Why Insurance Adjusters Are the Biggest AI Skeptics
▼ Summary
– Claims adjusters are the most critical group toward artificial intelligence on Glassdoor, with 98% of AI-related reviews being negative.
– Adjusters report that AI tools often misclassify claims and generate hallucinations, forcing them to perform extra work to correct errors.
– Employee dissatisfaction has led to resignations and a sense of exhaustion described as ‘AI fatigue’ among industry professionals.
– Employment for claims adjusters is declining rapidly, with projections showing an 18,900 job loss over the next decade due to technology.
– Insurers are increasingly adopting AI startups like Liberate and Pace to automate claims processing, which drives the reduction in human labor demand.
Insurance claims adjusters have emerged as the most vocal opponents of artificial intelligence in the American workforce. Data from the job review platform Glassdoor reveals that 98 percent of posts mentioning AI by this specific group are critical, a stark contrast to other professions where skepticism is far less uniform. While employees in other fields may express mild annoyance, adjusters describe an environment defined by frustration and exhaustion.
One reviewer captured the sentiment perfectly, stating, “Pushing AI to the point that you are asking humans not to use their thoughts and brains is such a turn off.” Another added, “Stop forcing AI onto everyone,” while a third bluntly declared, “The AI apps this company uses are all trash.” These complaints highlight a deeper issue: professionals feel that leadership is prioritizing flawed technology over human judgment, leaving adjusters to manage the messy consequences of algorithmic errors.
The Human Cost of Algorithmic Errors
The theoretical promise of AI in insurance is efficiency. Systems are designed to handle straightforward claims automatically, allowing human experts to focus on complex cases. In reality, many adjusters report that the technology introduces more work rather than reducing it. Ahmad Jackson, a former claims employee at a major carrier, experienced this firsthand when his employer implemented AI for initial loss reporting.
Jackson expected the new system to streamline processes. Instead, he faced a surge of misclassified claims that required manual rerouting. He also encountered “hallucinations” in AI-generated summaries, which led to serious complications when he inadvertently passed those inaccuracies to claimants or their legal representatives. The resulting anger fell squarely on him.
AI is “getting things wrong,” Jackson tells WIRED. “And it’s implementing more work onto the adjusters.”
This sentiment is echoed by Geoffrey Conrad, a claims executive in Mobile, Alabama. He describes a pervasive sense of burnout within the industry. “There’s an AI fatigue,” Conrad says. “We’re pretty much exhausted as far as the amount of AI being shoved down our throats.”
Rapid Decline in Employment
The backlash against AI coincides with a significant contraction in the profession’s workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of claims adjusters in the United States was projected to drop by 18,900, or 5 percent, over the coming decade starting in 2024. However, recent data indicates the decline is happening much faster than anticipated. Between May 2025 and May 2026, employment in the sector plummeted by 21 percent.
The impact on newcomers has been even more severe. Glassdoor reports that entry-level postings have fallen by 50 percent since 2025. Chris Martin, a senior economist at Glassdoor, admitted he was surprised by the intensity of the adjusters’ opposition. When he first saw the data, he did a double-take before investigating further. His analysis suggests the profession is undergoing a painful reckoning driven by technological displacement.
The BLS explicitly cites technology as a primary driver behind these job losses. Insurers are increasingly relying on automation to cut costs and speed up payouts. Startups like Liberate and Pace have raised millions by promising to reinvent the industry through advanced algorithms. Major carriers are scaling their own internal tools to process claims without human intervention.
Automation vs. Human Expertise
The practical application of this technology varies across the industry. Some insurers now encourage policyholders to file claims via chatbots, eliminating phone calls entirely. Others use AI to analyze photos or videos of damaged property, generating payout estimates without sending an inspector to the site. Medical record reviews, once tedious tasks for humans, are now often summarized by software to extract key details instantly.
Lemonade, founded in 2015, has built its brand around replacing bureaucracy with bots. By the end of last year, its proprietary chatbot, AI Jim, handled 96 percent of initial reports. Automation managed roughly 55 percent of all claims from start to finish.
Traditional giants like State Farm maintain that successful claims handling requires a blend of digital tools and human expertise. Despite these assurances, many adjusters remain unconvinced. They fear that the current trajectory of AI adoption is not just assisting them, but actively training their replacements, leading to a workforce that feels undervalued, overworked, and increasingly obsolete.
(Source: Wired)
