For decades, the United States has been the world’s largest insurance market, a place where capital, innovation and risk converge on a scale unmatched anywhere else. Now, a new question is emerging inside boardrooms from Hartford to Chicago to San Francisco: is the US quietly positioning itself to become not just the biggest insurance market, but the global center of insurance innovation?
The answer may lie in a story that begins far from underwriting desks - in the nation’s productivity numbers.
Recent research comparing economic performance across advanced economies shows the United States continuing to gain ground on one of the most important measures of long-term competitiveness: output per hour worked. Productivity, economists often remind us, is destiny. And for industries built on technology, modeling and data - including insurance - it is increasingly the foundation on which future advantage will be built.
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In the US, productivity grew by more than 127% between 1981 and 2024, far outpacing many peers. In Canada, for instance, the rate over that same period was roughly half that. The gulf has widened sharply in the past decade, as American firms invested heavily in digital infrastructure, advanced analytics and automation while others hesitated.
Those numbers may sound distant from the daily realities of brokers, but their meaning is not. For an industry whose future depends on the speed and complexity of its tools, productivity isn’t an abstract economic curiosity - it’s an operating system.
The US productivity surge has been powered by investment in information and communications technology: new software, cloud architecture, connected datasets, artificial intelligence. Across the economy, companies have rebuilt their digital foundations - and insurers have been among the earliest adopters.
Automated claims triage, machine-learning-based underwriting platforms, algorithmic fraud detection and real-time risk scoring are now commonplace among leading carriers. Large brokerages have spent the past five years building data lakes, workflow engines and client-facing analytics tools at a pace that has outstripped most global competitors.
These investments are beginning to deliver what economists call “productivity payback” - the moment when years of technological buildup translate into measurable efficiency gains and strategic advantage. In insurance, the results are tangible: faster turnaround times, sharper pricing, richer data, and the ability to offer clients a depth of insight that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
In a recent productivity report, the Fraser Institute points out that most of the United States’ advantage comes from sectors that are now intertwined with modern insurance: digital services, data-intensive industries and advanced ICT. Canada and parts of Europe, the report notes, have been slower to invest at comparable scale.
If the US seems to be accelerating, many traditional insurance markets appear to be fighting gravity.
The United Kingdom, long home to the famed Lloyd’s market, continues to struggle with a decade-long stagnation in productivity. Output per hour is roughly 20% lower than in the United States.
Despite significant transformation efforts at Lloyd’s, the broader UK economy still suffers from underinvestment in technology and uneven digital adoption. Administrative friction remains a barrier for brokers, reinsurers and MGAs trying to modernize their workflows.
Canada faces similar challenges. Its productivity growth has flatlined over the past eight years, weighed down by declining business investment and weaker adoption of new technologies. The Fraser Institute notes that Canadian business productivity actually fell slightly between 2017 and 2024 - at the same time US productivity grew by more than 10%.
To American brokers, the practical consequence is clear: they now operate in an economy structurally better equipped to deploy AI, scale digital systems and underwrite increasingly complex risks.
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence is poised to deepen these divides.
Where London and Toronto are still wrestling with modernization timetables, American insurers are moving aggressively. Many have already integrated large-scale AI engines into underwriting, modeling and client consulting. US firms have the capital, talent access and digital infrastructure to adopt AI at scale — and the productivity base to support it.
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Meanwhile, global competitors are becoming more cautious. Regulatory constraints, legacy systems and lower productivity growth have slowed AI deployment abroad, especially in the UK and continental Europe.
If insurance does enter what some analysts call an AI-driven decade, the countries able to build and maintain high-productivity digital economies will lead.
Right now, that is the United States.
For US brokers, the implications are both practical and strategic.
First, they now enjoy a structural advantage in speed. High-productivity economies support faster development cycles, faster decision-making and faster delivery of client solutions.
Second, they benefit from a deeper pipeline of technical talent. Data scientists, underwriters trained in AI-enabled tools, actuarial technologists and cyber-risk specialists gravitate toward markets with the strongest technological ecosystems.
Third, clients — particularly multinational corporations - increasingly seek brokers that can deliver the most advanced modeling, risk engineering and predictive analytics capabilities. American brokers are well-positioned to become the default partners for businesses seeking sophisticated, tech-enabled insurance strategies.
Finally, the US may not just retain its position as the largest insurance market. It could become the global center of insurance innovation - particularly if other markets continue to lag in productivity and technology adoption.
The future of global insurance may not be decided by tradition, market size or even regulatory influence. It may be determined by the economies most capable of deploying AI, harnessing data and adapting at scale.
Productivity - long a dry macroeconomic statistic - is emerging as the quiet force behind those capabilities. And on that measure, the United States is pulling ahead.
For American brokers, the message is clear: the world of insurance is changing, and they are standing at the leading edge of its transformation. The task now is to build on that advantage - before others begin to close the gap.
