Industry has ‘obligation’ to retrain individuals who lose jobs to AI

The insurance industry has an “obligation” to retrain individuals who may lose their jobs to artificial intelligence (AI).

That is according to Mike Keating, chief executive at the Managing General Agents’ Association (MGAA), who told Insurance Times that he does not think the industry has figured out retraining sufficiently.

According to KPMG’s 2025 Insurance CEO Outlook, published in January 2026, 67% of bosses anticipated seeing a return on AI investment within one to three years, compared with 21% in 2024.

Meanwhile, some 77% of chief executives said having an AI-ready workforce was critical to growth.

The report surveyed 110 global insurance bosses, including UK leaders across the general insurance market.

Keating said that there is a “general clarity that the repetitive tasks will be replaced by AI” and that the “industry has to be very honest with itself and say that will mean a reduction in workforce”.

“But it will also mean a retraining of the workforce,” he continued.

“So, it won’t mean that necessarily all those jobs go completely [and] there’s a real obligation that the industry needs to retrain those individuals whose jobs may go, because they can still add value to an organisation in a different way.”

In turn, Keating said it was really important for the “industry to ask itself, with the embracing of AI, what it is actually doing to align retraining of this workforce”.

“I don’t think the industry is as far advanced around retraining as it should be,” he continued.

“You could end up saying that AI is going to do all of these roles, you make a big call by reducing your workforce and then all of a sudden find ‘Christ, AI is not quite doing what we thought it would do and we need to recruit some people back’.”

Underwriting impact

Keating was speaking to Insurance Times for the publication’s latest Big Story, which explored whether MGAs were becoming more attractive career destinations for underwriters across the market.

According to a report published in October 2025 from Sollers Consultancy, titled Beneath the Surface of AI in Insurance, 30% of surveyed firms reported that they had implemented or were in the process of implementing AI workflows in their underwriting departments.

Andy Hurrell, founder and managing director at Corin Underwriting, said that “AI can help underwriters work smarter, but it should support the underwriter rather than take the underwriter out of the process”.

He added: “I also think there is still strong broker demand for human access. Brokers value speed, but they also want to know who to speak to when a risk is unusual, when something goes wrong, or when a client needs proper technical support.

“The future is not about rejecting AI, it is about using it responsibly while preserving the underwriting judgement and relationship-led service that the market still needs.

“The challenge is to integrate AI without losing discipline, service quality or the underwriter’s craft.”

Alison Williams, managing director at Prestige Underwriting, added that the “key is balance”.

She continued: “The best underwriters want better tools, not fewer tools.

“At Prestige, we have invested heavily in data, pricing and actuarial capability, including property-level peril rating, because technology and data should sharpen underwriting decisions rather than replace underwriting judgement.

“The key is balance. In a specialist MGA, the use of tools and data are most powerful when they remove friction, improve speed and precision and allow underwriters to spend more time on the risks where their expertise really adds value.”