Allianz has officially overtaken French insurer AXA to claim the top spot in global AI maturity, capitalising on a massive talent hoarding strategy.

The German insurance giant, Allianz, has amassed an AI workforce 28 per cent larger than its closest rival, resulting in a staggering 900 active AI use cases worldwide and putting pressure on lagging competitors to close the gap, according to the annual Evident AI Index for insurance.

However, the gap between the frontrunners and the rest of the industry has narrowed significantly, with Manulife, Zurich and Liberty Mutual rounding out a tightening top five, but Zurich saw the biggest rise in the ranking, moving from twelfth position to fourth.

Amid anxieties about employment trends as automation reshapes the workforce, the data suggest that tech is expanding while traditional roles are being quietly phased out.

Global insurers have cut overall headcount by 2.2 per cent over the past year, yet hiring for AI specialists has surged by 32 per cent. According to the Index, in London, AI roles now make up a staggering 2 per cent of the entire industry workforce as firms aggressively automate core functions.

Last year it was reported that Allianz was set to cut 650 UK jobs across several lines of its business, with the company blaming this on its response to “to shifting preferences towards digital”.

Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder and co-chief executive of Evident, explained: “Insurance is entering a new phase of AI adoption.”

“Up to this point, the priority by and large has been about laying the foundations. Now we’re seeing a growing emphasis on execution and scaling, with AI influencing underwriting, claims management and fraud detection across product categories,” they added.

Insurers break the silence on AI ROI

Shaking off shareholder scepticism regarding the soaring costs of tech adoption, a small cohort of global insurers has disclosed hard financial returns, projecting over $1bn (£790m) in AI-driven business impact by the end of the decade.

The Index highlighted that Manulife and Generali have joined Intact Financial (RSA owner) in posting multi-million-pound bottom-line gains from their AI deployments.

Manulife generated more than $217m (£161.7m) in value from AI during 2025 and projects $723m in gains by the end of 2027. While Generali reported $116m (£86.5m) in bottom-line impact last year, rising to a projected $407m (£303.4m) in 2027. Intact Financial, the first insurer to report publicly, recently revised its 2025 figure upward by 33 per cent to $145m (£108m), with $361m (£269m) projected by the end of the decade.

Christian Preece, insurance director at Evident, says: “For years, insurers have competed on AI ambition, but now the focus is shifting from what insurers are building to the value they’re creating.”

“As the first industry leaders disclose hard return on investment data, they’re providing the kind of evidence that shareholders and boards have been looking for in light of increasing concerns around the costs of AI, and we can expect to see more insurers going public in the coming year,” he added.