California Casualty Selects ZestyAI to Strengthen Wildfire Risk Assessment and Support California’s Sustainable Insurance Future

ZestyAI, the leader in AI-driven property risk analytics, announced today a new partnership with California Casualty, a trusted auto and home insurance provider serving educators, peace officers, firefighters, and healthcare workers for over 110 years. The collaboration will enhance California Casualty’s wildfire underwriting and pricing capabilities while reinforcing its long-term commitment to serving California’s community heroes and supporting the California Department of Insurance’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy (SIS).

California Casualty will deploy ZestyAI’s Z-FIRE™ model and Wildfire Mitigation Pre-Fill to better align premiums with property-specific wildfire risk and recognize homeowners’ efforts to mitigate that risk. These advanced tools analyze each property’s vulnerability based on factors such as topography, vegetation, building materials, defensible space, and the characteristics of the built environment. Unlike traditional models that stop at the wildland-urban interface, Z-FIRE accounts for the dynamics of urban conflagration, where fire spreads rapidly from structure to structure in densely built neighborhoods. Wildfire Mitigation Pre-Fill complements this by automatically surfacing mitigation features at scale, bringing greater accuracy and transparency to underwriting.

Todd Brickel, Senior Vice President, Chief Risk & Product Officer at California Casualty, said “As wildfire threats intensify, our responsibility is to ensure that educators, peace officers, firefighters, and healthcare professionals continue to have access to reliable and affordable coverage. Partnering with ZestyAI equips us with data-driven insights needed to price risk accurately, reward mitigation, and sustain our role as a long-term solution in California’s insurance market.”

California Casualty has long stood with California’s community heroes, protecting their homes in both city neighborhoods and wildfire-exposed areas. Even as other insurers have reduced their footprint, California Casualty continues to expand access to coverage in support of Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy. Through its investment in advanced wildfire analytics, the company is ensuring that affordability and availability can coexist in California’s evolving insurance landscape.

The strength of Z-FIRE’s analytics was reaffirmed during the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, when the Palisades and Eaton fires escalated into fast-moving urban conflagrations. The model’s performance reinforced how advanced analytics can anticipate where fire risk is greatest and help insurers strengthen preparedness and resilience well before events occur. These insights enable California Casualty to maintain confidence in providing coverage for community heroes throughout California’s most challenging environments.

Attila Toth, CEO of ZestyAI, said “We are proud to partner with California Casualty, a company that has served community heroes for more than a century. Our AI-driven models provide the transparency, accuracy, and property-level detail needed for insurers to remain confident in challenging markets, rewarding mitigation efforts and supporting regulatory goals for long-term stability.”

Built and validated on more than 2,000 historical wildfire events and two decades of claims data, Z-FIRE has been widely adopted by insurers across the West and recognized by regulators for use in both underwriting and rating.