Although we are still in the early stages of adopting generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), leading insurance companies are already exploring applications throughout the property, casualty, life, and annuity insurance value chain. Due to its significant potential, creating a GenAI strategy is essential to avoid falling too far behind early adopters.

The adoption of generative AI is anticipated to evolve significantly over the next few years. In 2025, organizations are expected to move from largely experimental uses of GenAI to a more structured and strategic approach. This transition will involve the development of clear mid- to long-term road maps and the identification of key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the impact of GenAI projects. Companies will also prioritize realistic return on investment (ROI) analyses to ensure that GenAI initiatives align with their business goals and produce measurable results, which will aid in optimizing resource allocation and scaling operations effectively.

GenAI technologies continue to evolve at a breakneck pace (e.g., DeepSeek, QwQ-32B, multi-modal models, agentic AI, etc.), and adoption of GenAI across the insurance industry has already advanced at an extraordinary pace compared to that of other technologies historically. The initial awe and trepidation is being replaced with a growing positive sentiment as the financial services industry is starting to see the value of their initial GenAI projects. However, while there is no lack of imagination around use cases, some adoption barriers remain, particularly around the level of technology maturity as well as security and regulatory concerns.

GenAI’s potential for the insurance industry is beginning to crystallize as insurers test use cases and identify those that show the greatest potential. To help insurers distinguish the hype from reality and develop a blueprint to harness GenAI successfully, Celent has developed the GenAI Adoption WaveGram.