The buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) is growing louder by the day—and the insurance industry is no exception. From underwriting and claims to customer service and fraud detection, AI is being hailed as a game-changer. But in the rush to adopt this transformative technology, we risk repeating a familiar story.

The insurance industry has been on a long journey of digital transformation—one that arguably began decades ago with the introduction of mainframes, personal computers, and later, cloud computing. But in 2025, a new question is emerging: Why are we still talking about “digital transformation” in the traditional sense?

A 2019 article focusing on insurance underwriting by McKinsey stated, “Based on our observations, anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of underwriting’s time is spent on administrative tasks, such as rekeying data or manually executing analyses.”