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ZestyAI today announced a partnership with the Colorado FAIR Plan to expand insurance access for homeowners facing coverage challenges.

The partnership leverages ZestyAI’s AI-driven risk models—Z-FIRE™, Z-HAIL™, and Z-WIND™—to deliver property-specific risk assessments for wildfire, hail, and wind. These insights will support risk-based pricing and help the Colorado FAIR Plan guide homeowners on mitigation strategies.

“Our mission is to ensure every Coloradan has access to insurance that reflects their property’s actual risk, not outdated assumptions,” said Kelly Campbell, Executive Director of the Colorado FAIR Plan.

“ZestyAI’s models will help us bring greater fairness and resilience to the market while equipping homeowners with practical mitigation guidance.”

Over the next year, Colorado FAIR Plan expects to provide coverage to nearly 30,000 families previously classified as high-risk under traditional models.

By incorporating granular risk data, the plan can better align premiums with actual risk while offering homeowners actionable steps to protect their properties.

Those who invest in mitigation may also transition back to the standard insurance market over time.

Colorado regulators have prioritized risk-based pricing and transparency to stabilize the insurance market. Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway has led efforts to integrate mitigation into coverage decisions, aligning with the FAIR Plan’s adoption of ZestyAI’s AI-driven insights.

“This partnership ensures risk assessments reflect real property conditions—not just broad classifications—so homeowners can access both coverage and meaningful mitigation guidance,” said Bryan Rehor, Director of Regulatory Affairs at ZestyAI.

“Through AI-powered insights, we’re helping homeowners secure risk-aligned coverage options.”

ZestyAI’s risk platform integrates aerial imagery, historical building permits, geospatial data, and structural attributes to provide precise, property-level risk insights.

Insurers using ZestyAI’s models can assess key risk factors—including vegetation proximity, roof condition, and building materials—to inform underwriting, pricing, and mitigation recommendations to policyholders.

The collaboration builds on ZestyAI’s success with the California FAIR Plan, which expanded coverage for hundreds of thousands of homeowners in 2024.

We’re excited to share that, for the second year in a row, ZestyAI has been named one of America’s best startup employers by Forbes. This recognition highlights our commitment to fostering an exceptional workplace culture while fostering a healthier insurance market. 

What It Means to Be a Top Startup Employer

Forbes, in partnership with research firms, evaluated over 20,000 U.S. startups based on three key factors: employer reputation, employee satisfaction, and business growth. Only 500 companies made the final cut, and we’re incredibly proud to be among them.

At ZestyAI, we believe that fostering a collaborative and supportive work environment isn’t just beneficial for our team—it’s essential to our mission. By enabling insurers to make more precise, data-driven decisions, we help drive resilience across communities, ultimately benefiting the homeowners and business owners they serve.

A Remote-First, People-First Culture

As a fully remote company, ZestyAI gives team members the flexibility to design a work-life balance that fits their needs. We go beyond traditional benefits by offering an unlimited time-off policy, which includes vacation and mental health days to support well-being and prevent burnout.

For team members across North America, our local hubs bring “Zesties” together for in-person events and networking, fostering connection and collaboration.

“Culture is not just a buzzword at ZestyAI—it’s the glue that holds our team together,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI.

“Like a great sports team, we believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Our commitment to collaboration and well-being empowers us to deliver exceptional results.”

Industry Recognition

This honor joins a list of awards celebrating our work. ZestyAI has also been recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies, included in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, and named to the CB Insights Insurtech 50. We have also received an AI Breakthrough Award for Machine Learning and a PropertyCasualty360 Insurance Luminary award for Risk Management Innovation.

Interested in joining us? Check out our careers page!

ZestyAI, the leading provider of AI-powered property and climate risk analytics, today announced a strategic partnership with NEXT Insurance, a top commercial insurer specializing in small to medium-sized businesses.

Under this agreement, NEXT will adopt ZestyAI’s Z-PROPERTY™ and Z-FIRE™ models to enhance its underwriting processes with precise, property-level risk insights. Z-PROPERTY uses high-resolution aerial imagery and AI-powered analytics to assess roof condition, structural risks, and environmental hazards, helping insurers make more informed underwriting decisions.

Z-FIRE, adopted by over one-third of California’s insurance market, delivers highly accurate wildfire risk assessments based on 2,000+ historical wildfires, satellite imagery, and topographic data, ensuring that premiums reflect true wildfire exposure.

Lance Poole, Head of AI Underwriting at NEXT Insurance, said:

“ZestyAI’s peril-based risk models stood out for their ability to provide precise, actionable insights at scale, perfectly complementing our mission to help entrepreneurs thrive. This partnership strengthens our underwriting capabilities by delivering advanced data analytics that allows us to offer a faster, fully digital purchasing experience while maintaining best-in-class underwriting. By streamlining workflows and enhancing decision-making, we’re able to create innovative, tailored insurance solutions that meet the unique needs of small business owners, all while staying true to our commitment to simplicity and excellence."

Attila Toth, CEO of ZestyAI said:

"At ZestyAI, we are committed to bringing the power of AI-driven risk intelligence to the insurance industry. NEXT Insurance is redefining small business insurance with a fully digital experience, and we are proud to support that vision by providing precise, property-specific risk insights. With Z-PROPERTY and Z-FIRE, NEXT can enhance underwriting efficiency, optimize risk selection, and ultimately deliver smarter, more tailored coverage to small business owners across the country."

ZestyAI today announced its partnership with Safepoint Holdings, a regional property insurance group operating Safepoint, Cajun, and Manatee. Together, these platforms manage over 200,000 policyholders across Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama.

By leveraging ZestyAI’s advanced risk platform, Safepoint Holdings can analyze a high volume of properties with precision, enhancing underwriting accuracy and improving access to coverage for homeowners. Additionally, Safepoint Holdings is strengthening its loss cost control program by utilizing ZestyAI’s property insights to better predict and manage risk.

The partnership also enables Safepoint Holdings to optimize its inspection strategy, reducing costs and streamlining operations through high-resolution aerial imagery.

David Flitman, CEO of Safepoint Holdings. said:

“ZestyAI’s property insights have set a new benchmark for accuracy and innovation. The flexibility of their solutions and the ability to evaluate large insured portfolios in a matter of days provide tremendous value to us. This partnership will allow us to better serve our policyholders by proactively managing risk while making our operations more efficient.”

ZestyAI’s Advanced Risk Solutions Adopted by Safepoint:

• Z-PROPERTY Digital Roof™: Analyzes key drivers of roof-related risk—including material, shape, pitch, and condition—using AI-powered 3D modeling of high-resolution aerial imagery. These insights improve Safepoint’s risk selection process and optimize inspections by identifying properties requiring on-site evaluations, ensuring underwriting and renewals are both accurate and efficient.
• Z-PROPERTY Location Insights: Delivers detailed, property-specific risk insights for over 150 million properties across the U.S. Combining computer vision, machine learning, and high-resolution imagery,
  Location Insights provides critical risk insights on overhanging vegetation, lot debris, and more, enabling Safepoint uncover hidden risks, streamline workflows, and better align premiums to risk.
• Roof Age: Combines over 20 years of historical aerial imagery with verified building permit data to determine the accurate age of a roof with 92%+ accuracy. By eliminating reliance on self-reported or incomplete data, Safepoint can enhance pricing precision, reduce claims exposure, and make informed decisions about eligibility and coverage.

“By integrating our solutions, Safepoint Holdings can make better risk decisions, reduce costs, and expand coverage in states with high climate risk like Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI. “We’re excited to support Safepoint Holdings with the insights they need to serve their policyholders.”

This partnership comes at a pivotal time as Safepoint Holdings focuses on expanding its portfolio. With ZestyAI’s property-specific data, Safepoint Holdings can scale efficiently while maintaining reliable, cost-effective coverage for its policyholders. Safepoint Holdings operates with a combined policyholder surplus of approximately $150 million, with Safepoint Insurance Co. holding $70 million.

ZestyAI, the leader in AI-powered climate and property risk analytics, announced that Z-FIRE™, its advanced wildfire risk model, is filing-ready in California.

Z-FIRE can continue to be filed for rate segmentation and underwriting without further review under the Pre-Application Required Information Determination (PRID) process, which is currently focused on models that determine a catastrophe load factor.

Z-FIRE was last included in an approved California rate filing in 2024.

Z-FIRE leverages AI-driven analysis of over 2,000 historical wildfires, integrating satellite and aerial imagery, topography, and property-level characteristics to provide precise risk assessments. This approach is rooted in decades of science and experimentation by researchers, including the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS).

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

"For years, leading insurers have trusted ZestyAI to manage wildfire exposure in California and refine pricing segmentation with precision," said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI. "Now, insurers can continue to confidently integrate it into their rate filings."

They can trust that Z-FIRE meets the highest actuarial and scientific standards, ensuring transparency and reliability for regulators, carriers, and policyholders alike.

ZestyAI continuously validates Z-FIRE’s performance through post-event analyses, assessing how well its risk designations align with real-world fire impacts.

Following the recent Los Angeles wildfires, preliminary analysis indicates that Z-FIRE’s highest-risk ratings closely correspond with the hardest-hit areas, with 94% and 87% of the areas affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires rated as high or very high risk by the model.

The model also captured how property-specific characteristics influenced damage patterns, even within the same fire perimeter, reinforcing the importance of granular, structure-level insights in wildfire risk assessment. Z-FIRE’s data also reveals more than 1.5 million structures in California face a high or very high risk of being within a wildfire perimeter.

With granular, property-specific insights, Z-FIRE allows insurers to move beyond binary "insure or drop" decisions. Instead, they can work with policyholders to reduce vulnerability—whether through defensible space measures, fire-resistant roofing, or other mitigation efforts.

Since its adoption, Z-FIRE has helped insurers confidently write hundreds of thousands of policies that might have otherwise been non-renewed or declined. By incorporating vegetation density, roof materials, and structural characteristics, the model enhances risk segmentation, reduces volatility, and strengthens market stability.

ZestyAI has engaged with the California Department of Insurance (CDI) over the years, including discussions during the early regulatory considerations of Z-FIRE. After an independent actuarial review in 2020, multiple carrier rate and underwriting filings leveraging Z-FIRE have been approved by the CDI. Moreover, ZestyAI participated in seven CDI workshops in 2023-24 and co-hosted a January 2025 webinar on the new regulatory framework.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the P&C insurance industry, offering new ways to streamline underwriting, enhance risk management, and navigate evolving regulations.

But as AI adoption accelerates, insurers must ensure they’re using these technologies effectively—balancing innovation with compliance.

Our latest guide explores the most impactful AI applications in insurance, including:

• AI-powered underwriting and predictive analytics
• How regulators are shaping the future of AI in insurance
• Best practices for integrating AI while ensuring fairness and transparency

As AI-driven tools become the new standard, insurers who adapt early will gain a competitive edge.

Download our free guide to leverage these innovations while staying aligned with evolving regulations.