How independent agencies are really using AI in 2026

Nearly half of independent agencies now use some AI. Far fewer have rules for it. For agency owners, that gap is the real story of 2026.

How many agencies use AI now

The Big "I" 2026 Agency Universe Study, reported by Insurance Journal on September 24, 2026, found that 46% of agencies use AI. In 2024, that number was 15%.

Most of that use is still shallow. The 2026 Big "I" Agents Council for Technology Tech Trends Report found that nearly one third of agencies do not use AI at all. Among agencies using it, 32% are just experimenting. Only 8% say AI is part of their daily work. Two thirds plan to use more AI over the next 12 months.

Your staff may be ahead of you. Liberty Mutual's 2025 Independent Agents at Work Study found that 1 in 3 agency employees used AI for work in the past year. Owners were more eager than staff: 67% of principals want to use AI in the agency, compared with 49% of staff.

What agencies actually use it for

The Agency Universe Study lists these uses: marketing content (49%), reviewing coverage forms (43%) and reviewing contracts (35%).

In day to day terms, that can look like this:

• Client email. Drafting renewal reminders, client emails and social posts, then editing them by hand.
• Policy summaries. Summarizing a long policy or endorsement so a producer can read it in a few minutes.
• Quote comparisons. Putting two quotes side by side to spot differences in limits, exclusions and deductibles.
• Contract checks. Reading a lease or vendor contract for its insurance requirements before a certificate goes out.

On a February 2026 podcast tied to the Tech Trends report, agency technology leaders also talked about call summaries, policy checking, direct bill reconciliation and workflow automation.

Other tasks an agency could try, which these surveys did not measure, include sorting certificate requests and intake forms, and answering simple after-hours questions like office hours or how to report a claim. Keep a licensed person on anything that touches coverage advice.

The rules are behind

The Liberty Mutual study found that only 12% of agencies have a well-defined AI policy. The Tech Trends report found that more than 55% have no written AI use policy, and another 23% are still writing one.

That matters because staff may already be using AI tools the agency has not officially adopted. Liberty Mutual's report says an agency needs an AI policy to help reduce potential risks and safeguard sensitive client information.

Owners know this is a problem. In the Agency Universe Study, the top two reasons agencies gave for not using AI were not knowing what it can do (60%) and worries about security and privacy (48%).

Regulators are watching the carrier side. The NAIC adopted its model bulletin on insurers' use of AI on December 4, 2023. By March 2025, 24 states had adopted it with little or no change, according to an April 2, 2025 newsletter from the law firm Quarles & Brady. The bulletin asks insurers to keep a written AI program, make clear who is responsible for it, and check the AI tools and data they get from vendors. It applies to insurers, not agencies.

What to do this quarter

• Write a one page AI policy. List the approved tools, ban client personal data in any tool that is not approved, and require a person to check anything before it goes to a client.
• Pick one approved tool. Read its settings on how your data is stored and used before anyone signs in.
• Start with renewal emails. Have AI draft them from your notes, and have a licensed person approve each one.
• Build a quote comparison template. Ask for limits, exclusions and deductibles side by side, then check the result against the actual quote.
• Train the whole team together. The Tech Trends report found that 42% of teams learn new tech from each other, and nearly 23% have no steady training process.
• Ask your vendors what you already have. Your agency management system or carrier portals may already include AI features.

Where to get help

If you would rather not do this alone, Texas AI Lab, a sister company of this site, offers two ways to work with it. It works with businesses anywhere, mostly on Zoom.

Its AI Concierge is a real person from its team who learns your business, answers your questions and works alongside you. The founding price, for a limited number of early clients, is $1,000 a month, locked for the first 12 months. The standard price is $1,500 a month plus $750 onboarding. You commit for three months, and after that it is month to month with 30 days' notice.

The second is hands-on team training, priced for each group. It runs 90 minutes or longer, on Zoom anywhere or in person in the Austin area. Larger automation builds, such as CRM connections or hosted agents, are quoted separately.

The bottom line

AI is already in your agency, whether you approved it or not. This year, the owners who do well will set the rules first, pick two or three tasks, and keep a licensed person on every word that reaches a client. If you want help with that, Texas AI Lab is one place to start.

Texas AI Lab is a sister company of Commercial Broker Guide.