DUAL North America Inc., a leading specialty programme administrator offering a diverse range of insurance products, has partnered with artificial intelligence-driven risk analytics provider ZestyAI to enhance its storm-risk underwriting and pricing capabilities.
The collaboration comes as DUAL continues its rapid expansion across the U.S. market.
The decision to adopt ZestyAI’s Z-STORM™ model stems from DUAL’s ambition to improve accuracy in underwriting and pricing amid increasing severe weather events.
The company aims to achieve sharper risk differentiation and more sustainable growth while maintaining regulatory compliance.
ZestyAI’s Z-STORM™ model leverages AI to assess the combined effects of hail and wind, providing insurers with property-level insights into storm vulnerability. By analysing factors such as roof condition, material type, and surrounding exposure in combination with local climatology, the platform delivers more accurate predictions of storm frequency and severity.
The model’s precision enables insurers like DUAL to make faster, more informed underwriting and pricing decisions. This facilitates profitable expansion while helping insurers remain compliant with evolving regulatory standards.
In September 2025, ZestyAI enhanced its storm-risk suite with mitigation-aware scoring, allowing insurers to dynamically adjust risk scores based on verified property improvements such as roof replacements and material upgrades. This innovation promotes transparency and rewards mitigation efforts, helping insurers integrate risk-reduction measures into pricing workflows.
ZestyAI’s storm models have undergone regulatory review and are fully operational across the Great Plains, Midwest, and southern U.S.—regions most prone to severe convective storms. Multiple carriers now use these models for rating and underwriting processes.
DUAL chief actuary Luke Wolmer said, “As we continue to grow across property lines, having accurate risk prediction at the property level is crucial. Z-STORM gives us a more nuanced understanding of storm vulnerability, helping us recognize differences in risk that traditional models overlook. This enhances our team’s confidence in pricing decisions and will support our continued expansion across the U.S.”
ZestyAI founder and CEO Attila Toth said, “DUAL’s adoption of Z-STORM reflects a forward-thinking approach to storm risk management. By applying property-level risk analytics and mitigation-aware scoring, DUAL is positioned to underwrite more precisely, grow responsibly, and strengthen community resilience across the regions that are most exposed to extreme weather.”
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