Underwriters Say Losing Senior Judgment Is Their Biggest Fear, But Firms Are Investing Least in Saving It, New Survey Finds
hx Research Finds AI Investment Is Flowing to Admin and Speed While the Skills Underwriters Value Most Go Uncaptured
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London, Sept. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — .The insurance industry can name its biggest risk with precision. It isn’t funding the fix.
A new survey of senior commercial insurance professionals commissioned by hyperexponential (hx), the agentic platform for commercial P&C insurance underwriting, asked underwriters what separates good work from excellent work, how they spend their time versus how they’d like to, where AI has helped so far, and what they’re most worried about losing. It finds:
- 44% of underwriters say senior judgment leaving the industry, without being passed on, is their top fear, ahead of AI itself
- Coaching and knowledge-transfer technology gets just 8% of firms’ investment over the next 12 to 18 months, the lowest of any category surveyed
- Only 15% say their firm has found a way to capture what its best underwriters know
- Two in five say that judgment today is captured poorly or only lives in a colleague’s head
- Notably, worry that AI will replace the underwriter’s job entirely keeps falling: 18% called it an urgent issue in 2024, 11% in 2025, just 5% today.
Asked what separates a good underwriter from an excellent one, three things top the list: risk selection and appetite discipline (48%), technical depth on complex risks (43%), and commercial instinct on price (38%).
Closest to the Work, Least Convinced on AI’s Promise
The hyperexponential Underwriting Edge Report finds the people closest to the work are the least persuaded AI has actually arrived. While over half of underwriters (51%) point to saving time on manual admin as AI’s biggest contribution so far, just 21% say it’s improved decision quality. Only 12% of senior and lead underwriters say AI feels fully integrated into their workflow, versus 29% of Chief Underwriting Officers. Confidence rises the further you sit from the actual work.
That skepticism isn’t a rejection of AI, it’s a redirection. Forced to choose, underwriters picked richer context over raw speed, every time:
- 73% preferred a real-time signal flagging portfolio drift and exposure over a report that simply refreshes automatically
- 70% wanted pricing that surfaces prior risks and model logic over pricing that just runs faster
Even where AI has delivered, the gain hasn’t closed the judgment gap. Manual admin, re-keying and system navigation account for 17% of the average underwriting week, and in an ideal week, underwriters would cut that roughly in half, to 8%, redirecting the time to broker conversations, portfolio review and coaching juniors. But reclaiming hours doesn’t fix what’s undermining their decisions: inconsistent data is the single biggest drag, cited by 44%, followed by pressure to bind quickly at the expense of analysis (38%) and a lack of context on similar prior risks (35%). The problem isn’t underwriter skill. It’s poor inputs, and no time to apply the judgment they have.
Industry Demands Human at the Wheel
“AI suggests, I approve” was the top-ranked way underwriters want AI to engage with every task tested. The more judgment a task demands, the less underwriters trust AI to handle it alone: asked how they’d want AI to handle each part of the job, from acting fully on its own to staying out of it entirely, the share comfortable with full AI autonomy falls from 34% on data ingestion to just 8% on coaching junior underwriters.
“Underwriters have told us exactly what they’re afraid of losing, and exactly what they want protected,” said Jamie Wilson, VP of Strategy at hyperexponential. “The industry keeps building AI to move faster, and carriers keep funding it that way. What this survey shows is that speed was never the scarce resource. Judgment is, and right now it’s leaving faster than anyone is capturing it, or investing in catching it.”
The hx Underwriting Edge Survey was conducted by independent research firm Coleman Parkes on behalf of hyperexponential. It surveyed 350 Chief Underwriting Officers, Heads of Underwriting / Line of Business, and Senior and Lead Underwriters working in commercial and specialty Property & Casualty insurance, split 43% UK and 57% US. Fieldwork was carried out in June 2026.
To access and download the full report, visit: https://hyperexponential.com/underwriting-edge-report-2026.
About hyperexponential
hyperexponential (hx) is the agentic platform for commercial P&C insurance underwriting. The platform amplifies underwriting judgment across submission triage, risk assessment, pricing, rating, and portfolio steering, helping carriers write more business at a better loss ratio. hx is trusted by leading global insurers for underwriting decisions across more than $75 billion in annual commercial P&C premium. Customers include Aviva, Allianz, Sompo, Beazley, Markel, HDI, Cincinnati, Convex, and Bowhead. Learn more at hyperexponential.com.
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