Capital that supports scale, product expansion, and customer demand

“ZestyAI is addressing a critical need in the insurance industry with its AI-powered approach to property and climate risk,” said Sean Thompson, Managing Director, California Market Manager at CIBC Innovation Banking.

“We’re proud to support ZestyAI’s next phase of growth as it continues expanding its platform and deepening its impact across the insurance ecosystem.”

ZestyAI’s footprint has expanded rapidly across the insurance landscape, with growing adoption among admitted carriers, MGAs, the E&S market, FAIR Plans, and public-private partnerships. Over the past year, the company secured 33 new and expanded customer partnerships, including 26 brand-new clients, and launched four new products.

Accelerating Regulatory Momentum Nationwide

This growth has been matched by accelerating regulatory traction. ZestyAI’s AI-driven models for wildfire, severe convective storms, and non-weather water damage have now been approved in over 50 regulatory filings nationwide, with recent approvals in Texas, Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Connecticut, Michigan, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.

Recently reviewed by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) in the rate application process, Z-FIRE™, ZestyAI’s wildfire model, can continue to be filed for rate segmentation and underwriting without further review under the Pre-Application Required Information Determination (PRID) process, effective January 2, 2025.

Fueling a Mission to Expand Access to Coverage

Built at the intersection of property data, climate science, and AI, ZestyAI’s platform delivers precise, parcel-level risk insights that help insurers strengthen underwriting, price accurately, optimize inspections, and expand coverage, especially in catastrophe-prone regions. In 2024, ZestyAI helped carriers and insurers of last resort extend coverage to over 511,000 properties previously deemed uninsurable, advancing its mission to protect the livelihoods of homeowners, business owners, and their communities.

As Colorado’s HB 1182 introduces new requirements for wildfire risk transparency and mitigation recognition, ZestyAI is helping insurers comply with proven, mitigation-ready solutions.

What HB 1182 Requires from Insurers

Recently signed into law, HB 1182 requires insurers to disclose how wildfire risk models impact rates, account for property- and community-level mitigation efforts, notify policyholders annually of their risk scores and available discounts, and provide a clear appeals process for disputed scores.

The new regulations take effect July 1, 2026, across homeowners and condo policies, including admitted carriers and the FAIR Plan.

Carriers need to move early to ensure their risk models, rating plans, and customer communications meet the law’s requirements. ZestyAI’s explainable AI models are already in use by the Colorado FAIR Plan and leading carriers to assess mitigation and support policyholder communications in Colorado and other wildfire-prone states.

"As regulatory expectations around transparency and customer engagement continue to evolve, HB 1182 sets a clear framework for wildfire risk modeling," said Bryan Rehor, Head of Regulatory Affairs at ZestyAI.

"ZestyAI’s models were built with these principles in mind, offering carriers a proven, low-friction way to meet these requirements while delivering a better experience to policyholders."

How ZestyAI Helps Carriers Meet HB 1182 Requirements

• Built for Transparency: ZestyAI’s explainable AI models allow carriers to clearly communicate how risk scores are generated, what factors are considered, and how mitigation actions influence risk.
• Mitigation-Ready Risk Modeling: Property- and community-level mitigation efforts are integrated into risk assessments, supporting discounts and appropriate pricing.
• Consumer Risk Score Disclosures: ZestyAI enables carriers to generate individual risk scores and mitigation factors for annual policyholder notifications.
• Appeals and Score Adjustments: Carriers can update risk scores in real time based on new property information, offering transparency and responsiveness to policyholders.
• Regulatory Alignment: ZestyAI’s wildfire, hail, wind, and severe storm models have been reviewed and approved for use in Colorado, helping carriers meet standards with confidence.
• Multi-State Scalability: Carriers can streamline compliance across Colorado and other regulatory environments using the same ZestyAI platform.

A Clear Path to Compliance in Colorado—and Beyond

ZestyAI maintains strong relationships with state insurance regulators and actively participates in dialogue around evolving requirements.

At the national level, ZestyAI engages with organizations such as the NAIC and leading industry advocacy groups to stay ahead of broader regulatory trends.

Through in-house Rating and Advisory organizations, ZestyAI files its models directly with state departments of insurance, ensuring each solution is rigorously vetted and aligned with jurisdiction-specific standards before reaching the market.

ZestyAI today announced a four-year expansion of its partnership with the California FAIR Plan.

Since 2021, the insurer of last resort has leveraged ZestyAI’s Z-FIRE™ to enhance risk assessment, ensuring that homeowners unable to obtain private insurance still have access to wildfire coverage.

How Z-FIRE Supports Access to Wildfire Coverage

With coverage spanning nearly 100% of U.S. properties, Z-FIRE is already trusted by more than one-third of California’s insurance market to refine underwriting, enhance risk segmentation, and ensure that premiums accurately reflect the true wildfire exposure and vulnerability of each structure.

The model leverages AI-driven analysis of over 2,000 historical wildfires, integrating satellite and aerial imagery, topography, and property-level characteristics to provide precise, property-specific risk assessments.

‍This scientifically validated approach is backed by decades of research, including studies from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS).

“We’re honored to continue supporting the California FAIR Plan in providing reliable insurance coverage in high-risk regions,” said Attila Toth, Founder & CEO of ZestyAI.

“By providing Z-FIRE scores directly to policyholders, the California FAIR Plan has increased transparency around wildfire risk and empowered homeowners to take meaningful mitigation steps—like defensible space measures and fire-resistant building materials—to better protect their homes and communities.”

ZestyAI works closely with regulators to ensure transparency, validation, and continuous monitoring of its AI-driven models.

Regulatory Alignment Across the Western U.S.

The company has secured key regulatory approvals across the U.S., including all Western states for Z-FIRE and broad acceptance of its severe convective storm models from Texas to Colorado, the Midwest, and the Great Plains.

The California Department of Insurance (CDI) has reviewed Z-FIRE as part of recently approved rate filings. Insurers can continue filing to use the model for rate segmentation and underwriting without additional review under the Pre-Application Required Information Determination (PRID) process.

Building on its success in California, ZestyAI has partnered with other insurers of last resort, including the Colorado FAIR Plan, further expanding the adoption of AI-driven risk models to help protect families and communities.

Insurance carriers have long relied on aerial imagery to assess property risk, but not all imagery offers the same level of insight. Oblique imagery—angled aerial photos that show the sides of buildings, not just the rooftops—is gaining traction as an essential tool for property underwriting, inspections, and claims.

ZestyAI is proud to now offer oblique imagery from major imagery providers directly within our platform. That means carriers get access to the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and high-resolution views available, streamlined into a single interface, and always in context with our industry-leading property risk insights.

Why Oblique Imagery Matters

Unlike traditional top-down (orthogonal) imagery, oblique views provide side-angle perspectives that reveal critical features often missed from above. This added dimension helps insurers:

• Spot more risk factors: Identify decks, porches, attached structures, handrails, and overhangs—details that are often invisible from above but meaningful for underwriting and rating.
• Gain a more complete picture: Assess roof geometry and slope, siding condition, and visible maintenance issues without needing an in-person inspection.
• Underwrite with confidence: Reduce uncertainty in borderline or complex risks by giving underwriters a full visual context.
• Support faster claims verification: Pre-loss oblique imagery strengthens documentation, helps reduce disputes, and expedites claim handling.

As Rick Smith, Underwriting Manager at Standard Casualty, explains:

“We can get overhead and oblique shots of those locations. We can accomplish through aerial photography what we do through an on-site inspection at a fraction of the cost, which is really important for us.”

The Problem: Fragmented, Outdated, or Incomplete Views

Many carriers still rely on patchwork imagery or public sources like Google Street View.

The result?

• Coverage gaps: Rural, coastal, or wildfire-prone regions may not be frequently or adequately captured, leaving insurers with limited visibility in high-risk areas.
• Stale or seasonal views: Images can be several years old or captured in winter conditions, where snow, shadows, or vegetation obscure key features. Public tools like Google Street View are often even more outdated, sometimes by five years or more.
• No risk context: Raw imagery alone doesn't tell the full story. Without integrated risk scores or property intelligence, it’s just a picture, not a decision-making tool. 

These challenges lead to slower decisions, higher inspection costs, and greater exposure to unknown risks.

ZestyAI’s Advantage: A Complete, Unified View

ZestyAI removes these roadblocks by offering a seamless, integrated oblique imagery experience, built directly into our property risk platform. Here’s what sets us apart:

• Aggregated imagery from major providers: No more relying on a single source. We deliver the widest available footprint and intelligently surface the best imagery for each property.
• Highest recency and resolution: Our platform automatically displays the most recent, clearest, and most relevant imagery available, so you never miss what matters.
• Contextualized insights: Oblique views are shown alongside our AI-powered risk scores and property features, empowering faster and more informed decisions.
• Workflow-ready: Designed for use across underwriting, inspection triage, and claims support, with full scalability for enterprise teams.

Real Impact for Carriers

Insurers using ZestyAI’s oblique imagery capabilities are already seeing measurable improvements:

• Reduced reliance on field inspections
• More accurate roof and structure classifications
• Faster quote turnaround with fewer touchpoints
• Better risk segmentation and fewer surprises at renewal

Combined with ZestyAI’s property-level risk models for perils like wildfire, severe storms, and water damage, oblique imagery helps carriers make decisions with more confidence and clarity every step of the way.

See What You’ve Been Missing 

Oblique imagery adds a critical dimension to property assessment, and when it’s seamlessly integrated with ZestyAI’s AI-powered insights, the result is faster decisions, better risk selection, and more confident underwriting.

See your risk from every angle. 

Schedule a demo today.

ZestyAI today announced a new partnership with Kin Insurance, a direct-to-consumer, digital home insurance provider committed to serving catastrophe-exposed markets.

As part of its expansion into California, Kin has deployed Z-FIRE, ZestyAI’s wildfire risk model, to accurately assess property-level wildfire exposure and expand access to coverage in high-risk areas.

The model was integrated in just 10 days, enabling Kin to move quickly in meeting the needs of California’s evolving market.

Meeting California’s Growing Need for Property-Level Wildfire Insight

California continues to face a widening insurance gap, driven by more frequent natural disasters and insurer withdrawals.

This partnership supports Kin’s commitment to bringing insurance options back to communities impacted by limited availability of coverage.

Z-FIRE uses machine learning to evaluate each property’s unique characteristics, including defensible space, building materials, topography, vegetation, and more, to predict which properties are most likely to experience a wildfire and which ones will survive.

Why Kin Chose Z-FIRE to Support Responsible Growth

Michael McCright, vice president, pricing and risk management at Kin, said:

“California requires a smarter, more modern approach to home insurance risk management. ZestyAI’s Z-FIRE model brings the level of insight we need to confidently assess risk and offer coverage in areas at risk of wildfire.”

“Kin’s expansion into California is exactly the kind of forward-thinking move our technology was built to support,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI. “Together, we’re helping show that with the right data and tools, insurers can re-enter challenging markets with confidence—and deliver meaningful protection to homeowners who need it most.”

“Equally important, Z-FIRE empowers insurers to recognize and reward mitigation efforts at the property level, encouraging homeowners to take action that reduces risk for themselves and their communities.”

Real-World Performance: Z-FIRE in the Los Angeles Wildfires

Z-FIRE’s performance has been validated through real-world events: Following the recent Los Angeles wildfires, Z-FIRE’s highest-risk ratings closely corresponded with the hardest-hit areas, with 94% and 87% of the areas affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires rated as High Risk by the model.

Among homes located within these perimeters, those flagged as having the highest vulnerability to damage were 50% more likely to be destroyed—highlighting the critical value of property-specific insights, even in dense urban settings.

ZestyAI works closely with regulators to ensure transparency, validation, and continuous monitoring of its AI-driven models.

The company has secured regulatory approvals across all Western states for Z-FIRE, along with broad acceptance of its severe convective storm suite of models in Texas, Colorado, the Midwest, and the Great Plains.

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.

Michigan Faces Rising Losses From Severe Convective Storms

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.

Why Carriers Need Property-Level Precision

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.

How ZestyAI’s Storm Models Improve Risk Assessment

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.

What Michigan’s Approval Means for Insurers

“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.