Hiscox to use Bellwether wildfire modeling tool
Hiscox announced a partnership with X, a division of Google, to bring an innovative approach to wildfire modeling to the Californian insurance market.
As part of the partnership, Hiscox London Market’s Property division will work with X’s Bellwether team to integrate its AI-powered wildfire model alongside its existing risk scoring and modeling, resulting in enhanced risk selection and pricing alongside increased availability of cover. The new model is already helping provide additional insurance options for Californian homeowners.
Bellwether’s wildfire prediction tool analyses large volumes of data to help estimate wildfire risk at any location, using historical information about the environment in combination with thousands of other risk drivers such as tree species, wind qualities, and types of infrastructure. The Bellwether model is the only system that can forecast wildfire risk up to five years in advance, allowing Hiscox to deliver insurance solutions in a sustainable way. The Bellwether model is also the only model to generate absolute wildfire risk scores that include transparent accounting of what factors contributed to each score.
“This partnership allows us to integrate the very latest AI-powered modelling from Bellwether, with other third-party models and our own advanced risk modelling framework. It’s a powerful combination that can support a much more sustainable insurance solution for Californian homeowners. With this world-class, multi-model approach, we can quantify an insured’s exposure to wildfire risk with more precision, which in turn enables us to offer Hiscox capacity to a wider range of customers.” – James Brady, Hiscox London Market’s Property Divisional Director.
“Bellwether leverages the best of Google’s geospatial knowledge and AI technology to help companies and communities adapt better to the changing landscape of severe weather events like wildfire. We are excited to be working with Hiscox to show how Bellwether can help provide additional measurement, analysis, and predictions for this dynamic risk and, in turn, assist in the availability and sustainable provision of wildfire insurance for Californian homeowners.” – Sarah Russell, General Manager, Bellwether.
