Insurers Race to Adopt AI Even as Most Doubt It Is Ready, GlobalData Says

A poll of 113 industry respondents found readiness and in-house expertise topping the list of barriers, even as active AI jobs in insurance jumped more than 50% in a year.

Insurers are moving quickly to adopt AI, but most professionals in the sector doubt the technology is ready for broad use, according to a new GlobalData poll.

In the survey of 113 respondents, conducted across Verdict Media sites in the first and second quarters of 2026, the most common concern, cited by 23%, was that AI is not yet ready for widespread use within insurance. A lack of expertise at the insurance company itself ranked second at 20.4%, followed by increased cyber risk at 17.7% and a lack of trust from customers at 15%. Cost of implementation drew 7.1%, and only 5.3% pointed to a lack of understanding from customers as the biggest challenge.

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Ben Carey-Evans, senior insurance analyst at GlobalData, attributed the readiness concern to how the technology is currently being used. “This might be because use cases to date are largely around customer service and chatbots, rather than full-scale implementation,” he said, adding that regulation has not fully caught up and that questions remain over who is liable for mistakes made by AI.

The expertise gap is showing up in hiring. GlobalData’s Job Analytics recorded 63,293 active jobs related to AI expertise in insurance in 2025, the highest on record and a 50.9% rise on 2024. The firm said that points to insurers trying to close the skills gap through recruitment, though AI is advancing fast enough to make keeping pace difficult.

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Carey-Evans said implementing a technology carrying such high expectations across the value chain will always bring challenges, and that insurers need the right expertise in place and a full understanding of the technology. He suggested targeting one area at a time, such as customer service, customer acquisition or claims, to keep the rollout manageable.

The findings were released by GlobalData, an intelligence and productivity platform whose data and analytics are used by organizations across major industries.

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