Workforce Shift or Talent Shortage?

The insurance sector is struggling to fill open positions as it grapples with a mix of retirements and a changing workforce, a report shows.

Critical roles requiring fluency in analytics, AI, and cyber risk are in high demand. The Institutes president and CEO Peter Miller says demand is rising sharply for these capabilities, which are either new or not produced at scale by traditional talent sources.

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Yet, the talent crunch is rippling beyond primary insurers to encompass reinsurance carriers, brokerages, and risk management firms. Margaret Milkint, global insurance practice leader at DSG Global, says artificial intelligence is creating an entirely new category of roles spanning enablement, governance, ethics, and cultural integration. These require skill sets the traditional insurance pipeline was never built to produce.

A dual-sided talent crisis is unfolding, she adds. Organizations are losing experienced professionals faster than they can be replaced while simultaneously racing to build leadership capacity around capabilities that barely existed a decade ago. Victor Harris, vice president at financial services recruiter Selby Jennings, says the shortage of talent with tech and AI capabilities is one of the industry’s most critical gaps. Roles across underwriting, claims, and risk management are becoming more data-driven, and the shortage is slowing the pace at which many organizations can fully adopt and scale their AI strategies.

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Not Just a Shortage, But a Shift

Experts at Aon observe that while AI is increasing demand for certain roles, it is also reducing demand in some entry-level and operations slots, particularly in finance and reporting. Louisa Blain, head of insurance for human capital at Aon, says there is a risk of mischaracterizing the issue as a blanket shortage. The reality is more subtle, and linked to where the industry wants to grow versus the skills it currently has versus requirements for the future. This is less about replacement and more about reconfiguration of the workforce.

Yet, the talent constraints could limit industry growth in specialist and emerging risk areas. Jeff Reider, head of Aon’s benchmarking, strategy and technology group, argues that constraints in this area may stifle expansion. The Institutes’ Miller sees the shortage coming in cyber, complex liability, multinational program structuring, and cross-jurisdictional claims coverage. Knowledge lost to retirement can have meaningful downstream effects on compliance and strategy, he warns. For any multinational that depends on its risk transfer partners to keep pace with growing exposure complexity, this is a material consideration.

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The infusion of capital and the emergence of new carriers and managing general agents in specialty lines have made the talent squeeze more pronounced over the last five years.