Move over postal clerks, cashiers, and bank tellers: claims professionals are among the roles projected to be most in decline over the next five years.
Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators ranked 12th for the fastest declining jobs by 2030, and 15th for the largest decline in absolute numbers within the same period, according to the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2025.
Essentially, far more claims roles will be displaced than created, WEF finds.
For the industry, these findings may not come as a surprise.
“Although the numbers in the headline really look like the sky might be falling, it is consistent with what we’re seeing through other reports and other data in the industry,” says Greg Smith, president of Crawford & Company Canada.
For example, the Insurance Institute of Canada’s most recent Demographic Research finds claims make up an 8.5% share of total industry retirements in the next five years. Between 2023 and 2026, approximately 1,830 claims professionals are forecast to retire nationally. Claims employees in commercial lines indicated a higher retirement rate than those in personal lines, according to IIC.
WEF says broadened access to technology like artificial intelligence will most likely transform the way people work by 2030. And while some jobs are expected to grow due to these advancements, others are at risk of being replaced.
AI is replacing some of the manual and clerical work delegated to claims adjusters. And that’s helping adjusting firms navigate their labour shortage, says Smith.
“It’s almost complimentary, where we’ve got this labour shortage — a challenge of recruiting people into the industry and training them up — and we also have this technology automating some tasks,” Smith says. “We think one of them is part of the solution to the core problem.”
However, claims adjusters are still required to provide expert-driven service. And that’s where technology intersects with claims expertise.
“[As] some of the simpler, more routine tasks get automated, that’s creating a little bit of a relief valve for us in terms of the staffing that we need to do,” he says. It also “frees up some time in their day…to provide policyholder service and empathy that people are looking for in a moment of truth during a claim.”
Certainly, there’s a fine line when it comes to the use of AI in claims.
Although certain tasks traditionally performed by humans are transitioning to being fully automated, a significant portion of work will continue to involve a combination of human expertise and technological assistance.
“One [training] tool we use provides for complete 3D imaging of the scene of a loss,” says Smith. “So, just as you could look at a real estate listing and [virtually] walk through the house that’s for sale and go room-to-room and look around and pivot your camera, we can capture that kind of imagery at the scene of a loss that suffered a fire or a flood.
“Suddenly that expert with decades of experience can, right from their computer, walk through that scene of the loss with the adjuster who was out there with them, and have a conversation around what they saw and what they observed,” he says. “It’s a training tool unlike any other that we’ve been able to deploy.”
Crawford also has an estimate review tool that assists adjusters during their first pass at an estimate. In addition, a coverage review tool allows adjusters to inquire about individual policy coverages.
Of course, technology is not the “silver bullet” to the impending claims job decline, says Smith.
“Tech is going to reduce the number of jobs we need to replace, but it’s not going to take away the problem,” he says.
“I think it’s shown us that there’s a different way for us to innovate in the future, but that different way isn’t replacing the people with technology — it’s augmenting [people’s work].”
Feature image by iStock.com/DNY59
