The property and casualty (P&C) insurance sector has reached a “moment of truth” regarding artificial intelligence (AI), marked by a widening competitive divide between a small group of “intelligence trailblazers” and the rest of the industry, a recent Capgemini report states.
According to the World Property & Casualty Insurance Report 2026, only 10% of the P&C industry is successfully scaling AI, while others struggle to capture meaningful benefits.
By treating AI as a core operating capability, rather than a set of tools, and aligning strategy and talent, technology foundation, and organisational adoption, trailblazers have achieved up to 21% higher revenue growth and about 51% greater increase in share price over three years, according to the report’s data.
Compared to mainstream insurance companies, trailblazers stand out in several key areas, Capgemini noted. They are nearly four times more likely to invest in comprehensive change management, going beyond basic training.
Furthermore, they are nearly three times more likely to possess explainable AI infrastructure, which builds enterprise-wide confidence. Moreover, trailblazers are almost twice as likely to embed AI responsibilities directly into job descriptions, thereby creating accountability.
“Trailblazers stand in sharp contrast to an industry contending with an ‘architecture mismatch’ – a pattern where technology advances outpace organizations’ ability to effectively integrate it. On average, P&C insurers commit 72% of their AI investments to technology and infrastructure, with only 28% to change management including basic employee and leadership training. As a result, many AI initiatives struggle to deliver their full potential, limiting enterprise-wide impact,” Capgemini explained.
The report suggests the AI maturity gap can be partly explained by the fact that 42% of insurers track no AI metrics.
Over half (55%) of P&C insurers noted the absence of clear ROI on AI initiatives, with the same number also saying that it is unclear who owns AI initiatives at their firm. This leads to fragmented implementation by small teams with limited firmwide impact.
Even at the team level, impact has been limited: two-thirds (67%) of P&C insurers cite a shortage of AI skills and nearly half (47%) of employees with access to AI tools report that their workday is unchanged, even after 18 months of use.
“The insurance industry is facing its moment of AI truth. Trailblazers are proof that when carriers embed AI into their business strategy from the outset it elevates from an efficiency play into a true competitive advantage that directly impacts the bottom line,” said Kartik Ramakrishnan, CEO of Capgemini’s Financial Services Strategic Business Unit and Group Executive Board Member.
He continued: “While many insurers are navigating familiar technical and cultural hurdles, the opportunity ahead is clear. By strengthening data foundations, clarifying ownership, and investing in skills and governance, insurers can move beyond pilots and unlock enterprise‑wide value. The focus now must be on building the organizational discipline that sustains AI’s impact across the business.”
While trailblazers have established an immediate advantage through their use of AI, challenges remain for the rest of the industry. Nearly half (49%) of employee time is spent on cross-team collaboration, yet most AI tools still operate at the individual task level.
Data readiness is also low, with only 12% of insurers reporting very high maturity, despite heavy use of unstructured data. Furthermore, a trust gap is widening, with 43% of employees worrying about job security, and only 14% clearly understanding AI’s role in their work.
The report highlights an opportunity for the future of insurance, centered on a reimagined operational model where executive leadership sets strategic direction and defines the boundaries of human-AI collaboration.
This would also involve the handling of complex operational decisions by skilled employees using real-time insights and AI agents automate routine, repetitive tasks.
Within this model, orchestration managers can actively work to align business strategy and AI principles in a way that allows intelligence to scale across large enterprises.
To achieve this, Capgemini suggests that “insurers must embed AI into everyday collaboration and decision making, strengthen their data foundations, and redesign workflows for the agentic AI era.”
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