Brokerages are late to the party on AI investment: survey

Three quarters of brokerage owners polled in Canadian Underwriter’s 2026 National Broker Survey report they have not invested in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past two years.

As for broker owners currently investing in AI, it’s a mixed bag whether they think it’s strengthening the business, the survey shows. Twenty-three percent of the 30 brokerage owners polled thought AI was “highly beneficial” for the business, whereas another 23% thought it was “not beneficial at all.”

In this year’s annual broker survey, CU included questions for the first time about AI investment and its use in brokerages across the country. The survey heard from 169 brokers, with 32 of them identifying as brokerage owners or principals.

Of the 30 brokerage owners who answered our questions about AI, about half (15) were from smaller brokerages (fewer than 20 employees), 10 were from mid-sized brokerages (21 to 100 employees), and four worked at large brokerages (more than 100 employees).

Eight out of 10 small brokerage owners said they haven’t invested in AI over the past two years. Seventy percent of mid-sized brokerage owners said they had not invested in AI, while half of the four larger brokerages said they had not invested.

Of the brokerage owners who reported investing in AI over the past two years, the vast majority said they’d invested up to $5 million. Only one brokerage owner, at a large brokerage, invested more than $6 million (between $6 million to $10 million) over the past 10 years.

Related: As NatCats slow to a dull roar, brokers turn their attention to other concerns

And how did owners say they’re using AI?

Over half (52%) said they used AI to improve productivity at the brokerage. This would include using AI to streamline occupational tasks such as documentation, marketing or record-keeping.

Thirty-nine percent said they used it to enhance customer service. Examples include automating customer service or using chatbots to answer customer queries.

Tied for the next-most-frequent use of AI, at 22%, were:

• expansion of business opportunities (i.e., identifying new clients, segmenting customers, assessing risk or new product creation)  
• greater profitability opportunities through personalized pricing opportunities, or optimized insurance pricing.     

Nine percent said they used AI to detect fraud.

As noted, the jury was out on whether brokerage owners thought AI was strengthening their businesses.

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And so, how was it working out for the frontline brokers using AI?

CU asked broker producers if they found any AI investments at the brokerage over the past two years to be beneficial in their work. The numbers suggest a steady climb in the number of producers who found AI beneficial.

Thirty-four percent of 158 producers surveyed in 2026 said they found AI or machine learning “highly beneficial” in their work (i.e., a score of 4 or 5 out of 5.)

That’s up from 25% who said so in 2025, and 21% who gave AI technology a thumbs-up in 2021.  

David Gambrill

David has twice served as Canadian Underwriter’s senior editor, both from 2005 to 2012, and again from 2017 to the present.