What happened
A KPMG global survey of insurance leaders (released 28 September 2026) finds a yawning gap between AI ambition and business outcomes: 'Forty-four percent of respondents place themselves in the top quartile for AI transformation, yet functional redesign and reimagining remain rare' — 'Seventy-seven percent believe failing to redesign their enterprise architecture for AI will undermine competitiveness within five years, but 71 percent still use AI mainly for content generation or routine task automation.' Only '11 percent have a very clear view of AI return on investment,' while 'Nearly half of AI budgets go to operational and back-office efficiency, compared with only 5-10 percent for new products and revenue models' and just 11% report strong data foundations and governance to scale AI. The report introduces a three-horizon framework for AI-enabled transformation.
Why it matters
The single most decision-relevant stat is the 44%-vs-11% disconnect: leadership self-perception is far ahead of observable ROI clarity and governance readiness — a dynamic executives in any AI-heavy sector should pressure-test in their own organization.
Action needed
Benchmark your own AI programme against KPMG's findings: do you have a meaningful view of AI ROI and has AI reached net-new revenue, or is it still efficiency-in-disguise?