KPMG 2024 Insurance CEO Outlook

Economic uncertainty may finally be starting to recede, but boardroom uncertainty seems to be at an all-time high across the insurance industry. And for good reason: insurance CEOs are dealing with a complex set of pressures and challenges — growth, digital transformation, talent and sustainability — that require bold decisions and concrete action. Decisions made today will help to shape the business well into the future.

However, despite economic headwinds, insurance CEOs are confident that they will be able to grow their business over the next three years — both in terms of earnings and headcount. But competition is growing, and organisations are pulling several levers to drive the growth they require. CEOs are highly focused on accelerating their digital transformation, delivering on their ESG agenda and enhancing productivity. And at the same time, they recognise the need to infuse the organisation with new talent and to embrace new technologies — Gen AI in particular — if they hope to achieve their growth objectives.

KPMG 2024 Insurance CEO Outlook

Insurance organisations are navigating evolving challenges to drive growth and transformation across the industry. Explore key industry insights in this report.

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Key findings from the research

Despite economic headwinds, 73% of insurance CEOs are confident about their company’s growth prospects and 93% expect to increase the size of their workforce over the next three years.

In 2024, insurance CEOs were more than twice as likely as the all-industry average to agree they were utilising AI to help speed up data analysis. 81% of insurance CEOs consider Gen AI as a top investment priority for their organisation.

ESG continues to be a key focus for many insurance organisations, with 63% of insurance CEOs confident that they will meet net zero goals by 2030.

54% of our respondents say they are ‘well prepared’ for a cyber attack (down from 66% last year), and just 43% think their cyber strategy can keep up with the rapid advancements enabled by AI.

Methodology

The KPMG 2024 Insurance CEO Outlook, part of the 10th edition of the KPMG 2024 CEO Outlook, is compiled from the views of 120 insurance chief executive officers, which was conducted between 25 July and 29 August 2024, providing unique insight into the mindset, strategies, and planning tactics of CEOs.

All respondents oversee companies with annual revenues over US$500M and a third of the companies surveyed have more than US$10B in annual revenue. The survey included CEOs from 11 key markets (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and US) and 11 key industry sectors, including insurance. NOTE: some figures may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

In the insurance sector research, the two largest sub-sectors were Auto, Home, Property and Casualty with 31 percent of respondents and life insurers with 30 percent. The best-represented countries based on organizational headquarters are the US and the UK, followed by China, India and Canada.