At InsurTech NY, Chris Johnson from EarthDaily explains how the company is helping insurers better understand risk in a rapidly changing climate.
Johnson says one of the biggest challenges facing insurance companies today is making sense of data and analytics, particularly when it comes to environmental risks such as wildfire and flooding. Many insurers still assess risk at a broad regional level, which can lead to entire areas being labelled as uninsurable.
EarthDaily takes a different approach.
Johnson explains that the platform provides highly granular, property-level insights, allowing MGAs and excess and surplus insurers to assess risk much more precisely. This enables them to identify properties that may have been overlooked or incorrectly categorised, opening up new opportunities to insure risks that others might avoid.
He adds that this level of detail is becoming increasingly important as climate conditions change more quickly.
To support this, EarthDaily has launched a constellation of satellites, giving the company the ability to capture daily images of the Earth at high resolution. Johnson explains that this allows insurers to monitor changes on the ground in near real time, helping them respond more effectively to evolving risks.
For Johnson, the pace of climate change presents a clear challenge for the industry.
He believes insurers are aware of the issue, but often lack the tools needed to track and manage it effectively. By improving visibility and providing more timely data, EarthDaily aims to close that gap.
Johnson also notes that InsurTech NY provides an opportunity to stay close to innovation across the sector. He says the event helps the company understand new developments, including emerging AI models, while also building partnerships with carriers and other organisations that can benefit from its technology.
Overall, Johnson’s view is that better data leads to better decisions.
By giving insurers a clearer picture of what is happening on the ground, they can manage risk more accurately and expand coverage in areas that were previously considered too uncertain.