What innovations will define InsurTech in 2026?

February 18, 2026

As artificial intelligence moves from experimentation into production, insurers are rethinking how products are priced, delivered and experienced. Forecasting these industry-defining innovations is the eternal challenge.

In an interview with InsurTech Analyst, a group of industry leaders shared their perspectives on what they expect will define InsurTech in the year ahead.

“All about me” insurance

For Peter Ohnemus, President and CEO at dacadoo, personalisation is not a future concept but the defining innovation. He points to what he calls an “all about me” model, where insurance and healthcare systems respond to an individual’s lifestyle, biology and behaviour rather than broad demographic averages. “There’s not two human beings living on this planet which are the same,” he said, arguing that digital health twins and lifestyle navigation tools can remove inefficiencies while making insurance more relevant to everyday life.

Ohnemus believes this shift has implications far beyond engagement. By reducing duplication across healthcare and insurance systems, and using secure, encrypted data to replace repetitive manual processes, AI can help control rising costs while improving outcomes.

Voice-based interfaces, in particular, could expand access to support in areas such as mental wellbeing, where traditional systems are already overstretched.

2. Re-engineering pricing for long-term products

Innovation is also reshaping the mechanics of pricing and underwriting, especially for long-term products. Yasser Rajwani, Product Manager at Earnix, highlighted how AI-driven platforms are transforming annuities, one of the industry’s oldest and most complex product lines.

“Things that could take up to months can now take weeks and sometimes even days,” he said, describing how unified pricing environments are replacing fragmented workflows built on spreadsheets, disconnected models and legacy systems.

By consolidating data analysis, modelling and deployment into a single platform, insurers can respond faster to changing interest rates and market conditions while maintaining governance. For Rajwani, the innovation is not just technical but structural, reducing friction across teams that historically operated in silos.

3. Governance first AI adoption

As automation accelerates, however, governance is becoming a defining constraint. Ido Deutsch, Chief Revenue Officer at Producerflow, warned that greater reliance on AI introduces new challenges around transparency and risk management.

“We’ll need to spend a lot more time on AI governance,” he said, stressing the importance of auditability, explainability and keeping humans in the loop for regulated decisions.

Rather than replacing people, Deutsch sees AI changing the nature of work. Back-end processes may become increasingly automated, but human oversight will remain central where accountability matters most. Trust in AI systems, he argues, will depend on how clearly decisions can be traced and defended.

4. Customer experience as the differentiator

Customer experience ultimately ties these innovations together. Simha Sadasiva, Co-founder and CEO at Ushur, believes that as insurance products converge on price, experience will determine who wins and who retains customers. “The companies that win… will be defined by their ability to service their customers better than their peers,” he said.

For Sadasiva, the opportunity lies in closing the gap between insurance and other digital services. As AI enables more personalised, self-service interactions, insurance should feel as seamless as managing money online or ordering food through an app.

That expectation, he argues, will define the competitive landscape in 2026.

Throughout the full interview, they explored:

Hyper-personalisation as the defining innovation in insurance, enabled by AI, biosensors and richer health and lifestyle data
The rise of digital health twins, voice interfaces and personalised engagement to improve outcomes and reduce systemic inefficiencies
How advanced pricing and underwriting platforms are transforming long-term products such as annuities through faster cycles and dynamic models
The shift towards unified, end-to-end platforms that replace fragmented pricing, modelling and distribution workflows
The growing importance of AI governance, transparency and human oversight as automation expands
Why customer experience, rather than price alone, will increasingly differentiate insurers in a highly competitive market