Accenture says AI agents will shape most insurance decisions within a year

Accenture’s insurance research found that 74% of consumers would trust a personal AI agent more than their best friend to make a purchase on their behalf, and 72% expect generative AI to influence at least half of their insurance shopping within a year. A June 17 Accenture study and a June 3 survey of 25,590 people across 16 countries found that 74% would delegate routine tasks to an AI agent, 32% would let an agent choose what to buy within set boundaries and 9% would allow fully autonomous purchases.

Accenture found that 82% of insurance customers already use generative AI. Among weekly GenAI users, generative AI has overtaken the physical store as the leading discovery channel. In insurance, the firm found 37% of consumers had already considered insurers they had not previously thought about because of generative AI, while 47% said it helped them find better products than they would have found on their own. Seventy percent said AI tools help them make quicker and more informed decisions.

Home and motor lines have sticky renewal behavior, and digital agents can now read policy wording, compare cover across providers and trigger a switch when renewal arrives. For P&C software teams, product design, content structure, quoting engines, data exchange, pricing transparency and renewal logic all have to become easier for machines to parse, compare and act on. Product metadata needs to be consistent, rating engines need clean rules, and digital experience platforms need to present a sales journey that machines can parse.

JD Power found that 53% of U.S. consumers were shopping for auto insurance in June, down from 57% a year earlier, and shoppers were receiving an average of 3.5 quotes, the highest in the study’s history. Nearly half of new auto policies, 48%, were purchased digitally. JD Power’s May digital experience study found that 47% of all new auto and home policies were purchased digitally, while only 11% of customers used chatbots or virtual assistants.

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority has said price comparison websites changed the way consumers shop for insurance and the way firms design, price and distribute products, while warning that price-first presentation can mislead consumers. It is reviewing 14 comparison websites that represent 90% of the general insurance comparison market. On March 23, Accenture announced an investment in DaVinci Commerce to prepare clients for agentic AI-led shopping.