But here’s where the story gets interesting. Unlike past waves of tech enthusiasm whether it was knowledge management, IoT, or early analytics AI and automation appear to represent something different. For the first time in decades, underwriting executives see not just incremental gains, but transformational potential.
Why This Moment Feels Different
Having watched underwriting for over 30 years, I’ve seen plenty of technologies promise revolution but deliver evolution. Yet this time, the numbers stand out. Executives across Life, Group, Personal, and Commercial insurance overwhelmingly believe AI will cut down on repetitive, low-value tasks and reshape underwriting at speed.
Carriers aren’t just theorizing, either. Over the past three years, they’ve been piloting AI-driven initiatives—testing natural language processing to handle broker queries, experimenting with AI-powered data synthesis, and deploying pattern recognition to fast-track self-service underwriting decisions. Not every pilot has been flawless, but the cumulative effect is clear: AI is moving from pilot to production.
In fact, if your organization hasn’t already started building an AI underwriting strategy, you may already be behind.
What the Data Tells Us
Our 2024 survey highlighted three important signals about the future of AI-led underwriting:
81% of underwriting executives believe AI and generative AI will create new roles “to a large extent” or “to a very large extent.”
65% say upskilling will be essential as underwriters adapt to augmented workflows.
42% expect to tap external talent pools to fully realize AI’s potential.
The subtext? AI isn’t simply a cost-cutting tool—it’s a force multiplier that will reshape the skillsets, workflows, and even the hiring practices of insurers.
Empowering the AI-Augmented Underwriter
It’s crucial to make one thing clear: AI isn’t here to replace underwriters. Instead, it’s here to redefine them.
Picture this: an underwriter supported by AI that can instantly extract relevant data from dozens of sources, orchestrate automations to streamline routine approvals, and even converse with customers through natural language processing to resolve queries in real time. The underwriter isn’t removed from the process—they’re elevated, freed to focus on judgment calls, complex cases, and relationship-driven work that machines can’t replicate.
AI, in this sense, becomes less of a replacement and more of a co-pilot—one that enables faster, smarter, and more consistent underwriting outcomes.
Three Steps Carriers Should Take Now
To translate AI’s promise into practice, insurers need more than technology. They need strategy, talent, and culture. Here’s what that looks like:
Develop an AI-led strategy.
Reimagine your talent strategy. Upskilling underwriters is non-negotiable. Insurers will need to focus on skills-based approaches that prepare teams to work alongside AI while embedding responsible AI principles into daily processes.
Foster a culture of experimentation. Instead of top-down mandates, empower underwriters and employees to explore AI at ground level. Grassroots adoption often sparks the most impactful use cases.
The Bottom Line
For years, technology promised to reshape underwriting but fell short of delivering wholesale change. This time, the combination of AI, automation, and advanced data tools may finally tilt the balance.
The underwriting role isn’t vanishing it’s transforming. Those who move decisively now, blending human expertise with machine intelligence, will not only reduce time spent on non-core tasks but also unlock a new era of speed, precision, and customer value in underwriting.
The question isn’t whether AI will change underwriting. It’s whether your organization is ready to embrace the change or risk being left behind.
