Reports & Research

The landscape of hail risk management is undergoing a significant transformation. Our latest publication, "Hail Risk 2024: An Interactive Guide for Insurers," offers a critical examination, illustrated with compelling data, of the factors contributing to the alarming rise in hail-related losses over the last decade. Major changes to how hail is understood have changed how insurers should view the peril. This guide isn't just about understanding hail risk; it's about redefining how it is managed in the insurance industry.

Why This Guide is Indispensable:

• Losses Rising — Understand the key factors driving record-breaking hail losses, and why there's more to the story than just "climate change."
• Reinsurance  — Learn why insurance carriers now shoulder more of the burden due to changing risk transfer relations.
• The Right Tools  — Explore how AI-based climate risk models are supplementing stochastic and actuarial models for a full picture of climate risk.
• Actionable Steps  — See how leading carriers are applying granular, property-level insights and learn the proactive steps they're taking to mitigate risks and losses.

Ready to get up to speed on hail risk in 2024? Access the guide.

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.

ZestyAI has been named one of the Everest Group’s Top 50™ Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance Technology Providers for 2026, marking the second consecutive year the company has been recognized for helping shape the future of insurance technology. 

Each year, Everest Group evaluates hundreds of providers across the global insurance technology landscape. The Top 50 ranking highlights providers demonstrating strong market momentum, broad industry impact, and continued investment in advanced technology.

Over the past year, ZestyAI has significantly expanded its platform and product capabilities to help insurers understand and manage property risk with greater precision. This includes the launch of ZORRO, ZestyAI’s agentic AI platform that enables insurers to research markets, analyze regulatory filings, and act on risk intelligence faster.

Everest Group also recognized ZestyAI within the Property and Location Intelligence category—solutions that help insurers evaluate structural, environmental, and catastrophe risk at the individual property level to improve underwriting, pricing accuracy, and operational efficiency.

ZestyAI’s AI-powered models help insurers assess exposure across the most costly perils affecting property portfolios, including wildfire, hail, wind, severe convective storms, and non-weather water damage. Together, these capabilities give insurers a more complete view of risk and the tools to act on it across underwriting, pricing, and portfolio management.

As AI moves from experimentation to enterprise deployment across the insurance industry, ZestyAI continues to invest in technologies that help insurers operate with greater precision, transparency, and confidence.

ZestyAI today announced that Harford Mutual Insurance Group (HMIG) has selected the ZestyAI Platform to enhance property-level exposure insight across its commercial portfolio.

Harford Mutual Insurance is grounding its book in verified, structure-level intelligence — strengthening underwriting discipline and improving visibility into the property characteristics that directly influence loss volatility and portfolio stability.

ZestyAI’s Roof Age delivers verified roof age by cross-validating building permit records with over 20 years of aerial imagery, to detect roof replacement events and assign confidence scores across 97% of U.S. properties. Z-PROPERTY™ further evaluates roof complexity, materials, and condition, and surrounding risk factors that materially impact underwriting outcomes and exposure management.

“With ZestyAI, we have verified property-level intelligence that changes how we evaluate and manage risk,” said Wayne Gearhart, Senior Vice President and COO of Harford Mutual Insurance Group.

“The platform improves our visibility into exposure across the portfolio and supports disciplined, resilient growth in our commercial book.”

“Harford Mutual Insurance has a long history of doing what’s right for its agents and policyholders, and that starts with understanding risk accurately at the property level,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI.

“By grounding decisions in verified property-level intelligence, its team is strengthening underwriting discipline, enhancing portfolio resilience, and setting a strong example for how regional carriers can leverage trusted AI to navigate today’s risk environment.”

ZestyAI works closely with regulators to ensure transparency, validation, and continuous monitoring of its AI-driven models. Its portfolio of risk models has secured more than 200 approvals from regulators nationwide, including in markets served by Harford Mutual Insurance across the Mid-Atlantic and South.

Two insurers operating in hurricane-exposed coastal markets — Southern Oak Insurance Company and Lilypad-Centauri Insurance — are using the ZestyAI platform to bring greater structure-level insight to underwriting and portfolio oversight

As catastrophe volatility intensifies in states like Florida, insurers are increasingly turning to property-level intelligence — including roof condition, parcel characteristics, and structural features — to better understand exposure and manage accumulation risk.

Southern Oak Insurance Company expanded its partnership with ZestyAI following nine months of portfolio impact using Z-PROPERTY™ to analyze structural condition across its Florida homeowners portfolio.

Lilypad-Centauri Insurance adopted Roof Age and Z-PROPERTY™ to improve visibility into roof replacement history, parcel characteristics, and structural exposure across its coastal homeowners and dwelling fire portfolios.

Click here to view the Southern Oak press release.
Click here to view the Lilypad-Centauri press release.

Industry Coverage

Read more from leading publications covering the P&C insurance industry:

PropertyCasualty360 — Who’s Using What in P&C Insurance

Insurance Edge — ZestyAI Wins Over More US Insurers

Insurance Innovation Reporter — Coastal Insurers Adopt ZestyAI Property-Level Intelligence for CAT Risk

Fintech Global — ZestyAI Grows Insurer Partnerships Amid Coastal Volatility

Insurtech Analyst — Coastal Insurers Expand ZestyAI Partnerships for Property Risk

ZestyAI today announced that Horace Mann, the largest national insurer focusing on educators’ financial needs, has selected ZestyAI to support the modernization of its property underwriting operations.

Horace Mann will deploy Z-PROPERTY™, ZestyAI’s property intelligence platform that applies computer vision and machine learning across aerial imagery, building permit records, tax assessment data, and other verified sources to generate insights across more than 70 structural and parcel attributes for 150 million residential and commercial properties nationwide. 

These property-level insights provide clearer visibility into condition and exposure, enabling underwriting teams to better differentiate risk across new business and renewals, streamline workflows, and reduce reliance on traditional inspection-heavy processes.

As part of its underwriting evolution, Horace Mann will leverage ZestyAI’s broader portfolio of property intelligence and peril-specific risk models—including Roof Age, Z-HAIL™, Z-WIND™, Z-STORM™, and Z-WATER™—to evaluate how advanced property intelligence can inform underwriting and rating decisions across weather- and non-weather risks over time.

“This partnership is about rethinking how underwriting decisions are made in a modern property market,” said Vanessa Jackson, SVP, Head of P&C at Horace Mann.

“By bringing scalable, property-level intelligence into our underwriting process, we’re positioning our teams to make faster, more informed decisions today, and to continuously adapt as risk and expectations evolve.”

“Horace Mann is taking a thoughtful, measured approach to underwriting modernization,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI. “By adopting property-level intelligence, they are enhancing underwriting decisions today while building a strong foundation for continued operational improvement.”

"We are proud to support Horace Mann in their mission to provide educators with peace of mind, allowing them to focus on what matters most — shaping the next generation."

ZestyAI supported Horace Mann through a rigorous evaluation process, demonstrating how accurate, complete property-level insight delivered at scale can materially improve enterprise data quality, supporting more reliable underwriting and analytics across the portfolio.

P&C Insurance Is Being Rewritten - Quietly but Rapidly.

Filings from the last three years show faster shifts in P&C products than at any point in recent history - and those changes are now surfacing at scale.

Endorsements, exclusions, deductibles, and appetite resets are reshaping coverage and competitive positioning across carriers. But the pace isn't uniform. National carriers, regionals, MGAs, and farm bureaus are moving in different directions - and most teams don't have visibility into how quickly competitors are adjusting forms and filings.

This session breaks down the signals that matter for 2026 product strategy.

‍Drawing on 2M+ carrier filings, Stephanie Kuczynski reveals the real trends reshaping P&C product strategy headed into 2026.

You'll learn what's accelerating, where carriers diverge, and how to translate these shifts into action.

What You Will Gain

• Which changes are accelerating fastest — and where carriers diverge. State-by-state adoption patterns for endorsements, deductibles, and coverage restrictions.
• How strategies differ by carrier size and focus — niche players vs. nationals. The creative, targeted approaches emerging from regionals and MGAs versus the broad strategies deployed by national carriers.
• Where regulators are drawing the line on coverage restrictions. Prepare for closer state-level inspection, due diligence, and shifting expectations across markets.
• How these shifts impact 2026 product strategy and competitive positioning. Why the pace and direction of changes matter — and how to ensure your strategy reflects where the market is heading.

Watch Now

ZestyAI today announced that Southern Oak Insurance Company has expanded its partnership with ZestyAI following nine months of demonstrated impact on portfolio decisions across its Florida homeowners portfolio.

Southern Oak initially adopted ZestyAI in 2025 to gain clearer visibility into property-level risk in one of the most complex and loss-prone insurance markets in the U.S.

Z-PROPERTY applies computer vision and machine learning across aerial imagery, building permits, tax assessment records, and other verified data sources to evaluate properties in 3D—assessing structural condition, exposure, and characteristics that influence claim frequency and severity across perils, including roof complexity, materials, and condition.

Tony Loughman, CEO of Southern Oak Insurance Company, said:

“Within months of deploying ZestyAI, it became clear that property-level intelligence needed to play a larger role in how we evaluate and manage risk. Expanding our partnership allows us to build on that foundation with greater confidence in the data behind our decisions, particularly in a market where roof condition, complexity, and exposure can materially impact outcomes.”

The expanded partnership reflects Southern Oak’s continued focus on proactive risk management in Florida’s volatile insurance environment, where traditional data sources often fail to capture the real condition and vulnerability of individual homes.

“Southern Oak’s decision to expand just nine months in is a strong signal of the value property-level intelligence delivers when it’s put into production,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI.

“With Z-PROPERTY embedded in its risk decisions, Southern Oak sees risk more clearly, acts earlier, and makes more defensible decisions in a highly regulated, high-risk market.”

ZestyAI’s models are built with transparency, validation, and regulatory readiness at the forefront, giving insurers confidence to rely on them in portfolio decisions. The platform is used by leading insurers to improve underwriting accuracy, manage exposure, and reduce loss volatility across weather- and non-weather-driven perils.

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