Insurance industry slow to adopt AI. How has that affected productivity?

According to an ActivTrak Productivity Lab study, insurance is one of the most productive industries despite having one of the lowest rates of AI adoption.

“This industry has just a lot of really healthy indicators. There’s not a lot of burnout, there’s clear expectations around working on productive work, you are focused on the things you should be focused on – so, you’re having long, productive sessions — and there’s minimal weekend work,” Gabriela Mauch, chief customer officer and head of ActivTrak Productivity Lab, said.

On the surface, these results appear to be at odds with AI proponents who assert technology can improve efficiencies. However, Mauch said the topics aren’t mutually exclusive and noted that use of AI could amplify the industry’s productivity even further.

“You know, I think efficiency can be measured in a lot of different ways. I think it’s really critical that we’re not limited in the way that we think about one type of efficiency,” she said.

Performance indicators

Mauch noted that ActivTrak Productivity Lab’s 2025 State of the Workplace study is unique in that it is based purely on behavior, and not on employee sentiment. It focused on four key areas: productivity, engagement, work location (remote work) and AI adoption/impact.

The study found that, of an average workday of eight hours and 44 minutes, insurance professionals generally spent six hours and 35 minutes productive. That includes four hours and 37 minutes of dedicated “focus time.”

Financial professionals similarly spent six hours and 32 minutes productive. However, they did not have comparative levels of focus time.

The insurance industry also scored 75% on employee engagement, which measures healthy work patterns such as work-life balance.

Insurance industry cited for ‘healthy productivity’

While the study assessed multiple industries, it also specifically honed in on insurance — which stood out as “just having a good level of productivity health,” according to Mauch.

Only the logistics industry had a higher level of productivity hours than insurance, with seven hours and three minutes. In comparison, the aerospace industry had the lowest productivity with just five productive hours.

Mauch explained that productivity was measured by the duration of time workers spent on their device compared to the amount of time spent on productive activities, as defined by customers. For example, watching videos on Netflix would be categorized as unproductive while filing claims would be categorized as productive.

“What you see in the insurance industry is a really well-structured, clear set of expectations that exist across this workforce. You come to work, you work on productive activities, you depart from work,” she said.

This means, in insurance, people tend to work a healthy amount of time and do so in an efficient way, she added.

“We also see that, in the insurance industry, while there is some weekend work, there aren’t excessively high degrees of weekend work. And when we’re looking at the duration of time people are spending on productive activities, the time that they go without getting distracted by something unproductive is actually longer than any other industry,” Mauch said.

To her, this is what makes insurance stand out for a level of efficiency that is “a really nice indicator when coupled with healthy utilization levels.”

AI uptake lacking

However, while the insurance industry scored high marks on efficiency, results were the exact opposite for AI adoption.

According to the study, 58% of employees now use AI tools, marking a 107% increase since pre-pandemic. The most commonly used AI tools across all industries were:

• ChatGPT (27%)
• Grammarly (11%)
• Copilot (9%)
• Google Lens (8%)
• Gemini (5%)
• Casetext (5%)

Mauch said it’s not surprising that the insurance industry is generally still hesitant to adopt AI, given its risk-averse nature and restrictions on what kind of data can be input into AI tools, such as sensitive client information.

“I think there’s a lot of skepticism in doing that, so it doesn’t surprise me at all about the fact that there might be a reluctance to jump into that AI adoption without the necessary security measures and restrictions in place,” she said.

In her view, the insurance industry is still at the “discovery” stage of AI, compared to other industries that may not use personal information and have less risk. Those other industries tend to have a higher degree of AI adoption accordingly.

However, Mauch suggested that the insurance industry’s high level of efficiency without AI does not mean that it should ignore adopting even more efficient ways of working.

“The efficiency that I’m pointing out is associated with coming to work and working on productive activities. Now, if within that, there’s a double click that says ‘you’re working on productive activities but your output could be three times if you were adopting the right tool,’ then that’s a different type of efficiency that’s also extremely important,” she said.

ActivTrak is a global workforce analytics and productivity management company founded in 2009 and based out of Austin, Texas. The company’s Productivity Lab provides research and expertise on the future of work. Its 2025 State of the Workplace study was conducted between January 2022 and December 2024, measuring results from over 700 companies.

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Rayne Morgan is a journalist, copywriter, and editor with over 10 years' combined experience in digital content and print media. You can reach her at [email protected].