By Jeff Dunsavage, Head of Research Publications and Insights, Triple-I
Insurers are betting on AI to streamline underwriting and bridge the industry’s talent gap — but a new PwC survey finds most haven’t answered the question of who will train the next generation of underwriters if AI eliminates the entry-level jobs that used to teach the trade.
PwC’s 2026 Financial Services Workforce AI Survey polled 1,004 executives at U.S. firms with at least $500 million in revenue, with insurance making up a quarter of respondents, alongside banking, asset management, and private equity. The findings paint a sector moving fast on AI adoption while leaving workforce architecture largely unaddressed.
A vanishing training ground
Nearly eight in 10 leaders across financial services expect their workforce to shrink by at least 20% over the next five years, with 30% naming entry-level roles as most vulnerable to AI disruption—more than any other layer of the organization. For most industries, that’s a cost story. For insurance, it’s also a succession story.
Underwriting has traditionally been an apprenticeship: junior underwriters learn risk judgment by working alongside senior colleagues for years before they’re trusted with complex accounts. If AI absorbs the routine activities that used to be a training ground, carriers risk hollowing out the pipeline that produces their next generation of senior talent.
Only 42% of leaders have modeled how AI will affect labor capacity across their enterprise. Among those that have, just half have considered redesigning workflows in response. In other words, headcount projections are outpacing any concrete plan for what a smaller workforce should look like—or how insurers will develop it.
PwC’s insurance-specific research suggests the pressure is real on both sides. One carrier’s leadership described employees as stretched thin and working long hours just to keep up, framing AI as much as a capacity release valve as a cost-cutting tool.
Overcoming skepticism
Compounding the challenge, underwriters themselves are often skeptical. At one large life insurer, staff cited past technology rollouts that stalled or failed to change their actual work and only warmed to AI after the company ran two well-resourced use cases that delivered visible, credible results. Carriers hoping to reshape underwriting career paths around AI will need that same kind of proof before employees—and regulators—trust the model enough to change how junior talent is developed.
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