A small minority of insurers with advanced AI capabilities are outperforming peers on revenue growth and share price performance, but potential advantages from the technology are mostly unrealised, Capgemini says.

Only 10% of companies, described as trailblazers, are successfully scaling artificial intelligence while others are struggling to capture benefits, the consultancy’s annual World Property and Casualty Insurance Report says.

Initial progress has not transformed into enterprise adoption and 42% of insurers say they do not have metrics to measure success.

“The investment is real, the ambition is genuine and pilots are running. Early gains have been made, but they remain incremental,” Capgemini CEO of financial services Kartik Ramakrishnan said.

The report says the trailblazers treat AI as a core operating capability rather than merely a technology initiative. They achieved up to 21% higher revenue growth and about a 51% greater increase in share price between 2021 and 2024.

But even they have not fully adopted the technology at scale.

“Most AI still operates at the task level,” Mr Ramakrishnan said. “Across the industry, workflows remain built for human execution, and gaps in collaboration, data readiness and process redesign are fast becoming the defining challenges of the next phase.”

On average, insurers commit 72% of their AI investments to technology and infrastructure but only 28% to change management including basic employee and leadership training.

A trust gap exists among employees, with 43% citing job security as a top concern. Only 14% of employees are “very clear” on how AI fits into their work.

“Employees navigating genuine uncertainty about their future are unlikely to lean into a technology they associate with displacement,” the report says. “Until insurers address process design and the trust deficit together, transformation will remain out of reach.”

The report draws on customer and insurance employee surveys and interviews with executives across the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia. It is available here.