Competitive AI advantage hinges on enabling better judgements – Oxbow Partners

Insurers are spending big on artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, but for the benefits to meaningfully compound into a competitive advantage, the technological use cases must move beyond minor efficiency gains.

These are the findings of the latest CEO Agenda report from Oxbow Partners, released yesterday (14 July 2026) and titled Compounding advantage with AI in commercial and specialty (re)insurance.

The report warned that the industry could learn lessons from what it identified as the failures of the insurtech 2.0 wave, which it suggested had not delivered on its promise to disrupt the market over the past decade and had instead worked largely in support of incumbent carriers.

In contrast, it identified AI capabilities as a “strategic” and “core” industry development, rather than a “tactical” and “ancillary” one, as insurtech 2.0 has been.

Shape, motion and direction

Report authors Chris Sandilands, partner at Oxbow Partners, and Oliver Watts, senior manager at the firm, urged businesses to focus on three key themes to prepare for change in the upcoming years – shape, motion and direction.

These themes, they said, should drive business leaders to think about the structure of their target organisation, the framework that enables AI to be used to achieve said structure and the narrative used to drive change, respectively.

Ultimately, the report suggested that a culture of constant strategic innovation and agility would be more important to a business’ successful adoption of AI than any one definitive roadmap.

It concluded: “The cliché that culture eats strategy for breakfast remains true and has become even more true as the information and decision making landscape democratises. Trust is critical, and good culture breeds trust.

“AI amplifies whatever culture already exists. In organisations that reward responsible experimentation and continuous learning, it accelerates progress. In those that punish risk taking or rely on rigid hierarchies, it reinforces inertia.

“Leadership teams need to foster a culture that accepts uncertainty, tolerates uneven progress and values judgement over procedure.”