Interesting 2026 analysis by Evident Insights of 30 US and European insurers using publicly available information to help avoid distortion by hype and marketing not just by AI and LLM endors but by insurers themselves! It supports the conclusions from Capgemini's recent World Property and Casualty Insurance Report 2026 that AI tools, especially GenAI, AgenticAI (Dgital Agents) cannot be scaled and operationalised unless insurers plan and resource their organisations adequatly.
Allianz, and last time leader AXA, have and are both investing time and effort into resourcing the business, training its people and applying effective change management to be able to leverage AI. This puts them in a good position to evaluate and test AgenticAI - Digital Agents and have in place the governance and security built into processes BEFORE experimenting with Digital Agents.
“Allianz's lead is clearest in talent and innovation. The company holds the largest AI specialist workforce in the industry, approximately 28% larger than AXA's, and has invested in enterprise-wide training at a scale few peers can match.” Insurance Business
“This isn't an IT ops problem; it's a business and operating model problem”. Rory Yates
Insurers treat AI as a productivity layer rather than a decision architecture”. Oguz Anakoc
“Without aligned outcomes, even strong data foundations drift toward efficiency metrics”. Ollie Holden
“Experiment safely, leverage your partners, whether they’re an SI partner, whether it’s a platform or SaaS partner, your partners probably know more than you do. That’s certainly the case for us. Leverage them, learn your way into it.” Robert Pick
A top-performing group of about 10% of P&C insurers – Capgemini calls them “intelligence trailblazers” – demonstrate how the industry can move forward. Compared to mainstream insurers, these winning organizations have achieved 21% higher revenue growth and 51% greater share price increases over a three-year period. What sets them apart isn't spending, but strategic clarity.
I won't make assumptions, but these may well be carriers like Allianz, AXA and Zurich and Tokio Marine.
Good timimg to have both these surveys out at the same time. Valuable lessons for all. One I would add is that to expand the use cases insurers an leverage, and Digital Agents are deployed for, wll require a new trust layer. Currently most insurers do take care to prove identity of people making transactions and claims, but they cannot prove intent i.e. they were fully aware of and in full agreement to action the transaction.
Combining both proof of intent and proof of intent is the strategy of tech vendors like Mastercard, Visa, Google, Stripe and Releaf Financial Inc and there will be combinations/partnerships to bring these to market. That will be essential for carriers that must ensure compliance, security, immutable auditability records and proof that digital agents acted with professional human oversight and to the specific rules set by the insurer. I will be updating this important topic as development arise.
For now this diagram illustrates the layers to deliver proof of identity and proof of intent:
References
World Property and Casualty Insurance Report 2026 Capgemini
The CIO Take on Generative AI: Robert Pick
The Evident AI Index for Insurance: Key Findings Report, June 2026 Evident Insights
AI is accelerating in insurance, and the regulatory environment is tightening in parallel. As of early 2026, 23 states and Washington, D.C. have adopted the NAIC's model bulletin on AI use in insurance. New York's Department of Financial Services enacted Circular Letter No. 7 requiring insurers to establish governance frameworks and explain how AI factors into underwriting and pricing decisions. Carriers that have invested in Responsible AI infrastructure - the Transparency pillar in the Evident framework - are better positioned to navigate that scrutiny.
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