Insurance Trends Report 2026
Eight trends Insly experts and industry commentators believe will dominate 2026.
Explore the 8 trendsAs experts in risk management, insurance companies know the importance of preparing for every eventuality. As we enter the second half of the decade, that expertise has never been more important.
Following moderate growth in 2025, reports suggest that change is on the horizon for the insurance sector. In its annual Sigma report, Swiss Re recently warned of "shifting sands", with slower growth predicted for the coming 12 months, as the economic slowdown bites.
Opportunities are still out there, but a near-saturated market for many, plus tough competition, mean a steady stream of new business is no longer guaranteed. Management teams and business owners must think outside the box by catering to emerging risks, utilising innovative technologies and forging new partnerships to reach untapped markets and expand revenue streams.
With that in mind, here are eight trends Insly experts and industry commentators believe will dominate 2026.
AI moves from distinct problems to core operations
In 2026, AI will shift from taking on focused use cases to handling entire workflows. While brokers and MGAs have seen some efficiency gains by implementing AI to solve distinct problems, they will start to see a real jump in productivity, as AI increasingly also manages the links between these tasks.
of daily tasks done by AI agents in the first operational teams in 2026.
employees in the first MGAs launching with meaningful volumes, thanks to AI.
In 2026, we will see the first operational teams where 40 to 60% of daily tasks are done by AI agents, not humans. I'm not referring to chatbots, but full workflow automation, including submissions classification, quote preparation, endorsements, bordereaux and claims FNOL. This is the biggest productivity shift in insurance in 30 years. We will also see the first MGAs launch with fewer than three employees and processing meaningful volumes of business thanks to AI.
Risto RossarFounder and CEO, Insly
Venkata Naveen Reddy Seelam, Industry Leader in Insurance and AI Technologies, PwC, agrees.
AI agents will move from experimentation to regulated workflows supporting underwriters, claim adjusters, billing analysts and brokers with clear decision-making, automated document processing and spotting unusual patterns.
From outsourcing AI to building in-house
Insurance companies are also catching on to the fact that, in many cases, real AI efficiency gains aren't found from buying in technology but building solutions in-house. After all, they own the data, which provides the foundations for any successful AI solution. And, with the breadth and depth of foundational AI platforms now available, adapting and training these for individual company needs is becoming more straightforward.
Alta Signa, the MGA dedicated to the Continental European Specialty Insurance market, is doing just that, with plans to build an AI assistant on its platform to manage rating analysis.
Risk analysis is one of the most time-consuming tasks for underwriters, so if we can build a tool to do this for them, it will free a lot of time for added value tasks. We are at a very preliminary stage and it's going to be a long project, involving identifying where we want to integrate AI, then training the model, which requires a lot of data and preparation. But the end goal is to create more efficiency and automation that will drive growth for the business.
Alex CuadrosIT & Operations Manager, Alta Signa
The next wave of Insurtech: Targeted efficiency gains
The first wave of Insurtech, focused on disintermediating agents and brokers and speeding up the quote process, has now run its course. However, there are still significant efficiency savings to be found in the insurance lifecycle through better defining processes and eliminating waste. Areas such as underwriting and finance and accounting are particularly ripe for increased transformation in the coming year.
There is a big opportunity to use insurance tools or AI to grab and summarise data from multiple sources, eliminating the need for underwriters to click around and Google search. That's an area that will advance in the coming year.
Cuadros at Alta Signa says this doesn't mean that human underwriters will disappear.
We have automated some steps within the underwriter process and, as in medicine, we are using AI for better diagnosis. But that doesn't mean that doctors are going to disappear. But if we can use automation to free up time to focus on other things and make underwriting processes faster, that's the path that we need to explore.
It is a similar story at District Cover where AI is used to improve internal workflows, but the company's underwriting strategy remains intentionally human-led. Many risks are reviewed by trained underwriters who understand both the nuances of city-based businesses and the broader mission behind the program. District Cover underwriters are good listeners and with the appropriate tooling and mindset, this approach can scale and allow the company to say yes where others have said no. This dual structure, AI-supported workflows with human-anchored decision-making, has produced strong underwriting results.
And for many companies, the biggest efficiency gains will still come from updating legacy systems, which will remain the focus for many MGAs and insurers in 2026.
My biggest mission next year is to move MGAs and insurers away from legacy systems. Companies are afraid to move, but as soon as they do, it's a breath of fresh air, because it opens up more opportunities. We can add more products and do things more quickly and cost-effectively. Yes, it requires some investment at the outset, but it ultimately helps business growth.
Soft market drives shifting capacity relationships
A softer market for many means greater ease in securing capacity, but also greater pressure on margins. This brings both opportunities and challenges for MGAs.
The word from the market is that there is currently an excess of capacity, which is making premiums more competitive. Under these conditions, investment in technology and innovation is even more important to give us a competitive advantage, by driving marginal costs down, reaching new market segments and achieving scalability.
We're hearing from our brokers that the property market is softening, so we're seeing more pressure on property pricing, particularly in catastrophe-prone areas. There hasn't been a major hurricane recently, but they will come, so the key is balancing that pressure to win, but not underpricing.
MGAs will also need to turn their focus on winning and retaining capacity with streamlined technology and joined-up reporting and compliance.
MGAs will need cleaner data, tighter controls and faster reporting if they want to keep (and grow) capacity. Accuracy on the back end also becomes a survival issue. With costs rising, insurers will expect MGAs to prove their numbers are solid, premium flows, commissions, bordereaux, all of it. Weak accounting will make capacity conversations tough.
Robin Luc OppenheimDirector of Insurance Innovation, Insly
Speed will overtake price as the key market differentiator
Despite the hardening market, competition for business will remain fierce, which means MGAs will need to work harder to differentiate themselves amongst their broker partners. Demand for faster quotes means brokers will send their submissions to an increasing number of MGAs and speed will become the most important competitive advantage.
In 2026, the submission wars will begin, as brokers realise the best results come from sending their requirements to 20 or more MGAs. Tough competition means price alone won't differentiate providers. In fact, those MGAs that deploy AI tools to speed this process up will immediately be at an advantage and be able to charge a premium as a result.
Socrates Systems has also seen an increased demand for speed in its work with clients, who are increasingly seeking faster rollouts of new systems, innovations and products, to stay ahead of the market.
Speed is a bigger competitive advantage now and having that modern platform that's built around quick deliveries is a big win. The days of waiting for three months for rate changes or sprints are gone now. That means agile working and close relationships with clients are essential to identify quick wins and how to make changes within days, not weeks or months.
Predictive analytics for better decision-making
The rise in digital systems means insurance companies are now able to collect data from a whole range of sources much more easily, yet many are still only scratching the surface of what is possible with this mountain of information. The next step, and one which forward-thinking insurance companies will take next year, is to use this data for predictive analytics to inform business decision-making.
Business data is giving us more insights into end-to-end processes and understanding of the time we're spending on different activities. This already drives our reporting through Insly; however, we now want to predict, based on certain triggers or scenarios, if the risk is worth taking, if a certain product will be profitable, or what our final loss ratio will be under certain conditions. A lot of insurance companies are very focused on internal processes, but not so many are driving excellence in their decision-making.
At Socrates Systems, Jody Brooks has seen an increasing demand for data from clients keen to drive a deeper level of analysis and greater responsiveness to opportunities and threats in the market.
Insurers and MGAs are really drilling down into data now. They're looking for greater clarity of numbers and more proactivity regarding performance drivers, behaviour trends, claims models and want to combine all that information to gain a competitive advantage. We're increasingly providing clients with that raw data, so they can carry out much deeper analysis.
Predictive analytics will also continue to advance in better personalising coverage to the needs of individual customers.
Traditional life and health products lump people into static categories, yet modern careers and lifestyles shift constantly. Insurers will begin predicting life-stage transitions and automatically offering product pivots that align with them. Rather than waiting for customers to initiate changes, algorithms will flag changing financial habits, address history, spending trends and health patterns and propose frictionless coverage updates. The insurer becomes a proactive life partner instead of a silent file with auto-renew.
Insurers get bespoke with embedded channels
The economic slowdown and market saturation mean growth has been slowing across the insurance market in the last couple of years. As a result, insurers are having to look beyond tried and tested distribution channels to reach new customers and build new revenue streams.
For many, embedded insurance is still a relatively unexplored avenue, but they will need to take a more bespoke approach to product development, as personalisation to exact customer needs becomes more important. That is only possible if they invest in the right technology.
Every partner wants their own flavour of insurance based on what customers want and need, yet many insurers try to squeeze them into a box of what they already offer. Historically, a more bespoke approach hasn't been possible as insurers haven't been able to build the products fast enough. Now the technology is there to do it and attitudes towards those channels will see a big shift and some surprising new winners.
Christian Bangsgaard PedersenNon-Executive Board Member, Insly
Insurers professionalise MGA strategy
The MGA sector will continue to grow in 2026, with rising private equity interest driving consolidation at the top of the market, while new players emerge to cater to new risks as they arise.
As with embedded channels, MGAs are a vital distribution channel for insurers, enabling them to reach new customers without investing heavily in product development and specialist expertise. However, whereas in the past insurer-MGA partnerships have often been opportunistic, insurers that build a focused strategy will have the advantage.
There is no point in insurers trying to compete with MGAs for this type of business, which is why allocating more risk to these channels is the most effective route to growth. Those that see the most growth will professionalise it and have a dedicated strategy for that segment.
Growth doesn't have to be risky.
When economic growth slows, investment in innovation is more important than ever to ensure businesses keep improving and delivering for their customers and the bottom line. But innovation doesn't always need to be high-risk. Advancements in technology mean there are now tools and platforms out there that can bring huge business benefits, without a significant outlay upfront. And with the right technology, other business growth strategies become easier, including building partnerships, setting up sales channels, developing products and driving efficiency.
Insly is on a mission to give every MGA and insurer access to enterprise-grade software, without the financial risk of prohibitive upfront costs and monthly spend. With nearly two decades of insurance expertise, Insly combines innovative, end-to-end, flexible software with fast, risk-free implementation and growth-aligned pricing. So, it's easy to invest in the change you want to see, in 2026 and beyond.
