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A sudden market sell-off in global insurance broking stocks has done more than rattle investors. It has crystallised a shift already under way: artificial intelligence (AI) is moving from back-office support to the front line of customer acquisition, forcing a rethink of value, margins and growth. How a promising but still immature technology may redefine the way investors view the insurance industry.
The more immediate, and arguably more consequential, shift is inside firms. As AI evolves from copilots to agentic workflows, it can take on multi-step administrative and servicing tasks across tools, escalating to people only when judgement is needed. That is not just incremental efficiency. It is capacity creation: shorter turnaround times, improved placement quality and more adviser time available for complex client work. In a market where growth is harder to generate from external tailwinds and clients are increasingly cost conscious, that operating leverage becomes a differentiator, protecting margins while enabling continued investment in expertise and client experience.
