AI and the Trusted Advisor: Growing in a Softening Market
As we move into Q3 2026, certain complexity trends are undeniable: stubborn inflation in sectors like construction, medical, and semiconductor costs, plus geopolitical volatility, and a growing universe of emerging risks. Against that backdrop, policyholders are asking two questions more urgently than ever: “Do I need this coverage?” and if so, “How much do I need?” How brokers answer those questions is what separates a trusted advisor from a policy processor.
Complexity is reshaping the loss picture and coverage recommendations. Secondary perils are crushing. Swiss Re’s May 2026 report found that secondary perils’ share of North America’s $90 billion in natural catastrophe insured losses reached an all-time high of 99.9% in 2025. Wildfires and severe convective storms together produced the highest annual aggregate insured losses ever recorded from secondary perils in the region, prompting Monica Ningen, Swiss Re’s CEO of Property and Casualty Reinsurance US, to note: “These are no longer ‘secondary’ in any practical sense.”
AI’s Nuanced Embrace
Against this fast-changing risk landscape, technology is reshaping how we work, too. AI is front and center for all insurance execs right now, yet the embrace is more nuanced. The arrival of a soft market across many lines of business is accelerating, making organic growth harder to achieve. For the typical AI-leveraging insurance professional, greater efficiency must address the “work harder to make the same amount of money” dynamic that soft markets always produce.
Here’s the catch: if you’re looking at AI only as an efficiency play, you’re leaving most of the value on the table. Your AI utility must bolster your ability to attract new clients, cross-sell existing ones, and improve retention. If your prospecting normally nets you x appointments, reset your aim at 3x results and then you can point to AI as a growth engine. As the market softens, spreads narrow, and margins condense, efficiency alone won’t cut it.
What Brokerage Leaders Are Really Saying about AI
That tension between promise and proof of AI came through clearly at our AI Executive Roundtable in NYC in June. Nine brokerage leaders from Top 20 houses were candid: “We’re still figuring this out, while the real fight is adoption, data quality, and proving ROI under heavy stakeholder pressure.” They also acknowledged that their insurance buyers are now using AI to evaluate the thoroughness of every brokerage communication.
The same theme carried into a conversation I had in April with three Chief Growth Officers whom I deeply respect: WTW’s Jim Blaney, King Risk Partners’ Howard Weiss, and M3’s Nez Hasanoglu Jr. We talked about producer validation frameworks and how our industry must accelerate the onboarding of talent from outside insurance. AI should act as a translation layer while aggregating historical data, claims decision patterns, and best practices into an interface that fosters discovery.
That, ultimately, is the through-line of this moment: the right application of technology makes us stronger, not weaker. In today’s insurance market, AI is how brokers stop merely processing policies and start proving their value, surfacing the right coverage, sharpening every client conversation, and turning efficiency into growth. That’s not a cost-cutting story. It’s how trusted advisors scale in a faster market and how this industry keeps making the world a safer, more resilient place.
Jeff Cohen is senior vice president, industry relations, at Zywave, where he serves as a chief evangelist, spearheading relationships with key clients and industry stakeholders. He also leads Zywave’s media business and is a member of the firm’s senior leadership team. With more than 35 years of experience spanning data, analytics, media and insurance-focused businesses, Cohen previously served as president of Advisen, which was acquired by Zywave in 2020, and held senior sales and marketing roles at Bloomberg.