Brown & Brown says AI will automate 25% of workflows

Brown & Brown put a concrete number on its AI push: more than 25% of end-to-end submission work across many wholesale and program businesses is expected to be automated, a signal that brokerage automation is moving from pilot projects to operating leverage.

That matters because submission handling is where brokerage time disappears. Intake, data extraction, appetite matching and carrier routing are still loaded with manual touch points, and Brown & Brown said it is already deploying AI agents across parts of its specialty distribution operations. The company framed the technology as a way to augment employees rather than replace them, which is the line most large intermediaries are choosing when they want to talk about productivity without telegraphing layoffs.

Brown & Brown said it is mixing out-of-the-box AI tools with proprietary Brown & Brown AI products embedded in its data workflows. Leadership also described an “AI-first culture” built on fail-fast incubation, cloud-native platforms, modern APIs and a scalable data foundation. That combination is telling. The market is no longer asking whether AI can summarize an email. It is asking whether AI can shave minutes and hours off submission queues, clean up bad data, and keep business moving fast enough that producers and underwriters do not lose momentum waiting on paperwork.

The timing of the message was backed by strong numbers from the company’s first quarter. Brown & Brown reported revenue of $1.9 billion, up 35.4% year over year. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.39, up nearly 8%, adjusted EBITDAC margin reached 38.5%, and operating cash flow topped $260 million. Brown & Brown also said its Accession acquisition remained on track to deliver $30 million to $40 million in EBITDA synergies in 2026.

That scale matters because the company is trying to layer automation onto a much larger operating base than it had a year ago. Brown & Brown completed the Accession Risk Management Group acquisition in 2025 and said the combined firm now has more than 23,000 professionals across 700+ locations. The Accession deal, announced on June 10, 2025 and later reported as a $9.825 billion transaction, added more complexity to delegated authority and program business, exactly where submission discipline and workflow consistency can pay off.

The backdrop was not all clean growth. Brown & Brown said organic revenue growth was flat, and market summaries pointed to softening catastrophe property pricing, with many E&S placements down 15% to 35%. In that kind of market, efficiency becomes the story. Brown & Brown is not presenting AI as a replacement for brokers, but as a way to process more submissions, faster, with fewer handoffs. That is the benchmark the rest of the brokerage market will now be measured against.