Insurance companies recruited 32% more artificial intelligence specialists last year, even as overall staffing across the sector declined, according to research from benchmarking company Evident.
Evident’s latest AI adoption index for insurance found that one in every 50 jobs in the sector is now AI-based. The increase came during a period when total workforce numbers fell by 2.2%.
The findings show how insurers are reducing headcount in some areas while hiring technical specialists for automation, analytics, claims, underwriting, and fraud-related work. AI roles are becoming one of the few expanding employment categories inside large financial institutions.
Allianz ranked highest in Evident’s insurance AI adoption index. The company employs 28% more AI specialists than AXA, its nearest competitor, which ranked second.
The insurance sector’s AI hiring pattern mirrors recent developments in banking. In April, Evident reported that one in 50 employees recruited by the top 10 banks worked in AI-related roles.
AI jobs could become among the safest positions in banking. The same trend is now appearing in insurance, where large carriers are moving from experimentation toward enterprise-wide AI deployment.
AI does not change the insurer’s ambition, but accelerates how the company delivers results. Behind this ranking are thousands of moments: a claim processed faster, a customer experience reimagined, a partner better connected, a colleague freed up for what truly matters.
Zurich ranked fourth in Evident’s insurance AI index. The ranking signals a wider shift from individual use cases toward enterprise-wide execution and organisational change.
Agentic systems are playing a larger role in insurance operations. These systems help insurers connect several process steps, including first notice of loss, triage, evidence assessment, and policy checks.
Connected workflows could sharply reduce manual bottlenecks. Insurers are increasingly putting AI use cases into production to reshape full workflows rather than create isolated efficiency gains.
One IT professional with experience in banking and insurance said AI was not even discussed during his last insurance-sector role. At that time, the main technology focus was adopting agile development methods.
Banks have generally moved faster on AI because they are often larger, more global, and more aggressive in technology adoption. Insurers are now catching up as AI becomes more central to operations.
Insurance companies are entering a new phase of AI adoption after spending earlier years preparing foundations. Up to this point, the priority, by and large, has been about laying the foundations, Evident said.
According to Beinsure analysts, the 32% rise in AI recruitment shows that insurers are treating AI as an operating model change rather than a technology experiment.
The staffing pattern is important: companies are cutting overall headcount while adding AI experts. That suggests future insurance productivity will depend on teams that combine domain knowledge, data engineering, model governance, and workflow redesign.
