Stay current with the latest AI developments most relevant to insurance professionals this month. Explore the articles below for a summary of key trends, innovations, and practical applications of AI both within and outside the insurance industry.
News: Generative AI is ready to step up as the front-line defense against insurance fraud
Insurance fraud impacts roughly 10% of all claims. While generative AI can be misused by fraudsters to fabricate evidence, it also offers insurers powerful tools to detect and prevent fraud. By analyzing images, videos, sensor inputs, and other unstructured data, gen AI can identify subtle patterns indicative of fraudulent activity. Deloitte estimates that by 2032, property and casualty insurers could save between $80 billion and $160 billion annually by adopting these technologies.
News: D&O liability market has its most favorable loss ratio results in 11 years
The root of it: The U.S. Directors and Officers (D&O) liability insurance market achieved its best loss ratio in over a decade in 2024, with a 49.0% direct calendar year loss ratio, despite a 6% decline in premiums to $10.8 billion. This improvement is attributed to prior rate increases and stricter underwriting standards. However, emerging risks such as AI, cyber threats, and regulatory changes could impact future profitability.
News: Thanks to AI, everything you know about spotting phishing emails might be wrong
The root of it: AI tools like ChatGPT are enabling scammers to craft flawless phishing emails that mimic trusted sources, making traditional red flags for detection obsolete. As AI-driven scams evolve, proactive defense is essential. Here, cybersecurity experts explain the latest “breakthroughs” in phishing and offer guidance on staying vigilant and building team defenses against attacks.
The root of it: In a recent experiment, Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot melodramatically threatened blackmail to avoid being replaced by a newer version, highlighting risks in autonomous AI behavior. In response, the Amazon-backed AI startup is looking to strengthen safeguards for ensuring safer deployment and preventing misuse of its advanced models. This underscores the growing need for oversight as AI systems become more capable.
News: Salesforce integrates IDP with CRM, goes all-in on unstructured data management
The root of it: Salesforce is embedding Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) into its CRM to help customers extract, organize, and access data from their unstructured documents. This move signals a major shift: when a CRM giant prioritizes IDP, it validates the technology’s importance in enterprise data management. So, naturally, others (Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle, to name a few) are upping their IDP game.
News: You asked an AI chatbot to summarize this newsletter—how much power did that use?
The root of it: Data centers powering AI models consume massive quantities of electricity and water. Demand for AI from Google, Meta, and other major tech players puts these companies’ growth on a collision course with global climate goals. Achieving a net-positive—or even neutral—environmental impact will require breakthroughs in energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and government initiatives for advancing clean energy.
News: Anthropic head warns AI could cause massive white-collar job displacement if we don’t take action soon
The root of it: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns that AI could eliminate a large portion of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, potentially causing a significant rise in U.S. unemployment. Amodei urges education, transparent communication, and policy planning to mitigate abrupt job displacement in technology, finance, law, and consulting sectors.
News: Insurtech investment roars back in 2025
The root of it: Gallagher Re analysts credit AI-powered platforms' arrival as de facto table-stakes technology as the prime driver for a>90% jump in Insurtech investment over the first quarter of 2025. This marks the most active such period since 2022. In all, 61% of all Insurtech deal volume during Q1 flowed to AI-centered startups, reflecting the mainstreaming of AI, especially in Property and Casualty insurance.
News: Claims professionals fill an invaluable role after a cyberattack
The root of it: For cyberattack victims, “the contributions of insurance claim professionals cannot be overlooked,” according to veteran cybercrime investigator and litigator, Todd Rowe. Claims specialists are essential to cybercrime response, complementing brokers, forensic investigators, and other experts by answering coverage questions and guiding insureds through complex regulatory obligations and potential litigation.
News: New FEMA chief says states’ disaster burden will double
The root of it: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Drew Richardson outlined his agency’s vision for the future. Speaking at a FEMA town hall, Richardson, who was appointed on May 8, called for states to shoulder more of the financial burden for catastrophe preparedness, response, and recovery. This announcement comes in response to calls from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Kristi Noem, and the Trump White House for FEMA to undergo drastic reform or to be abolished outright.
The root of it: FEMA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently announced it will stop updating its free historical database of climate and weather disasters resulting in at least $1 billion in damage. In response, insurance rating agency AM Best cautioned that the decision will impact insurers’ ability to track losses from so-called secondary perils—wildfires, floods, and severe convective storms—which could inhibit reinsurance and risk management, pricing, and weaken efforts to close coverage gaps in the face of escalating natural catastrophe perils.
News: "AI diplomacy” enters an uncertain new phase
The root of it: AI diplomacy has joined the race to preserve the US’s economic and strategic footprint abroad, as the Trump White House pursues exporting US AI technology to check China’s growing influence. Part of this effort requires reversing the Biden administration’s “AI Diffusion Rule,” which restricted the export of powerful AI chips to other countries. This new decision opens markets to US-made AI tech. It also removes the ability to control chip access to preserve America’s lead (which, since the launch of DeepSeek, made possible with comparatively simple processors, might not matter much).
News: "Tired: Will fix code for food. Wired: Will fix code for free. Inspired: 'An AI agent fixes my code' "
The root of it: Microsoft’s GitHub software developer collaboration platform announced the release of its Copilot Coding Agent. The new tool helps developers fix bugs, add features, and generally get software to market faster. However, the announcement also suggests Microsoft might be turning up the heat on its simmering war with OpenAI to win the hearts, minds, and wallets of developers, who are by far the biggest market for paid AI services.
News: History and advancement of AI factored into Pope Leo XIV's papal name selection
The root of it: In his first formal address, Pope Leo XIV revealed the inspiration for his papal name. Leo XIV's chosen name honors Pope Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical, “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor” (Rerum Novarum), articulated the Church’s response to social conflict during the Industrial Revolution. Leo XIV cited his concerns over how AI could endanger privacy and intellectual property rights while threatening to cause job displacement. (Incidentally, the new pope’s predecessor, Francis I, was a victim of AI disinformation in 2023, when an AI-generated image of him wearing a trendy puffer jacket went viral.)
News: A strategic insurance workforce growth approach
The root of it: The insurance industry is caught in a paradox: It is simultaneously over-pressured to automate and under-[human] resourced to support meaningful growth. Insurance Innovation Review explores how Progressive leans into this paradox by hiring not as a last resort effort to fix inefficiencies, but to sustain growth and meet demand. Read on to learn what makes Progressive so bullish (by hiring 12,000 employees) on our industry.
The root of it: OpenAI has introduced a Safety Evaluations Hub, a new initiative aimed at enhancing transparency regarding its AI models' performance and safety. This hub provides insights into issues such as hallucinations, harmful content generation, adherence to instructions, and resistance to jailbreak attempts. By openly sharing these evaluations, OpenAI seeks to foster trust and accountability in its AI systems.
News: 2024 P/C insurance combined ratio was the best in more than a decade
The root of it: Some eye-opening highlights from Carrier Management’s analysis of the S&P/Global Market Intelligence 2024 reports that personal line c/r fell 10% (from 106.7 in FY 2023), with the industry total down to 96.5, down 5% from a year ago. Notably, homeowners results saw dramatic improvement, even with an above-average CAT season, due to a combination of factors, including higher premium rates and flood losses not covered by traditional homeowners policies.News: 40 insurers are among the Most Trustworthy Companies in America
The root of it: From tire wholesalers and snowmobile makers to Liberty Mutual and other global insurance giants, businesses depend on building customer trust as a durable foundation for success in areas ranging from product innovation to workforce development and retention. These rankings were determined through an independent survey of 25,000 U.S. respondents, resulting in over 100,000 evaluations.News: White House fires FEMA chief two weeks before the start of hurricane season
The root of it: Barely two weeks before the start of hurricane season, the acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cameron Hamilton, was let go. His replacement is David Richardson, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official. A FEMA spokesperson confirmed this move and offered no reason for Hamilton’s dismissal.News: The emergence of agentic AI-driven risk management and compliance
The root of it: A KPMG practice leader explains how agentic AI offers breakthrough capabilities—e.g., internal audit systems for transparent real-time monitoring without human intervention—to help build resiliency and competitiveness for the long haul.News: Capgemini: Greying markets will reshape P&C insurance
The root of it: Capgemini Global Insurance Industry Leader Adam Denninger notes that it's impossible to compensate for the births that didn’t occur two decades ago. To address this demographic crisis, insurers should consider:
News: Chatbots aren't replacing jobs or affecting wages
The root of it: A recent study revealed that AI chatbots have had “no significant effect” across 25,000 workers in 11 occupations, including customer support, IT support, and software development. The issue isn’t whether people are avoiding AI. Instead, many tasks cannot be automated by ChatGPT—and this creates new workflows (that sometimes cancel out potential time savings from chatbots).
News: General Motors claims it has the right to sell your data because you're using public roads
The root of it: Buckle up, folks. The battle over who owns and controls your driving data is headed to court. General Motors claims its practice of collecting and selling users’ driving information without explicit consent cannot form the basis for any privacy-based claim. Also named as co-defendants: Lexis-Nexis and Verisk.
News: Warren Buffett reveals plan to step down at the end of 2025
The root of it: The fabled “Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffett, surprised a packed house at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting by announcing his retirement at the end of 2025. Buffett named Berkshire’s vice-chairman of non-insurance operations, Greg Abel, as his successor at the helm of the trillion-dollar company, whose holdings include Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, GEICO, General RE, among others.
News: The global AI race between the U.S. and China heats up
The root of it: U.S. innovators raced to an early lead with systems like ChatGPT, only to see China close the gap with competitive open-source models like DeepSeek. At stake is more than who establishes tomorrow’s AI standards; it is also about which country extends its dominance over global markets and geopolitics.
News: An AI agent market map
The root of it: This AI Agent Market Map reveals rapid growth in enterprise AI agents and copilots, with over 170 startups across 26 categories raising $3.8B in 2024. While tools are advancing from basic copilots to more autonomous “digital coworkers,” most still operate within constraints due to reliability and reasoning limits. General-purpose, no-code platforms lead early-stage development, empowering businesses to build agents without coding. The market is also shifting toward greater specialization, integrated tech stacks, and clearer value realization.
News: CIOs are having a “get-real” moment about building AI solutions in-house
The root of it: In late 2023, Gartner reported that approximately half of all companies were developing AI tools in-house. A year later, that number plummeted to roughly 20%. Even as optimism in AI remains high, CIOs are forced to reckon with the lack of expertise and budget to bring solutions into production.
News: Hype blurs reality as CIOs race to implement AI agents
The root of it: With agentic AI moving to supplant generative AI at the top of the technology hype cycle, tech leaders have a major problem: the absence of a standard definition for what an AI agent actually is. In this article, CIOs share their views on defining the tech and provide guidance on how to avoid falling for what’s now being called “agent-washing.”
News: Insurance survey findings drivers are distracted, stressed, and open to tech solutions
The root of it: The 2025 Nationwide Driving Behaviors Report shows a rise in risky driving among both consumers and commercial drivers. Gen Z drivers report more impatience and device use, while commercial drivers face increased distraction from staffing shortages and work demands. Despite this, 86% rate their own driving highly, though only 23% say the same of others, revealing a major perception gap.
News: Policyholders more receptive to AI when its benefits are clear
The root of it: A recent survey shows that 25 percent of U.S. adults view AI use by insurers negatively, while more than half (55 percent) are indifferent. The silver lining? Customer acceptance increases significantly when AI delivers tangible benefits (e.g., faster and more accurate claims processing, customized quotes, and enhanced customer service).
News: AI integration in insurance demands robust governance and regulatory compliance
The root of it: AI is streamlining insurance processes like underwriting and claims, but it's raising regulatory concerns. Insurance regulatory legal experts (including the one-time general counsel at Lemonade) offer insights and guidance to help chart a course through the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape of the use of AI across insurance operations. States are responding with new laws and guidance to ensure responsible AI use. Insurers must maintain strong governance and can’t offload compliance duties to tech vendors.
News: Small Language Models (SLM) and agentic AI need smarter governance for scalable insurance innovation
The root of it: Insurers are embracing specialized small language models (SLMs) and agentic AI to boost efficiency, accuracy, and autonomy. An AI governance expert delivers guidance to help insurers balance innovation with risk to accelerate deployment, ensure compliance, and deliver measurable value across operations.
News: Keeping humanity at the center of tech-empowered insurance teams
The root of it: Effectively implemented, AI is a force multiplier that lets human experts do their best work. However, the article explores how insurance companies risk losing human-centric culture as they scale and adopt advanced technologies. Rapid growth and tech integration can reduce empathy and interpersonal connection within organizations. To counter this, companies are encouraged to prioritize team-building and preserve core human values alongside digital transformation.
News: AI-generated radio DJ enthralls unaware audiences for months
The root of it: An AI DJ entertained Australian radio listeners for four straight months with no one the wiser. Opinions on this were mixed. A voice actors’ union spokesperson criticized the station’s lack of transparency. But we’re guessing autonomous vehicles are excited about having their own drive-time radio programming to listen to.
News: The wit and wisdom of AI hallucinations? (Yes, you read that correctly)
The root of it: Remember that old nugget, “never put a tiger in a Michelin star kitchen?” How about “always pack extra batteries for your milkshake”? If you do, you might be hallucinating, too, because generative AI just made it all up. Read on for more AI-generated idioms to drop into your next presentation.
Read our 2025 State of AI Adoption in Insurance Report for insights and perspectives on AI adoption from more than 240 insurance executives.