Brown & Brown does not expect its push to deploy artificial intelligence across the brokerage to lead to significant layoffs, according to president and CEO Powell Brown (pictured), who described the technology as "a growth tool rather than a cost-cutting exercise."
The company is scaling its "AI-first" strategy across approximately 23,000 employees, building on earlier trials and implementation of AI use cases in selected parts of the business.
Asked whether the strategy ruled out layoffs associated with the rollout, Brown said the company was not planning a significant reduction in its workforce because of AI.
"You've heard lots of leaders up to this point talk about this as an expense-reduction tool," Brown said. "We're not talking about this as an expense-reduction tool. We're talking about this as a growth enabler. Having said that, do we think this is intended to produce a significant reduction in force because of AI? No, we don't."
Brown stressed the initiative should be viewed as a business transformation supported by technology, rather than an IT project. "We look at it as an enhancement tool, as opposed to a replacement strategy," he told Insurance Business.
"We think that people will have their jobs modified, and they're going to have to continue to grow. We all have to grow in how we use it and bring it to bear for the benefit of our customers."
The rollout will take place gradually across different segments of the brokerage. Brown said giving employees access to an AI platform would not, by itself, generate meaningful improvements without training, shared capabilities and tools designed around specific business needs.
"How are we building solutions and bots that will enable our teammates to better serve our customers and produce better customer outcomes?" he said. "How does it make our teammates more efficient in going to market and servicing existing customers and prospective new customers?"
Brown & Brown's approach contrasts with brokers and insurance companies that have linked automation and AI investment to headcount reductions. Among the most recent: Acrisure, the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based broker and fintech, cut roughly 400 accounting and back-office roles in late 2025 citing automation, then went further in May 2026, cutting approximately 2,250 jobs (about 11% of its global workforce) in a phased restructuring running through 2027.
Aon and The Jacobson Group's Q1 2026 Insurance Labor Market Study has noted that automation and process improvement were cited as the most common reasons for planned staff reductions ahead of reorganization and overstaffing.
However, Brown said Roles at Brown & Brown are likely to change as the rollout unfolds, and employees will need to develop their skills as the technology becomes more deeply embedded across the organization. The company is assessing how AI can improve organic growth, strengthen customer interactions and allow employees to spend more time addressing complex risks.
Early opportunities include extracting insights from large datasets, sharing knowledge across the brokerage and automating repetitive processes such as certificates of insurance.
The company is also still developing measurements to determine whether productivity improvements produce better customer outcomes. Potential indicators include customer experience, retention, claims outcomes, marketing and placement performance, and the brokerage's ability to help clients manage risk.
Brown acknowledged that implementing AI across a company of Brown & Brown's size would bring challenges. The brokerage plans to involve producers, service employees, marketing teams, claims professionals and business leaders in developing and implementing AI capabilities.
"I think anybody who says there aren't adoption hurdles is kidding themselves or kidding you," he said. “It comes down to how we help our teammates understand and better use the product. We have to show them some scenarios.
“If you don’t engage the people doing the work with the customers, and it becomes more of a technology project than a business project, I think you’re going to have even more problems.”
Senior leadership commitment will also be central to the initiative, he added. "If the CEO and the senior leadership team are not fully committed, it creates a huge hurdle to success," Brown said. "In our case, I'm fully committed."
The strategy comes as Brown & Brown continues to expand through hiring and acquisitions. Brown said attracting and retaining talent remains one of the brokerage's most significant challenges as it works to increase annual revenue from roughly $7 billion to approximately $8 billion.
"The most important thing is finding the right people who fit culturally," he said. "The teammates we have are one of our greatest positives, but the greatest challenge is finding more people like them to help us get to the next level and beyond."
While younger employees may be more accustomed to emerging technologies, Brown said AI did not fundamentally alter the existing talent challenge.
Looking longer term, Brown said the greatest opportunity may come from capabilities the industry has not yet anticipated.
"The possibilities over the longer term are even bigger than most of us, including myself, can imagine," he said. "I'm excited about how it will make the delivery of solutions to our customers better. It will enable our teammates to focus on more important items, in my opinion. I'm also excited about being able to have an even deeper understanding of our data than we already have."
