Canadian Insurer Adopts AI for Wildfire Modeling
A major Canadian insurer has selected AISIX for a three-year deal to provide AI-powered wildfire catastrophe modeling. The technology will be used to aid underwriting, risk management, and reinsurance decisions. The deal highlights the increasing pressure on insurers to adopt advanced analytics for climate-related risks.
Vancouver-based AISIX Solutions Inc. was selected after a competitive RFP process for its tailored and technically aligned solution to meet the insurer's wildfire risk objectives. The company's Wildfire 3.0 platform leverages a combination of AI, statistical, probabilistic, and physically-based modeling to generate insights. It runs over 30 million simulated wildfire scenarios to produce high-resolution risk data down to a 250-meter resolution. The platform provides key metrics for underwriting and reinsurance, such as burn probability, fire intensity, and potential financial losses under various climate change scenarios. This level of granular, address-specific assessment is a significant step up from traditional models that often rely on broader, less frequently updated regional data. For data engineering teams, the platform's data is accessible via API for integration into existing risk modeling workflows and enterprise platforms. This deal reflects a broader trend among Canadian P&C insurers to adopt more sophisticated analytics in the face of rising wildfire losses. From 2008 to 2021, wildfires cost Canadian insurers more than C$4.6 billion from over 87,000 claims. The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire alone resulted in $3.58 billion in insured losses, making it the country's costliest disaster. Other major Canadian insurers are also heavily invested in wildfire resilience. Intact Financial has invested over $500 million in advanced technology, including geospatial tools and climate analytics, and has partnered with Wildfire Defense Systems Inc. to provide loss prevention services to policyholders in Alberta and British Columbia. Wawanesa Insurance offers community grants for wildfire prevention in partnership with FireSmart Canada, while The Co-operators provides premium discounts for policyholders who undertake FireSmart home assessments. The adoption of AI for property-level risk assessment is becoming a key strategy for insurers globally to manage climate-driven perils. Companies like Zesty.ai in the U.S. use similar AI-powered models to analyze aerial imagery and property-specific data like roofing materials and surrounding vegetation for insurers like MetLife. This allows for more precise underwriting in high-risk areas, moving beyond traditional fire maps.
