Farmers and Mechanics Mutual Insurance Company of West Virginia Adopts ZestyAI to Strengthen Underwriting and Risk-Based Pricing

ZestyAI, the leader in AI-driven property risk analytics, today announced a new partnership with Farmers and Mechanics Mutual Insurance Company of West Virginia (FMIWV) to strengthen underwriting accuracy and improve risk-based pricing.

Roof claims are the leading driver of insurance losses, yet many carriers still depend on self-reported data, which can be unreliable, or physical inspections, which are costly and hard to scale. Recent research shows that 15% of roofs are at least eight years older than reported, highlighting the need for more reliable, data-driven alternatives.

To address long-standing challenges in accessing reliable property insights, FMIWV selected Z-PROPERTY™ Location Insights.

“After evaluating several options in recent years, we chose ZestyAI based on their strong coverage and ease of implementation,” said Dan Otto, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at FMIWV. “Getting started using the technology was easy. We’re particularly focused on using their property insights to provide additional underwriting information for new business and renewals.”

ZestyAI’s advanced insights help FMIWV:

• Identify high-risk properties early to prioritize mitigation and prevent losses
• Enhance risk selection and pricing precision with objective, property-level data
• Reduce inspection costs and turnaround time by minimizing the need for on-site assessments
• Streamline straight-through processing for low-risk properties to improve efficiency and speed to bind
• Reduce premium leakage by aligning pricing with actual exposure

“FMIWV is showing how regional carriers can lead with data-driven underwriting that improves operations and elevates the customer experience,” said Attila Toth, Founder and CEO of ZestyAI. “By grounding decisions in reliable, property-level data, they’re improving efficiency, reducing risk, and raising the bar for underwriting and rating precision.”

It follows the recent news that ZestyAI’s Severe Convective Storm suite, including Z-HAIL™, Z-WIND™, and Z-STORM™, has received regulatory approval from the Ohio Department of Insurance, meaning it is now approved for use in 16 states covering key high-risk markets. Ohio has experienced 36 billion-dollar loss storm events over the past five years alone, surpassing the total from the previous two decades, which saw 33 events, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), making it a key concern for insurers.