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ZestyAI today announced the launch of ZORRO Discover™, a generative AI agent that delivers instant insights into regulatory filings and competitive market activity.

Solving a $2.5 Billion Regulatory Research Problem

Regulatory research remains one of the costliest inefficiencies in insurance, with an estimated $2.5 billion spent annually on manual reviews. The process consumes millions of hours across fragmented workflows, as filings often stretch into the thousands of pages, slowing competitive analysis and strategic decision-making.

To solve this, ZestyAI built ZORRO Discover on a proprietary generative AI pipeline, leveraging large language models optimized for insurance-specific content, including filings, objections, responses, and regulations from all 50 states.

Using agentic AI, the platform proactively navigates and synthesizes regulatory data, delivering a fast, intuitive experience tailored to the structure and language of insurance filings.

Accelerating Research by 95%

Early adopters of ZORRO Discover have found that insurers can cut research time by an average of 95%, saving thousands of work hours and millions in costs.  

“For too long, regulatory filings have buried critical intelligence under layers of complexity,” said Kumar Dhuvur, Founder and Chief Product Officer of ZestyAI. “Through years of working closely with regulators, we’ve come to deeply understand these challenges.”

“ZORRO Discover puts that intelligence at insurers’ fingertips so they can act faster, stay compliant, and make smarter decisions in an increasingly competitive market.”

How Teams Use ZORRO Discover

ZORRO Discover can be used by compliance, actuarial, product, and strategy teams to accelerate competitive research and reduce regulatory risk. By replacing manual reviews with a consistent, repeatable process, the platform helps teams improve research accuracy, focus on high-impact work, and stay ahead of regulatory changes.

Key Capabilities

• Plain-language search: Analyze and compare filings across carriers, states, and time periods using intuitive queries—no deep regulatory or technical expertise required.
• Zero in on critical details instantly: Transform complex filings into executive-level insights for faster, more informed decision-making.
• Spot market opportunities early: Track shifts in rates, rules, forms, and guidelines to anticipate industry trends and act proactively.
• Run side-by-side comparisons: Evaluate pricing strategies, regulatory objections, or model usage over time and across competitors. Example: Compare windstorm mitigation discounts across three major carriers in Florida.

Expanding to Additional Lines of Business

ZORRO Discover launches with a focus on homeowners insurance and is rapidly expanding to support regulatory and competitive intelligence across auto, commercial, and additional lines of business.

Request early access to ZORRO Discover here.

The Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions has approved the use of ZestyAI’s Severe Convective Storm suite, including Z-HAIL™, Z-WIND™, and Z-STORM™, giving insurers access to property-level risk insights.

Rising Storm Losses Across Arizona

In Arizona, the most frequent and damaging thunderstorm losses stem from strong, straight-line winds, especially downbursts. These sudden, localized wind events can exceed 100 mph and often cause significant roof and structural damage, particularly in vulnerable homes.

In 2024 alone, Arizona experienced 67 days of severe storm events, according to NOAA. These included high winds, large hail, tornadoes, and damaging downbursts, highlighting the growing volatility of the state’s monsoon season and the increasing threat to both rural and urban communities.

How ZestyAI’s Models Improve Precision

ZestyAI’s models are designed to address these risks. By analyzing how local climatology interacts with individual property features, the platform predicts both the likelihood and severity of storm-related claims, offering a more accurate alternative to traditional ZIP code or territory-based approaches, which often miss critical risk 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.

Key Model Capabilities

• 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 claim 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.

Regulatory Confidence in AI-Driven Models

Bryan Rehor, Director of Regulatory Affairs at ZestyAI said,

“Arizona is a key market for many of our carrier partners, and one of the most rigorous regulatory environments for model review. This approval is a strong signal of confidence in our technology and our commitment to transparency, precision, and regulatory alignment.”

Arizona marks the 19th state to approve ZestyAI’s Severe Convective Storm suite—and the fourth model approved in Arizona overall, joining Z-FIRE™, ZestyAI’s AI-powered wildfire risk model already in use across the state. With elevated risk across multiple perils, Arizona’s adoption of ZestyAI’s models reflects growing regulatory confidence in AI-driven models that enable smarter underwriting, precise pricing, and stronger resilience in the face of extreme weather.

At our 2025 offsite, we had the rare privilege of hosting Scott Stephenson, former Chairman, President, and CEO of Verisk, for a candid fireside chat with our CEO, Attila Toth.

More than a guest speaker, Scott has been a mentor to our founders and a steady source of insight and encouragement on our journey. 

Over two decades, he led Verisk through extraordinary growth: doubling revenue, quadrupling market cap, and shaping one of the most respected analytics companies in the world. Named one of Forbes’ Most Admired CEOs, Scott helped define the modern insurance ecosystem.

But what stayed with our team long after the session wasn’t the accolades. It was his clarity, humility, and deep conviction that great companies aren’t defined by vision—they’re defined by execution.

Here are three takeaways that stuck with us:

Trust is a survival skill

Scott opened with the story of the 1949 Mann Gulch wildfire, where only 3 of 16 elite smokejumpers made it out alive. The team leader lit an escape fire and lay down inside it. He shouted for the others to follow, but no one did.

“They were a team on paper,” Scott said, “but they’d never trained together. They didn’t trust each other enough to act as one.”

The lesson? In high-stakes environments, technical talent means little without trust. Success depends on how quickly and cohesively a team can move together.

Thinking isn’t doing

Smart teams often confuse planning with progress. As Scott put it:

“Thinking about something, even deeply—and talking about it with others—feels like you’re doing the work. But you’re not.”

Insight without execution is just potential energy. The companies that thrive aren’t the ones with the most ideas; they’re the ones that ship, iterate, and improve with discipline.

Leadership is a mindset

Scott began his career as an engineer. Leadership wasn’t on his radar—until curiosity led him to explore it. His message: leadership isn’t a job title, and it’s not reserved for MBAs. It belongs to those who take responsibility, act with principle, and stay grounded in reality.

Why it mattered

Scott didn’t come to ZestyAI to celebrate the past. He came to challenge us. To remind us that in an industry facing rising losses, regulatory pressure, and rapid change, progress isn’t driven by buzzwords or strategy decks. It’s driven by clarity, trust, and the discipline to do the hard work.

That message hit home. As we scale ZestyAI, our ambition isn’t just to innovate; it’s to lead with purpose. To build the new standard for risk analytics. One that helps insurers price with precision, expand access to coverage, and strengthen the resilience of entire communities.

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.