Insurance Underwriters Prepare for AI-Driven Transformation in Risk Management

The underwriting function, rooted in centuries-old practices, is at a turning point as insurers prepare to integrate AI and generative AI at scale. A recent survey of 430 senior underwriting executives highlights a projected jump in AI adoption from 14% today to 70% within three years. Leaders see the technology as key to enhancing data-driven decision-making, improving efficiency, and modernizing risk assessment.

Internal inefficiencies remain a major barrier, with 65% of respondents citing ineffective systems and nearly half pointing to poor data access and organization. Externally, regulatory change, technological transformation, customer expectations, and the challenge of attracting new talent are driving urgency for reinvention. Insurers are aligning investments around ease of doing business, quality improvements, and workforce development.

AI applications range from data cleansing and intelligent submission intake to chatbots, triage analytics, and comparative risk assessments. Executives expect its influence on underwriting tasks to grow dramatically, from 17% today to 75% in three years. Beyond automation, most anticipate AI will create new roles, accelerate knowledge transfer, and require robust strategies for upskilling.

Early adopters, like QBE Insurance, demonstrate the potential: with AI-enabled systems, they can process all broker submissions in real time, accelerating decision-making. The path forward, experts suggest, lies in combining agentic AI strategies, talent development, and human-AI collaboration to reshape underwriting into a faster, more dynamic, and data-driven function.