Carriers Adapt Strategically as AI Transforms Insurance Underwriting

February 26, 2026 / 2 min read

The unfolding impacts of artificial intelligence on insurance underwriting represent a pivotal moment for the industry—one that calls for thoughtful choices about data strategy, integration, and governance to ensure that carriers and brokers use the technology safely and effectively. To help industry players draw knowledge and inspiration from their peers’ struggles and successes, Verisk joined with Reuters Insights to survey insurance professionals about their experiences to date.

A new white paper, Moving Beyond the Pilot: AI in Insurance Underwriting, explores the survey findings in detail across a range of topics.

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The current state of AI in insurance underwriting

A strong majority of respondents (70%) have moved AI into full production for underwriting use cases, and most report measurable gains as a result. Organizations seeing the greatest impact tend to have deeper levels of AI adoption, supported by formal governance frameworks and deliberate change management efforts to address internal skepticism and build staff buy-in.

Human-AI collaboration and coordinating change

Carriers are pursuing measured automation that preserves human-in-the-loop judgment, with the heaviest reliance on AI assistance reported among reinsurers and brokers. Reinsurance may be more suited to these applications because it’s a data-intensive business, while brokers find use cases in cross-carrier comparisons.

Persistent challenges and barriers to success

Data privacy and security are top concerns, followed by accuracy and reliability of AI decisions and explainability. Regulatory pressures and reputational risk amplify these concerns. Infrastructure obstacles also loom large, as it’s often difficult to integrate AI tools with legacy systems.

The path forward

Most respondents expect to increase AI spending in 2026, expecting these capabilities to yield a competitive advantage. Many take a progressive posture—they’re willing to add to budgets rather than reallocate them—but they also seek to minimize disruption as they integrate AI solutions.

These findings add up to a series of strategic imperatives for AI leadership:

Prioritize data infrastructure modernization
Invest in change management with the same rigor as technology deployment
Implement formal governance as a strategic accelerator
Adopt progressive postures toward experimentation

The white paper also features a detailed Q&A on Augmented Underwriting, Verisk’s AI-powered automation paradigm, and the solution that brings it into daily workflows: Underwriting Assistant.

Download the white paper, and contact your Verisk representative to learn more about Augmented Underwriting.