IG&H research on AI in insurance: From hype to reality

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely recognized as a potential game-changer for the insurance industry, but its actual value still lags behind the promise. A new study by IG&H shows that about 60% of market players have moved beyond the AI experimentation phase. Of those, 20% are already applying it at scale. The remaining 40% are still experimenting with AI or haven’t started at all.

Those who don’t act now risk falling behind

AI has now secured a top spot on executives’ strategic agendas. Investments are growing rapidly, yet the realized value still falls short of expectations. Nearly half of the Dutch insurance market remains in the experimental phase. “Waiting for perfect technology is a pitfall,” warns Casper van Hilten, Manager Insurance at IG&H. “The frontrunners investing in AI today are already achieving measurable impact in core processes such as claims handling, underwriting and customer service. Progress comes through experimenting, iterating, learning and scaling.”

Where AI is already making an impact

According to IG&H, 60% of all current AI investments focus on the claims market, where volumes and data availability are high. AI is primarily being used to make processes faster and more efficient. Examples include automated claims processing through automatic reading of claim forms, faster acceptance processes and copilots in customer contact centers. These applications deliver immediate operational gains.

The market is digitizing at lightning speed. “There’s a major opportunity to create more strategic value with AI, which remains largely untapped. If you’re not a frontrunner, you can still be a smart follower, but waiting is no longer an option,” Van Hilten concludes.

About the research

For this study, we interviewed 8 insurers, 9 managing agents and brokers and 5 insurtechs actively building AI solutions for the sector. We conducted structured conversations with executives, data & AI leaders and innovation managers to capture both strategic ambitions and operational realities. In addition, we extensively used AI tools for transcription, analysis and scoring to ensure insights were processed systematically and comparably.