Oxbow Partners tells re/insurance CEOs to stop piloting AI and start building

Oxbow Partners said the competitive advantage from AI will come from enhancing judgment across complex risks and portfolios, not from simply automating tasks. CEOs should look beyond productivity improvements and assess how AI can reshape their organisations. They also need the operating models, governance frameworks, and data foundations to scale AI responsibly, the authors said.

Companies that embed AI into strategic and underwriting decision-making will gain the most, the report said. Running the most pilot projects will not deliver the same result. The report notes that AI has represented a step-change in capability since 2023. Earlier transformation efforts focused on standardising high-volume processes through automation and outsourcing.

"Applied thoughtfully, it creates value; applied poorly, it creates cost. We remind CEOs that, no matter what investors say, AI is a tool and not a religion," Oxbow Partners concluded.

The report pushes the sector to move faster. Many insurers still treat AI as an experiment. The technology is already capable of changing how underwriters evaluate risk and managers allocate capital. The next step is building the operating model, governance structure, and data foundations needed to make AI-driven judgment repeatable across the organisation.