Extreme weather is no longer the exception and data specialist Sagacity says insurers need to ramp up their use of technology to accurately assess the associated risks and develop effective and affordable policies. Sagacity said UK extreme weather events rose by 43% between 2020 and 2024 and that postcode-level data was insufficient to pinpoint risk and price policies appropriately.

Dean Standing, chief revenue officer at Sagacity, said: “The intensity of weather events like flooding and high winds is rising – and insurers need to equip themselves to stay on top of this evolving risk. Traditional, postcode-level assessments are no longer enough. Accurate, real-time data must sit at the heart of decision-making.

“That means going beyond internal customer records, and incorporating trusted third-party intelligence such as property-level mapping, infrastructure resilience, and live weather feeds to get a precise view of each customer’s exposure.

“This insight is critical for pricing policies, informing risk models, processing claims efficiently, and detecting and preventing fraud.”

Standing highlighted AI and machine learning technologies as critical for insurers seeking to process large, dynamic data sets and generate the insight and operational capability needed to evolve their proposition.