Whether driven by retirements or re-configuration, the insurance industry is scrambling for tech talent.
This article appears in the July/August issue of Global Finance Magazine.
Caught between a wave of retirements and a weak talent pipeline short on tech-savvy candidates, the insurance industry faces a talent shortage that could affect its ability to address cyber and other emerging risks.
“Demand is rising sharply for fluency in analytics, AI, as well as in cyber risk. These are all capabilities that are either new or that the traditional sources of talent haven’t produced at scale,” says Peter Miller, president and CEO of The Institutes, a risk management and insurance education provider.
In 2014, to help expand the talent pool, a group of risk management and insurance companies, nonprofits, and educational institutions, led by The Institutes, created MyPath, a one-stop resource for job seekers that outlines the benefits of, and pathways to, insurance careers.
The initiative remains timely because, in a November 2024 Institutes report, 66% of insurance professionals in the property and casualty sector surveyed identified the loss of institutional knowledge as the retirement wave’s greatest impact: “The result is both a talent shortage and a knowledge-transfer risk.” That means organizations must find ways to “preserve institutional expertise that took decades to build” while developing new skills.
Other Industry Observers Agree
“There is a dual-sided talent crisis,” says Margaret Milkint, global insurance practice leader at DSG Global, an executive search firm. “Organizations are losing experienced professionals faster than they can be replaced while simultaneously racing to build leadership capacity around capabilities that barely existed a decade ago.”
The talent crunch is rippling beyond primary insurers to encompass reinsurance carriers, brokerages, and risk management firms, she says. “Artificial intelligence is creating an entirely new category of roles spanning enablement, governance, ethics, and cultural integration that require skill sets the traditional insurance pipeline was never built to produce.”
The shortage of talent with tech and AI capabilities has become one of the industry’s most critical gaps as roles across underwriting, claims, and risk management become more data-driven, says Victor Harris, vice president at financial services recruiter Selby Jennings. “The shortage is slowing the pace at which many organizations can fully adopt and scale their AI strategies,” he warns.
Worsening Insurance Talent Squeeze
While they agree that AI is increasing demand for certain roles, experts at Aon observe that AI and automation are reducing demand in some entry-level and operations slots, particularly in finance and reporting.
“There is a risk of mischaracterizing the issue as a blanket shortage,” says Louisa Blain, head of insurance for human capital at Aon. “The reality is more nuanced, and linked to where the industry wants to grow versus the skills it currently has versus requirements for the future. This is less about replacement and more about reconfiguration of the workforce.”
Yet, the talent constraints could limit industry growth in specialist and emerging risk areas, argues Jeff Reider, head of Aon’s benchmarking, strategy and technology group. The Institutes’ Miller sees the shortage coming in cyber, complex liability, multinational program structuring, and cross-jurisdictional claims coverage.
“Knowledge lost to retirement can have meaningful downstream effects on compliance and strategy,” he says. “For any multinational that depends on its risk transfer partners to keep pace with growing exposure complexity, this is a material consideration.”
The infusion of capital and the emergence of new carriers and managing general agents in specialty lines have made the talent squeeze more pronounced over the last five years, says Tony Chimera, chief administrative officer at carrier Westfield Specialty.
“That has pulled talent out of the pool used by insurance carriers and brokers,” he adds, noting the talent squeeze has been building for two decades. “You do have an aging workforce. Some people are working longer, but you have a 55- to 65-year-old workforce that is probably not going to be there in the next five years.”
In addition, insurers are competing with the banking and technology sectors, which many younger professionals are turning to for more attractive careers with greater compensation. Yet, the actual compensation for some banking sector jobs, when salaries are integrated with a lack of work/life balance, can be much less desirable than insurance roles, Chimera points out: “Insurance is a great industry where you can earn a lot. And you can have a life.”
But Harris notes that many insurers’ locations in midsize cities can dissuade younger professionals intent on living in larger, more alluring metropolises. That leaves the industry with a limited pool of specialized talent.
Technical Fluency Isn’t Everything
How, then, is the industry to attract new talent?
The technology industry could be one source, Chimera says. But candidates must accompany the tech skills needed for roles in data analytics, AI, and cybersecurity with knowledge of the complex insurance business.
“Technical fluency alone doesn’t translate directly into effectiveness in risk management and insurance,” says Miller, adding that regulatory knowledge, coverage mechanics, and underwriting judgment take time to develop. “The most successful transitions involve strong technical capabilities combined with a genuine curiosity to develop insurance-specific expertise.”
While agreeing that the talent shortage has been building for years, Milkint notes that there is no clear consensus on when, or whether, it will peak. “Closing this gap,” she says, “will require the entire industry to go on the offensive and actively dismantle outdated stereotypes, confront long-standing biases, and make a compelling, unified case that insurance is not just keeping pace with the future, but helping to shape it.”
To attract more students from outside the traditional insurance and risk management programs, the industry must expand students’ awareness of career opportunities “beginning well before students reach their junior and senior years of college,” says Grace Grant, executive director at Gamma Iota Sigma. The collegiate society represents more than 7,000 students interested in careers in insurance, risk management, and actuarial science across 177 colleges and universities.
“Many students simply are not exposed to the breadth of careers available in the industry,” Grant says, adding that employers should highlight their innovation, technological sophistication, purpose-driven work, career stability, and advancement opportunities. “Students are highly motivated by careers where they can make a meaningful impact, and insurance is fundamentally about helping individuals, businesses, and communities recover from loss and manage uncertainty.”
Paula L. Green is a contributing writer based in New York City.