INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Market Performance In 2026 Will Be Driven By AI
Investors entered 2026-H2 faced with a wide range of potential risks, from military conflict to persistent inflation, but Natixis strategists say they are confident that artificial intelligence (AI) will be the key factor driving market performance in the second half of the year. Read more.

Canadian Firms Embrace AI But Trail U.S.: RSM
RSM Canada LLP has released the RSM Middle Market AI Survey 2026: U.S. and Canada, which finds that Canadian companies continue to trail U.S. counterparts in AI integration, transformation and investment returns, despite high levels of investment. Read more.

Guidewire Qusar Helps Insurers Control AI Agents
Guidewire is pleased to announce the launch of the Agentic Framework in its new Qusar release, enabling insurers to build, deploy, and manage AI agents on Guidewire Cloud Platform. Read more.

Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires Apollo
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. is pleased to announce the acquisition of Vancouver-based Apollo Insurance Solutions Ltd. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read more.

Aon, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Launch API Integration To Accelerate Digital Placement
Aon is pleased to announce a new API integration powered by Aon Broker Copilot with Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, the commercial insurance arm of the Swiss Re Group. Swiss Re Corporate Solutions is the first carrier to integrate directly with Aon Broker Copilot through API connection, enabling end-to-end digital connectivity across the placement lifecycle. Read more.

TD Insurance, Realtor.ca Help Canadians Plan Their Home Protection
TD Insurance and Realtor.ca are introducing a new digital experience designed to bring home insurance advice directly into the home buying journey, helping Canadians make more informed decisions as they plan for homeownership. Read more.

Consumers Want Financial Guidance but Aren't Getting It: MassMutual U.S. Research
MassMutual's 2026 Financial Habits Report paints a clear picture: Most Americans want financial guidance but feel they aren't getting it, and nearly two-thirds of consumers avoid important financial decisions due to anxiety. Yet 8 in 10 agree that working with a financial advisor would help. Read more.

BOXX Insurance Futureproofs AI Coverage
BOXX Insurance, a global cyber InsurTech and part of Zurich Insurance Group, is pleased to introduce affirmative coverage for AI and deepfake related events for social engineering and security failures within its commercial policy offering, Cyberboxx® Business. Read more.

Manulife, Microsoft Expand Partnership To Accelerate Enterprise AI Governance
Manulife and Microsoft have expanded their longstanding relationship to support Manulife's strategic priority to become an AI-powered organization. Read more.

LTM, Glean Partner To Accelerate AI Adoption
LTM, the Business Creativity partner to the world's largest enterprises, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Glean, the enterprise AI platform that understands and connects enterprise knowledge to help organizations unlock greater value from their AI investments. Read more.

HCLTech, Guardian Expand AI Partnership
HCLTech, a leading global technology company, is pleased to announce a new seven-year agreement with The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America®, one of the largest mutual companies in the U.S., to expand their collaboration and advance Guardian's AI-powered modernization across technology and operations to support long-term business growth. Read more.

Deloitte Announces Framework, Digital Asset To Quantify, Communicate Sustainable Business Value
Deloitte has unveiled Sustainability Fusion™, a new framework, digital tool, service offering and web-based evaluator designed to help the C-suite unlock enterprise value by measuring and communicating how sustainability investments drive business outcomes. Read more.

Climate Change Caused Premium Increases
Climate impacts have added an estimated $533 to the average Canadian homeowner's annual insurance premium since 2008, according to new research released today by Environmental Defence Canada. Read more.

Drivers Want Mandatory Anti-Theft Technology
Équité Association's 2026 Canadian Auto Theft Impact Survey reveals that public safety concerns persist as organized crime's modern vehicle theft methods easily override the outdated security in today's vehicles. Read more.

Families Feeling Impact Of Higher Gas Prices: CAA
Two-thirds of Ontarians aged 35-54 say rising gas prices are affecting their daily activities, as fuel costs continue to put pressure on household budgets and force many families to make difficult trade-offs in how they drive, spend and plan their daily lives, according to a new survey from CAA South Central Ontario. Read more.

Wellbeing Hits New Low Over Financial Pressures
Employee wellbeing in Canada has declined across every metric over the past year, according to poll results from RBC Insurance. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Emtech
Emtech is transforming the future of software testing by redefining how enterprises validate complex digital systems. Our mission is to reinvent quality engineering through an autonomous validation engine that eliminates the structural limits of human-driven testing. By providing continuous verification of system behavior, Emtech empowers enterprises to deliver high-quality products with confidence, mitigate risk, prevent defects from reaching production, and maintain compliance in highly regulated environments. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Property Claims Advisor
Gore Mutual Insurance
Vancouver, BC

Claims Concierge
Gore Mutual Insurance
Cambridge, ON

From Doug AI Agent Knowledge Base Learning AI agents can reason much like we do, e.g. a simple question and answer: Q: What is the term for the space or function which ‘persists’ information across sessions and stores what is needed to reason and learn? A: The space where an AI agent stores the data, facts, and experiences it uses for reasoning is broadly called its memory, memory layer or knowledge base. Some AI agents work with predefined rules or models and do not learn. A learning agent improves its performance over time by adapting to new experiences and data, continuously updating its behaviour based on feedback from the environment. Two components or features help it do that: Learning element – adjusts and improves the agent's knowledge based on feedback and experience. Critic – evaluates the agent's actions and provides feedback. In a simple auto claim example, the agent decides the car can be repaired. Further external examination determines it is not repairable and indicated why. This information is fed back to the agent by a person, an API or another agent. The AI agent adds this new information to its knowledge-base, which in turn may influence future decisions. More about the knowledge-base next week. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca