Guidewire results show insurers still investing in core modernization

Guidewire’s latest quarter looked less like a software beat and more like a stress test for P&C core modernization, and it passed. For the three months ended April 30, 2026, total revenue reached $372.5 million, up 27% year over year, while subscription and support revenue rose 35% to $244.7 million. Annual recurring revenue climbed to $1.147 billion, up from $1.041 billion a year earlier, and Guidewire said ARR grew 19% in the quarter.

That matters because the company did not just lift numbers, it lifted its outlook. Guidewire raised fiscal 2026 guidance to ending ARR of $1.229 billion to $1.237 billion, total revenue of $1.460 billion to $1.470 billion, subscription and support revenue of $963 million to $969 million, and GAAP operating income of $124 million to $134 million. Management also said the business was heading toward what should be a record fourth quarter, a strong signal that large insurers are still signing up for multi-year platform work rather than stopping at smaller tactical upgrades.

The bigger read-through is on buyer behavior. In its second-quarter fiscal 2026 results, Guidewire said AI was driving core system modernization activity and durable demand for large, multi-year deals. That same pattern carried into the third quarter. Insurers are not treating AI as a side project; they are tying it to core-system decisions, from faster release cycles to embedded intelligence and broader ecosystem integration. Guidewire has been leaning into that pitch with ProNavigator, its embedded AI assistant inside Guidewire applications, and with Palisades, its newest cloud release for PolicyCenter, ClaimCenter, and InsuranceNow.

Guidewire’s footprint gives the numbers more weight. The company said more than 570 insurers in 43 countries use its products, supported by 200 technology partners, 500 Marketplace applications, 41 consulting partners, and 28,000 certified consultants. That kind of ecosystem is what carriers buy when they commit to a core-suite replacement: not just software, but implementation capacity, integration depth, and enough partner muscle to survive a multi-year migration.

Recent customer activity backs that up. Ethias SA went live on Guidewire Cloud Platform on April 2, 2026. IAG New Zealand migrated its on-premises ClaimCenter implementation to Guidewire Cloud Platform on March 13, 2026. Sompo Group entered a long-term agreement with Guidewire on February 18, 2026. Together, those moves point to the kind of spending Guidewire wants to see in 2026: fewer experiments, more platform commitments, and a market still willing to bankroll the slow, expensive work of replacing core systems.