Aviva’s Future Leaders Programme has promoted nearly a third of broking talent

Nearly 30% of participants in Aviva’s Future Leaders Programme have been promoted since its launch in 2018.

This is according to Gillian Brennan, broker propositions lead at Aviva, who told Insurance Times that the talent initiative for senior middle managers has resulted in 38 participants receiving promotions in their career.

Brennan explained that the Futures Leader’s Programme was established as a “broker succession strategy” to train senior middle managers to be future leaders in the broking business in response to “ageing” broker leadership.

Overall, Brennan said that the programme has seen 140 delegates pass through its seven cohorts.

Meanwhile, she said that the insurer’s Rising Stars programme has been “massively successful”, with seven young professionals promoted into various broking roles.

Despite the success, however, Brennan said Aviva is still committed to reviewing both programmes to meet broker expectations. And one area that is being looked at is artificial intelligence (AI).

Brennan said: “AI is a lot more important now than it was seven years ago so that’ll be an area of focus that we ramp up for 2027.

“As a general rule, brokers are much more nervous about AI than we are because they don’t have the expertise or the capability to bring people in with those expertise. So, it’s super important we have been focused both through the Rising Stars and Future Leaders Programme.”

Communication key

Brennan also stressed that communication needs to be the “number one” skill set for brokers.

This was reflected in Aviva’s latest Broker Barometer Survey, which collected responses from 250 general insurance brokers between 23 January and 5 February 2026.

As part of the survey, it was revealed to Insurance Times that nearly six in 10 brokers surveyed (58%) said good communication skills was the most important quality.

Meanwhile, strong technical knowledge came in at 53% and responsiveness at 51% in the survey.

Brennan explained that she has seen a “spike” in popularity for customer service training modules in the insurer’s development zone online training hub.

She continued: “It wasn’t popular before, but we’ve seen a spike in that.

“It’s about young people coming in who have got different expectations and skill sets than people that have been in the industry for years.

”The expectation when they land in a broker’s office is that they are going to pick up the phone and talk to a client. So, we have seen demand for those basic communication skills and general office skills.”