Vertafore says insurance retirements are turning into an AI-era knowledge crisis
Vertafore says 400,000 insurance retirements by the end of 2026 could drain the judgment carriers rely on, pushing AI from automation into knowledge capture.
Carrier leaders are staring at a knowledge problem that looks like a labor problem until the experienced people actually leave. Vertafore says the retirement wave now moving through insurance threatens the tacit judgment that keeps underwriting, claims handling, servicing, and regulatory calls consistent from one file to the next.
The scale is hard to ignore. Vertafore says about 400,000 insurance professionals are expected to retire by the end of 2026, and it adds that half of the current workforce is expected to retire within 10 years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 8,200 openings a year for insurance underwriters over the decade, with every one of those openings tied to replacement needs such as retirements or other exits from the labor force.
That matters because insurance expertise does not live neatly in manuals. It sits in underwriting judgment, claims nuance, regulatory interpretation, relationship management, and the small calls veteran staff make without thinking twice. As those employees retire, onboarding gets slower, operational consistency gets harder to maintain, and carriers risk losing the memory that makes their systems work.
Vertafore is pushing AI as a knowledge-capture layer, not a substitute for seasoned staff. The company launched ReferenceConnect AI in 2026 and says the platform supports about 3.5 million searches annually, a sign of how often insurance teams need quick access to trusted answers. At Accelerate 2026, which drew more than 2,000 attendees, Vertafore tied that message to a broader push to embed AI across workflows instead of bolting it on as a gimmick.
The point is sharper than a generic automation pitch. For carriers dealing with large books, shifting distribution, and compliance obligations that vary by line and jurisdiction, the risk is not only that jobs go unfilled. It is that the judgment behind those jobs disappears with the retirement wave. Vertafore has been making the same case in its MGA messaging, too, arguing that firms need to capture expertise before it walks out the door. That is why knowledge management is turning into an operating issue, not just a training issue: if carriers cannot preserve institutional memory, service quality, underwriting discipline, and customer experience all take the hit.
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