A GlobalData poll has found that skills shortages remain a significant obstacle to wider AI adoption in insurance. While insurers are increasingly demonstrating the value of AI in individual use cases, developing the expertise needed to deploy the technology across their organisation remains a challenge.
According to a February 2025 poll conducted by GlobalData on Verdict Media platforms (which gathered more than 120 responses from industry insiders), 24.4% of respondents identified a lack of expertise within insurance companies as the biggest challenge to implementing AI, making it the most commonly cited barrier. A lack of understanding among customers followed at 21.3%, while 17.3% said AI is not yet ready for widespread use within insurance. A further 13.4% cited a lack of customer trust, highlighting that insurers face both internal capability and external acceptance challenges as AI adoption increases.
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Meanwhile, Accenture’s Q4 2025 survey of 263 senior insurance executives (each directly responsible for AI, data, technology, and business transformation) found that although 81% of insurers have achieved at least a 5% improvement in gross written premium through AI and data initiatives, only 23% have achieved enterprise-wide AI integration. Skills appear to be an important factor in this gap: while 70% of insurers have launched AI skills initiatives, just 14% have scaled these programs across their organisation. Legacy system integration—as well as data quality, accessibility, and availability—was also cited as major barriers to scaling AI.
For insurers, moving beyond isolated AI pilots will require investment in people alongside technology. AI expertise concentrated within specialist teams may enable individual projects to succeed, but it makes it harder to embed the technology across underwriting, claims, distribution, and customer service. Insurers that broaden AI skills across their workforce while modernising legacy systems and improving data accessibility will be better positioned to translate successful pilots into enterprise-wide improvements. As AI capabilities develop, competitive advantage is likely to increasingly depend on insurers’ ability to integrate the technology effectively, rather than simply adopting it.
