Six in 10 Canadian finance and accounting hiring managers are paying more for AI-related skills, and an aging workforce and continued consolidation in insurance will keep demand for that talent high through 2027 and beyond, according to Robert Half.
The firm’s 2027 Canada Salary Guide found 29% of those managers say the premiums they pay for AI skills are higher than those they pay for other technology skills. AI agent building, and workflow automation and process improvement, are among the specialized skills commanding higher pay in finance and accounting, alongside data analytics and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software proficiency. Robert Half projects an average salary gain of 1.4% for finance and accounting positions in 2027, with specialized roles expected to outpace it.
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Mike Shekhtman, senior regional director at Robert Half, said the survey does not single out insurers, but its findings apply to them.
“Because of the data that we have, it’s so connected to the financial services industry, insurance weaves into it so much, and a lot of the data is really relevant to the insurance space,” Shekhtman told Insurance Business.
Employers are not paying more for AI skills for their own sake, Shekhtman said. They are paying for what those skills do to output.
“When companies are willing to pay, it is because individuals are able to leverage AI to make their work more efficient,” he said. “In essence, you’re becoming more productive in the workplace and ultimately are driving that productivity, which drives business success and business growth.”
Shekhtman tied the trend to Canada’s broader economic performance.
“We’re lagging behind in terms of productivity as a nation,” he said.
Business Development Bank of Canada has warned that faster AI adoption is critical to improving the country’s weak productivity, as Insurance Business reported in its coverage of the productivity gap facing Canadian insurers and the wider economy.
“The more AI and the more technology that we can continue to invest in, organizations are really putting an emphasis and a premium on individuals that can bring some sort of automation, some sort of ability to leverage some of the AI skills and platforms to streamline workflows within the business,” Shekhtman said.
Insurance is already further along than most sectors. Finance and insurance businesses reported a 40.4% AI adoption rate as of the second quarter of 2026, second only to information and cultural industries, according to Statistics Canada data.
A TD survey found many Canadians overstate their AI skills at work, with 32% admitting to exaggerating them and only 37% saying their employer had given them adequate AI training. That gap between adoption and capability is where employers are now spending.
Shekhtman said those skills carry particular weight for insurers with operations spread across the country. Canada’s size and regional diversity make it harder for national carriers to run as a single organization, he said, from coordinating branches with head office to staying connected with customers at the end of the chain. Employees who can use AI to tighten those links are the ones companies are competing for.
Bringing those skills into the business improves how teams report and make decisions, and lets them make better use of automation, Shekhtman said. That, he said, is ultimately why employers are willing to pay more to secure them.
Shekhtman does not expect demand for specialized finance, accounting and technology talent to ease next year.
“I would have to say that it’s going to continue in a way that it hasn’t actually changed in a number of years,” he said.
Organizations across the country are still working through extensive digital transformation, he added.
Demographics are compounding the problem. Shekhtman said much of the insurance and financial services workforce is approaching retirement. The Insurance Institute of Canada’s most recent demographic analysis of the property and casualty industry projected that 8.5% of the workforce would retire within five years, including about 15% of senior management, as Insurance Business reported in its look at whether AI can ease Canadian insurance’s talent crisis.
Consolidation is adding to the workload.
“We’ve seen this for the last number of years where insurance companies have gone through a lot of mergers and acquisitions, and we see a lot of acquiring within that space,” Shekhtman said. “That’s going to force also companies coming in to continue to invest in digital transformation projects.”
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Those integrations bring new demands on finance teams, he said, as acquirers bring together data and systems from the businesses they buy.
He said the industry has only begun to see what the technology can do, and that salary increases for specialized roles are likely to continue.
“It’s only going to get more in demand in terms of some of the technologies that will be available to, again, grow businesses and professionals as we head into 2027 and really beyond,” Shekhtman said.
