Manulife and Intact Financial snagged top spots in a global ranking of insurers’ adoption of artificial intelligence, marking an outsized presence from Canadian companies despite the market’s small size relative to others across North America and Europe.

London, U.K.-based benchmarking and intelligence platform Evident ranked the world’s 30 largest insurers on their use of AI in developing talent, innovation, leadership and transparency, in a report released Wednesday.  

The report relied on manual research and millions of data points, followed by consultations with AI experts. Insurers’ ability to hire and retain AI specialists, as well as their use of innovation in the form of research, patents and ventures were the most heavily weighted factors, accounting for 45 per cent and 30 per cent of the total score, respectively. Attracting talent tends to be the biggest bottleneck in AI adoption for the insurance industry, Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder and co-CEO of Evident said in an interview. 

Canada keeps pace: Toronto-headquartered Intact Financial ranked fourth in the index, while Toronto-based Manulife ranked fifth, both outperforming U.S. insurance giants State Farm, Allstate as well as Berkshire Hathaway. Meanwhile, Paris-based Axa took the top spot, and Germany’s Allianz ranked second. Notably, the top 30 insurers across North America and Europe are adopting AI at the same speed, with Canada keeping up despite having a smaller insurance market than the U.S. or large European nations, according to the report. “Canada is punching above its weight in AI,” Mousavizadeh said. “Having two Canadian insurers up there in the top five is no small feat.”

The use case: Insurers are using AI for a variety of processes: automating claims, improving customer service, underwriting, and retrieving internal knowledge. Manulife’s legal summarization tool is one standout example, the report outlined.  Released in December 2024, it can review legal documents of up to 100 pages for lawyers and paralegals. Manulife has been integrating AI into its workforce since 2016, and rolled out AI tools for the whole company—with a 75 per cent adoption rate. The insurer is expected to see over $600 million in benefits from its digital strategy in 2024, and has 200 data scientists and machine learning experts working on its team, according to its website. 

The payoff: Only three insurers—Intact Financial, Zurich Insurance Group and Aviva—have already reported a return on their investment into AI, according to the Evident report. Of the three, Intact is the only company to give a “comprehensive” estimate for the return on investing in different cases of AI, and has reaped $150 million in benefits every year as a result of its over 500 models. Disclosing returns is typical of banks, but more novel among insurers, Mousavizadeh said. Intact has been an early mover in the AI space, with CEO Charles Brindamour communicating early about their strategy, she added.