A new J.D. Power survey shows insurance customers don’t reject artificial intelligence outright, but they’re convinced the technology mainly boosts insurer profits, not their own experience.
Nearly 70% of respondents say carriers gain far more from AI than policyholders do, a gap that keeps widening as companies roll out automated systems across underwriting, service and claims.
There’s openness, sure, but the trust deficit sits stubbornly in the middle of the conversation. Artificial intelligence has been around for decades, but its presence in public consciousness has increased dramatically since the advent of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. There have been benefits and costs to this perceptive shift for AI-focused fintechs.
Only 26% of customers think insurers and policyholders share AI’s benefits evenly. That number lands like a warning.
Artificial intelligence promises to revolutionize how property and casualty insurance business gets done. The exact ways AI will influence business are unknown. Disruption and regulation will certainly result, but it remains to be seen whether property and casualty insurers will follow or use AI as a means to lead.
According to Beinsure, the broader industry tends to interpret “acceptance” as “approval,” and the survey suggests that’s a misread. People say they’re willing to use AI tools, but they also believe those tools serve corporate priorities first.
Customer comfort splits cleanly based on the stakes of the task. They’re fine letting AI handle routine chores – checking claim status, updating billing, fielding basic service questions.
Those interactions make life easier and don’t feel risky. But once AI touches decisions with financial weight, attitudes flip fast. Nearly 50% the respondents say they feel uneasy with AI evaluating claims. Pricing triggers even sharper resistance.
Doing so will help AI tools evolve in a manner that lets it deliver on its promises while standing on the shoulders of a mature industry the world has trusted to safeguard all sectors of society.
Business leaders and insurers quickly learned the best technology was the most responsibly developed technology. Internet companies know customers need an environment that protects them from ransomware.
And the risk-based pricing behind insurance enabled businesses to manage the risks each technology presented.
Roughly a third say AI pricing shouldn’t move forward until companies prove guardrails against bias. Another 30% tolerate AI-led pricing only with strict fairness and explainability standards. Just 15% favour unrestricted use.
That tension leaves insurers with more than a technical problem.
J.D. Power frames it as a communication issue: companies have to show where AI helps customers, not only where it boosts efficiency or reduces loss costs.
We think that’s right. Without transparency around how automated decision systems work and why they’re used, carriers shouldn’t expect smooth adoption.
As the report put it, insurers that win customer buy-in now will find the next wave of AI-driven process changes a lot easier to push through later.
