Insurance has always been an industry built on expertise. From underwriting judgment to claims handling and regulatory interpretation, much of the work depends on knowledge that is developed over years of experience rather than learned overnight.
That reality was a major focus of a recent Vertafore webinar discussing workforce transformation in the insurance industry—including an estimated 400k professionals retiring by the end of 2026. Throughout the conversation, carrier leaders spoke about the growing challenge of preserving institutional knowledge as these industry experts retire while also helping newer employees ramp up in an increasingly complex environment.
For many carriers, the workforce transition is no longer a future concern. It is a present challenge that is impacting onboarding, operational consistency, and long-term knowledge continuity across the business.
Insurance expertise is difficult to replace
For carriers, this challenge goes beyond replacing headcount, because insurance has always relied heavily on expertise built over decades. Underwriting judgment, regulatory knowledge, relationship management, and operational nuances often live inside experienced teams rather than in formal documentation.
As seasoned professionals retire, carriers risk losing not only employees, but also the institutional knowledge that helps organizations operate efficiently and make informed decisions. At the same time, newer employees entering the industry require support, training, and mentorship. That dynamic creates additional pressure on experienced staff who are already balancing growing workloads and changing market demands.
In many organizations, experienced employees have become the unofficial bridge between legacy processes and modern operations. They are answering questions, reviewing work, training new staff, and overseeing teams all while continuing to manage their own responsibilities. Without the right operational support, that workload concentration can quickly create burnout risks and slow productivity across departments.
This is especially important in insurance because so much expertise is context driven. Experienced professionals often rely on years of pattern recognition and institutional understanding to make decisions efficiently. That knowledge is difficult to replace through hiring alone, particularly as onboarding timelines remain long and competition for talent continues across the industry.
This growing knowledge gap is forcing many carriers to rethink how expertise is captured, shared, and scaled across teams. As Kristin Nease, Chief People Officer at Vertafore, noted during the discussion:
"You really have to make sure that you're being thoughtful about what is leaving that isn't written down, what is leaving that is built in people's brains over experiences that they've had that are going to be hard to replicate in a short period of time.”
Where AI can help preserve expertise
While AI continues to dominate industry conversations, the webinar emphasized an important distinction: AI cannot replace the experience and judgment insurance professionals bring to their work. Insurance remains deeply relationship-driven and highly nuanced, especially in underwriting, claims, and distribution operations. While AI can improve processes across the policy lifecycle, its purpose is to augment insurance professionals, not replace them.
When it comes to the knowledge gaps presenting in the industry, what AI and modern systems can do is help preserve and operationalize expertise. For many carriers, that starts with making information easier to access. Critical knowledge often lives across disconnected systems, inboxes, spreadsheets, policy documents, and individual employee experience. Modern connected platforms, searchable documentation, workflow automation, and AI-enabled knowledge tools can help reduce friction by surfacing relevant information faster and creating more consistent processes for newer employees.
Importantly, this approach is less about replacing human decision-making and more about scaling it. Insurance still depends on expertise, judgment, and relationships. Technology works best when it supports those human capabilities rather than attempting to remove them from the process.
That idea surfaced repeatedly throughout the webinar discussion. Sandy Ulrich, SVP of IT and CIO at Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Group, summarized the challenge this way:
“How do we preserve and really scale their judgment in a way that is sustainable for our company?”
That balance between human expertise and operational scalability is becoming increasingly important as carriers modernize workflows, onboard newer employees, and prepare for the upcoming workforce transition.
Preparing for the next generation of carrier talent
In the face of retirement waves and technological opportunities, carriers are increasingly exploring ways to use AI-enabled tools and connected systems to:
- Surface institutional knowledge faster
- Reduce repetitive administrative work
- Improve onboarding for newer employees
- Make documentation and workflows easier to access
- Support more consistent decision-making across teams
Rather than replacing experts, these technologies can help experienced professionals extend their impact while making it easier for newer employees to ramp up without overwhelming the people around them. That balance matters because workforce modernization is no longer just an HR discussion—it’s becoming an operational strategy.
Carriers that successfully navigate the workforce transition will likely be the ones that invest not only in recruiting new talent, but also in preserving the expertise that already exists within their organizations. The goal isn’t to remove the human element from insurance; it’s to make valuable knowledge easier to retain, share, and apply across the business.
Want the complete breakdown from our expert panel? Check out the full webinar recording.