Insurance Giants Axa Allianz Lead AI Adoption in Europe

Insurance companies have been increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their operations, from automating claims processing to detecting fraud and building risk models. This trend is evident in the use of computer vision applications that assess damage to cars or roofs, and machine learning algorithms that aid in fraud detection and underwriting. Additionally, AI is being utilized to boost productivity in support functions, such as chatbots for customer queries and AI-assisted marketing materials.

Evident Insights, a London-based research and analytics firm, has developed an index to assess the AI capabilities of major insurance firms. The index is based on quantitative metrics derived from public sources, including management statements, press releases, and patent filings. The assessment focuses on four pillars: talent, innovation, leadership, and transparency of responsible AI activity. Axa and Allianz emerged as clear leaders in this assessment, ranking in the top five across all four pillars. This is notable because both companies are based in Europe, where large companies have generally been seen as lagging their North American peers in AI adoption.

Alexandra Mousavizadeh, the cofounder and co-CEO of Evident, attributes the success of Axa and Allianz to their engineering culture. She believes that claims and underwriting automation require large teams of skilled developers and technology experts, which these companies have invested in heavily. Companies that invest most heavily in human AI expertise are most likely to excel at using AI to run their businesses more efficiently, opening up an ever-widening gap between these companies and those that are AI laggards.

Despite the widespread adoption of AI, there is a significant gap between AI hype and actual return on investment (ROI) in the insurance sector. Of the 30 insurers evaluated by Evident, only 12 had disclosed at least one AI use case with a tangible business outcome. Just three insurers—Intact Financial, Zurich Insurance Group, and Aviva—had publicly disclosed a monetary return from their AI efforts. Intact Financial, for example, invested $500 million in technology and deployed 500 AI models, resulting in $150 million in benefits. However, these benefits are primarily cost-savings examples rather than revenue-generating use cases.

The story of AI in insurance is not just about the industry but about every sector grappling with AI. Executives are still figuring out which AI investments will pay off, but the early winners share a common thread: they are not just buying AI tools; they are building AI teams. They are hiring engineers, experimenting relentlessly, measuring results, and then expanding the successful use cases everywhere they can. Benchmarking, like the kind Evident is doing, can play a vital role in informing executives about what seems to be working and pushing entire industries to adopt AI faster, as well as to be more transparent about how they are using AI and what policies they have in place around its responsible use. This lesson is applicable whether you are insuring cars or building them.