Insurance professionals are rethinking how they build their careers, and AI is forcing the question. The 2026 Skills Report from The Institutes Knowledge Group finds the workforce taking a more deliberate approach to professional development than ever before.
The report draws on data from learners who completed more than 170,000 courses and earned over 10,000 designations in 2025. It maps where the risk management and insurance workforce is investing its time and which skills will hold value in the years ahead.
The findings point to a market in transition. A new wave of talent is entering the field, and demand for foundational learning in insurance, claims, and risk management remains strong.
The influx is arriving at a difficult moment for the industry. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects 400,000 insurance workers will retire by 2026. At the same time, AI is automating many of the entry-level roles that once served as the sector’s recruitment pipeline.
Demand is shifting toward technically proficient talent as a result. Some 91% of insurance and pension fund employers now plan to hire people skilled in working with AI. The figure sits well above the global average of 62%.
The report expects newcomers to shift their focus over time. The move is from building basic competency toward deepening it.
Employers are placing greater weight on adaptable soft skills such as strategic thinking and communication.
The report ties this directly to the growing role of AI in daily operations. As automation handles routine tasks, human-centric skills are becoming the main lens for spotting future leaders.
This tension is already surfacing in underwriting. Pacific Life’s 2026 Underwriting Outlook Survey found nearly half of underwriting executives already use AI. Yet around 70% expressed concern about the long-term availability of talent.
Respondents pointed to an aging workforce and loss of institutional knowledge (38%) as their leading worry. Another 20% cited the challenge of balancing automation with human expertise.
The report suggests organizations can use the data to build structured learning pathways. These would combine early-career interests with longer-term business needs. By setting baseline skills early, firms can widen the pool of candidates ready for leadership.
Early adopters show how that balance can work. At Aviva, deploying 80 AI models across claims did not eliminate the workforce. It transformed it, moving adjusters away from routine data assembly toward complex cases where human judgment matters most. Employee engagement scores more than doubled as a result.
Adam Carmichael, CPCU, president of The Institutes Knowledge Group, said how professionals learn matters as much as what they learn.
“We know from research that simulation-based, experiential learning significantly improves both knowledge retention and on-the-job skill application,” he said.
He added that professionals perform better when training mirrors real conditions: “Learners thrive when they can work through realistic scenarios in consequence-free environments.”
