Allianz tops AI adoption ranking as insurer hiring rises

Allianz has overtaken AXA to top Evident's latest ranking of insurers' adoption of artificial intelligence. The study also found that AI hiring rose across the sector even as overall headcount fell.

Allianz moved into first place in the annual insurance index, ahead of AXA. Manulife, Zurich and Liberty Mutual rounded out the top five. Zurich posted the sharpest rise, climbing from 12th to fourth after increasing AI-related hiring and disclosing more use cases with reported outcomes.

The ranking points to a broader industry shift as insurers invest more people and money in AI while total staffing declines. The index shows that the number of AI specialists at insurers in the study increased 32% over the past year, while overall headcount fell 2.2%.

AI specialists now account for about one in 50 employees across the insurers covered. Allianz and AXA together make up 20% of AI development talent in the group, with Allianz holding the largest AI talent pool and about 28% more AI specialists than AXA.

Allianz has also registered 900 AI use cases worldwide, the findings show. Yet the lead held by the biggest adopters appears to be narrowing as other groups expand their AI work and disclose more evidence of operational deployment.

"The key takeaway is that the capabilities that once set the frontrunners apart are becoming more widespread. Mature, integrated AI setups are no longer the preserve of the few early movers. Instead, they are becoming embedded across the industry," said Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Evident.

She added, "Insurance is entering a new phase of AI adoption. Up to this point, the priority by and large has been laying the foundations. Now we're seeing a growing emphasis on execution and scaling, with AI influencing underwriting, claims management and fraud detection across product categories."

Return on investment

The report also highlighted a small but growing group of insurers publicly attaching financial returns to AI projects. Manulife and Generali have joined Intact Financial in disclosing estimated returns, making them only the second and third insurers in the study to do so.

Manulife said it generated more than USD $217 million in value from AI in 2025 and expects that figure to reach USD $723 million by 2027. Generali reported a USD $116 million bottom-line impact last year and projects USD $407 million by 2027.

Intact Financial recently raised its 2025 estimate by 33% to USD $145 million, with USD $361 million projected by the end of the decade. Together, the three insurers are projecting more than USD $1 billion in AI-driven value.

Christian Preece, Insurance Director at Evident, said: "For years, insurers have competed on AI ambition, but now the focus is shifting from what insurers are building to the value they're creating. In itself, it's a sign of AI maturity to have the internal capability to measure these figures and be confident enough to disclose them. As the first industry leaders disclose hard return on investment data, they're providing the kind of evidence that shareholders and boards have been looking for in light of increasing concerns around the costs of AI, and we can expect to see more insurers going public in the coming year."

Agentic systems

Another trend in the index is the rise of so-called agentic AI, in which systems handle several stages of a process and make decisions with limited human input. One in four newly disclosed use cases over the past six months showed evidence of agentic AI, up from one in 20 in the previous six-month period.

Even so, disclosure remains concentrated among the largest groups. Allianz, AXA, Manulife, Travellers and Zurich account for 48% of well-documented use cases across the sector. At the same time, half of the firms outside the top 10 still do not publicly report such work.

Examples cited in the study include Allianz's Nemo system, which automates high-volume, low-complexity claims workflows, and Travellers' Voice AI Claims Assistant, which gathers claim details and guides customers through the filing process from start to finish.

Preece said: "The growing role of agentic systems means insurers can connect multiple steps in a process - for tasks such as first notice of loss, triaging, evidence assessment and policy checks - and make decisions that dramatically reduce manual bottlenecks. It's early days, but the leading insurers are increasingly putting use cases into production that help reshape entire workflows, rather than creating isolated efficiencies."

The index covers 30 property and casualty, life, composite and reinsurance groups across North America and Europe. After Allianz, AXA, Manulife, Zurich and Liberty Mutual, the overall ranking was completed by Intact Financial, Travellers, USAA, Allstate and MassMutual.