Last Updated on November 7, 2025 by Jacques Wong, B.Sc.
Picture a job, any job – cashier, news reporter, stock trader, delivery driver. Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how work gets done at lightning speed. Even Vogue has featured AI-generated models on their magazine covers, signifying the sheer scale of AI’s impact. As industries scramble to adapt and professionals learn how to work alongside AI, insurance is no exception.
The insurance industry, often viewed as cautious and traditional, is not immune anymore. In fact, AI is now becoming part of almost every corner of the sector and is already changing the way insurance works.
From underwriting to claims, from brokers to clients, nothing is off the table. And here’s the truth: whether you see it as a threat or a tool, AI is reshaping your role.
The good news? That puts you in a powerful position. In this article, we’ll break down what AI really means for your job, your clients, and the future of the insurance industry, so you can stop worrying about being replaced, and start learning how to get ahead.
AI’s Expanding Role in the Insurance Industry
AI can make insurance feel like a breeze in one moment and a headache in the next. On the bright side, specially trained models are stepping in as powerful analytical tools, taking care of tasks like policy reviews. And as this becomes more common, brokers across the industry are beginning to lean on these tools with growing confidence.
AI is also looking after the younger generations serving as intelligent assistants that help junior brokers efficiently learn and understand terminology, carry out calculations like estimating premiums or loss ratios, and even reply to emails or summarize operations from an insured’s website.
That said, AI isn’t perfect. Many clients are using it to review Certificates of Insurance and automatically reject them when AI finds them non-compliant. However, the AI’s judgement is often incorrect, leaving the broker begging for a human review. Confusion might also arise when clients use AI to review their own policies. AI sometimes misunderstands insurance terminology or gives technically correct outputs that are easily misinterpreted by the client. For example, a recent study found that 57% of AI-generated answers to life insurance questions contained errors. Nevertheless, AI is still a useful tool for clients who want to be aware and take the initiative to review and understand their policies.
In fact, 84% of insurers are now using AI to modernize their claims workflows, and 77% report that AI is already part of their value chain. Some firms have even cut underwriting time from three days down to three minutes. Current and emerging AI applications include underwriting, claims automation, customer service chatbots, and fraud detection. Insurtech startups and established Canadian companies alike are adopting these technologies, such as Manulife and Intact Financial. Manulife has reportedly been incorporating the use of AI for nearly a decade, using AI to help lawyers and legal staff conduct thorough analysis of legal documents.
Just like the rest of the financial sector, interest in AI is certainly growing across the insurance industry. But contrary to expectations, the insurance world isn’t the quickest at adopting new technology. It is being rather cautious, especially since regulations and data privacy rules around AI have not been fully formalized yet. Even smaller brokerages, who you might assume to be more flexible, are adopting AI tools at about the same rate as larger firms.
The Impact of AI on Insurance Jobs and Careers
Evident in Vogue’s recent covers, even fashion models aren’t safe from having their jobs replaced by AI. As AI continues to advance in this rapidly evolving world, the job security of certain roles, such as more transactional and uniform tasks like renewing your car or home insurance, is seriously threatened and at high risk of being made redundant or largely replaced by AI agents. While backend submission writing and data entry jobs aren’t entirely going away, one person is now able to do what numerous people used to with the help of agentic AI to write proposals and handle routine tasks. However, the adoption of AI is also uncovering which jobs and skills are becoming more essential. This shift is encouraging hybrid roles, where agents are expected to blend traditional insurance tasks with more advisory work. In the insurance industry, jobs that greatly involve human interaction are increasing in demand, because insurance brokering is a double-sided marketplace, jobs that involve dealing with clients and underwriters are more AI-resilient.
Don’t panic just yet, though, AI will not kill off insurance brokerages as a business category. Most people have experienced the current limitations of AI firsthand, especially when dealing with AI-powered customer service and talking to AI chatbots. There is generally a widespread distrust of AI-generated responses and still a strong preference for human interaction, particularly when handling a situation that requires more flexibility and empathy, like in claims scenarios. For instance, only 30% of insured Americans trust AI to approve claims, and 55% distrust it. Underwriters echo this: 43% say they don’t trust AI decisions, even as 62% acknowledge AI is boosting underwriting quality. Besides, experts are doubtful that complex business insurance will be replaced with automation or AI. That said, they admit that it will be a useful tool to assist human brokers, with systems that listen in on calls and offer prompts or pull up relevant context to assist the human agent during a call.
Ultimately, AI is unlikely to replace humans. But someone who leverages it more effectively might. Those who come out on top will be insurance brokerages and brokers that leverage AI most effectively to create a competitive advantage and boost the efficiency of their work. Therefore, skills that complement AI tools (tech fluency and soft skills like client communication and strategic planning) are imperative to avoid falling behind.
Opportunities for Insurance Professionals in the AI Era
With our society intertwining with AI more and more, there are still many possibilities to look forward to despite its challenges. In the past, junior brokers would have to gain years of personal experience and hands-on learning to build their expertise. Now, a specifically trained AI, imbued with the knowledge of more senior brokers at the firm, can give newer brokers the experience and knowledge of a more senior broker. Junior brokers can now learn at a much faster pace than before, and be able to build upon their knowledge with access to an AI insurance expert right at their fingertips to ask any questions they have.
Another door that has opened for insurance professionals is that specially-trained AI tools can now do the initial review of an insurance policy, and point out potential gaps or opportunities in the policies relative to the client’s operations or risk exposures. Not only does this immensely improve accuracy and efficiency, but it also allows brokers to provide more tailored advice to their clients based on deeper insights into their specific needs and risk profiles.
In order to stay competitive, insurance professionals must upskill in digital literacy, data interpretation, and customer relationship building. It is vital to continuously learn and adapt to new technologies and industry trends, learning to use AI to their advantage and increase efficiency, rather than giving in to the fear of getting replaced. Programs like PNC Learning’s insurance exam prep courses help you do just that, offering fast, plain-language courses with tutor support and post-pass career resources that empower brokers to keep pace with the game.
Ethical and Regulatory Considerations of AI in Insurance
Keep in mind: just because these tools are convenient or widely used, doesn’t mean we can be complacent about their risks. Like any new technology, AI brings along real-world concerns of data privacy, transparency, and algorithmic bias. The truth is, we have to be extremely cautious when using AI, especially in sensitive fields, because there is a real danger of data and information being exploited. Once data is compromised, control over who has access to sensitive information is lost. In insurance, this can mean a breach of privacy laws protecting client confidentiality and, violating regulatory compliance standards.
Although regulations which have strict rules on how data can be used exist, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU, many authorities, including those in Canada, do not have clear standards regarding AI specifically yet. Without the implementation of necessary protections, clients are vulnerable to having their private data processed or used with neither their knowledge nor consent. Similarly, issues with transparency and algorithmic bias can have severe consequences where AI systems that were trained on flawed data might misclassify claims or discriminate against certain groups when making underwriting decisions. This creates grave consequences when the broker can’t explain how or why clients were flagged or denied coverage. Therefore, staying informed through education is part of ethical best practice, mitigating potential harm by helping insurance professionals understand the limitations and risks of using AI in practice. Doing so will ensure that clients’ rights are being protected.
The Future of AI in Insurance: Trends to Watch
It’s no surprise that AI is revolutionizing the insurance industry. When it comes to adapting to the use of AI in their day-to-day operations, insurance is no different from the rest of the world. AI models are advancing to conduct and deliver more accurate and dynamic risk profiling – especially in Cyber Insurance, which not only expedites the underwriting process but also enables real-time analysis of live data streams to adjust premiums immediately.
Experts from McKinsey & Company stress that in order to stay ahead, insurance professionals have to take a strategic approach that “rewires the enterprise”. On an individual level, this means that employees will have to integrate AI tools into their daily workflows. On the other hand, what this means for leaders is that they must quickly take action to align, organization-wide, with a clear roadmap taking AI into heavy consideration.
Here’s how experts expect industry roles and workflows to shift in the next 3 to 5 years: repetitive tasks are set to become almost completely, if not fully, automated, redirecting professionals’ attention to work that requires more complex decision-making skills or client-facing roles to strengthen client relationships. If you are worried about having difficulty picking up new AI-driven skills, however, platforms like PNC Learning will provide resources to help you transition.
Insuring Tomorrow: Powered by AI, Guided by You
While AI isn’t set to replace insurance professionals altogether, it’s simply equipping them with more tools. The way things are going, now is the time to double down on learning, adapting, and levelling up to make full use of AI to enhance our capabilities.
Those who take the initiative to build the necessary skills will lead the industry forward. Invest in your future with training that’s designed for what’s next.
Explore PNC Learning’s insurance exam prep courses and see what past students think about PNC to stay one step ahead and grow in the industry with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is AI used in insurance?
AI is being used in both customer-facing and back-office operations. Here are some examples:
Underwriting & Risk Assessment: Insurers are using AI systems to analyze vast datasets to evaluate risk for accurately and quickly. This helps them better price insurance policies.
Claims Processing: Machine learning models are being used to automatically assess damage from photos, expedite claims handling, flag suspicious claims for human review, and identify potential fraud patterns. All this reduces processing times of claims leading to better customer service.
Customer Service: Chatbots are being used to handle routine inquiries, policy questions, and process basic transactions 24/7. But, technical limitations and distrust still means that customers prefer human interaction for dealing with more complex issues – especially in commercial insurance.
Policy Review & Analysis: Specially trained AI models can be used to conduct policy reviews, identify coverage gaps and suggest improvements. Junior brokers can benefit from this also as a learning tool to quickly understand terminology and perform calculations.
Administrative Work: AI can assist with email responses, summarizing documents or long email threads, help write proposals or do data entry. Allowing 1 back-end broker to accomplish the same amount of work as multiple people.
Certificate of Insurance Review: AI is also being used to automate compliance checks but challenges still arise due to the varying formats & terminology used by different insurers and brokers so things are still being incorrectly flagged as non-compliant.
How will AI help the insurance industry?
There are a few potentially transformative benefits for insurers, brokers & customers.
Democratizing Expertise: The most exciting potential lies in using AI to give new brokers access to senior-level knowledge and expertise. With specially-designed AI tools, junior insurance professionals can learn faster and have access to an insurance expert at their fingertips to answer questions & help make guide decisions.
Operational Efficiency: While this remains to be seen, leveraging AI tools properly to automate repetitive tasks allows insurers and brokerages to scale more efficiently without having to increase headcount. AI can also be used to fully automate simple transactions for uniform products like auto or home insurance or even handle renewals making insurance more convenient and accessible.
Enhanced Accuracy: By automating repetitive tasks or utilizing AI’s predictive capabilities, insurers and brokers can reduce mistakes, better assess risks and improve pricing accuracy leading to lower and fairer premiums.
How does AI affect the insurance industry?
Like it or not, AI is transforming every industry in complex ways and insurance is no exception. There are both positive impacts and challenges with this new technology.
Job Transformation: AI may not kill jobs directly but it is allowing smaller teams to be more agile and productive meaning often times fewer people are needed for back-end tasks like data entry or submission writing. However, insurance is still very much a relationship-driven business so jobs involving dealing with clients or underwriters will become more valuable and AI-resilient.
Roles that require the “human element” like flexibility, empathy, and nuanced judgement (like claims) will remain difficult for AI to replace. And with complex scenarios like commercial insurance, a general distrust of AI-generated responses will still leave humans very much in the loop.
As one expert noted, “It’s not AI that’s going to replace you, it’s someone who knows how to use AI better than you.”
Adoption Challenges: You would think that smaller brokerages would be more nimble and quick to adopt these technologies but the insurance industry is traditional and has always been cautious. Combine that with evolving regulations and data privacy rules around AI and adoption is slow.