Hiscox teams up with Google to expand coverage for California homeowners
Bermuda-based specialist insurer Hiscox has partnered with Bellwether to enhance wildfire modelling for California’s insurance market.
Bellweather, a team in X, The Moonshot Factory — Google’s innovation laboratory — has created a breakthrough technology platform which combines AI with real-time Earth observation data to provide insights across all stages of natural disasters, from forecasting to preparation, to rapid response.
Now the partnership with Hiscox aims to increase the availability of insurance to homeowners in the state.
The partnership sees Hiscox London Market’s property division working with the Bellwether team to integrate the groundbreaking, AI-powered wildfire model alongside its own risk scoring and modelling, 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. It is also the only model to generate absolute wildfire risk scores that include transparent accounting of what factors contributed to each score.
James Brady, Hiscox London Market’s property divisional director, said: “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.”
Sarah Russell from Bellwether said: “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.”
Did you get value from this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
