Sixfold, the AI underwriting company that partners with major Life and Health carriers worldwide, has published new research revealing that confidence in artificial intelligence within the sector is running well ahead of how widely it has been rolled out.
The study, titled The Future of Life and Health Underwriting, gathered responses from 251 underwriting executives and underwriters based across the US and Europe, forming part of a wider survey of 543 underwriting professionals spanning both Property and Casualty (P&C) and Life and Health (L&H).
The findings show that L&H lags behind P&C when it comes to putting AI into daily practice, with 45% of L&H organisations reporting regular use of the technology, compared with 60% across the combined study population.
Despite this gap, enthusiasm for AI’s role in the industry’s future remains extremely high, with 97% of executives and 86% of underwriters saying it has left them more optimistic about where the profession is headed. Among those who have already integrated AI into their workflows, the response was unanimous, with every single leader and underwriter reporting that it has made them either faster, better at their jobs, or both.
The influence of AI is also shaping career decisions within the sector. According to the research, 86% of underwriters said a company’s AI strategy would factor into their decision to take on a new role, while 70% said their current employer’s approach to AI had made them more inclined to remain in their position.
The report also highlights a divide in how leaders and underwriters perceive the remaining challenges. Executives most commonly pointed to systems and data quality as the primary barrier to further AI adoption, whereas underwriters were more likely to blame tools that fail to align with how they actually carry out their work.
Additional findings from the report show that 85% of underwriters feel ready for the direction the profession is heading in, and 93% said they would recommend underwriting as a career to someone just starting out. Meanwhile, 90% of leaders and 79% of underwriters believe AI is having a positive effect on the quality of underwriting decisions being made.
On the concerns side, 63% of leaders said they worry about losing underwriting talent to rival firms with more advanced AI capabilities. Regarding obstacles, 72% of leaders identified systems and data quality as their leading AI-related challenge, a notably higher figure than seen elsewhere in the broader survey, while 43% of underwriters named poorly fitting technology as their chief concern.
Sixfold Founder and CEO Alex Schmelkin said, “Life and Health is behind P&C on AI adoption, but not on belief in it. Every leader and every underwriter we surveyed said AI made them faster, better, or both, and that’s a rare thing to see 100% agreement on. The appetite is there, the rollout will surely catch up soon.”
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