"AI push will not lead to major layoffs": Brown & Brown CEO

Brown & Brown does not expect its growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) across its workforce to result in significant layoffs, with president and CEO Powell Brown positioning the technology as a means to support growth and reshape jobs rather than reduce headcount.

The insurance brokerage is rolling out an “AI-first” strategy across its approximately 23,000 employees, building on earlier AI trials and use cases in parts of the business.

Asked whether the strategy could result in workforce reductions, Brown said the company was not planning a significant reduction in force because of AI.

“You've heard lots of leaders up to this point talk about this as an expense-reduction tool,” Brown said. “We're not talking about this as an expense-reduction tool. We're talking about this as a growth enabler. Having said that, do we think this is intended to produce a significant reduction in force because of AI? No, we don't.”

Brown said the brokerage views AI as an enhancement to employees’ capabilities rather than a replacement strategy.

“We look at it as an enhancement tool, as opposed to a replacement strategy,” he told Insurance Business. “We think that people will have their jobs modified, and they're going to have to continue to grow. We all have to grow in how we use it and bring it to bear for the benefit of our customers.”

The approach comes as some insurance businesses have tied automation and AI investments to workforce reductions. Acrisure, for instance, cut around 400 accounting and back-office roles in late 2025, citing automation, before announcing plans in May 2026 to eliminate approximately 2,250 jobs, or about 11% of its global workforce, through a phased restructuring.

Brown & Brown’s AI deployment will instead focus on improving productivity, customer service and organic growth. Brown said simply providing employees with access to AI would not deliver meaningful results without training and tools tailored to business needs.

“How are we building solutions and bots that will enable our teammates to better serve our customers and produce better customer outcomes?” he said. “How does it make our teammates more efficient in going to market and servicing existing customers and prospective new customers?”

Potential applications include extracting insights from large datasets, sharing knowledge across the brokerage and automating repetitive processes such as certificates of insurance.

While major layoffs are not expected, Brown acknowledged that employees’ roles will change as AI becomes more embedded in the business.

The company is assessing how the technology can allow employees to spend more time on complex risks while improving customer interactions. It is also developing measures to determine whether productivity gains translate into better customer outcomes, including customer experience, retention, claims results, marketing and placement performance, and clients’ ability to manage risk.

Brown said adoption would present challenges, particularly if AI were treated primarily as an IT initiative rather than a business transformation.

“I think anybody who says there aren't adoption hurdles is kidding themselves or kidding you,” he said. “It comes down to how we help our teammates understand and better use the product. We have to show them some scenarios.

“If you don’t engage the people doing the work with the customers, and it becomes more of a technology project than a business project, I think you’re going to have even more problems.”

He also stressed the importance of leadership involvement in making the strategy work.

“If the CEO and the senior leadership team are not fully committed, it creates a huge hurdle to success,” Brown said. “In our case, I'm fully committed.”

The AI strategy comes as Brown & Brown continues to expand through hiring and acquisitions. Brown said attracting and retaining talent remains a major challenge as the brokerage seeks to increase annual revenue from roughly $7 billion to approximately $8 billion.

“The most important thing is finding the right people who fit culturally,” he said. “The teammates we have are one of our greatest positives, but the greatest challenge is finding more people like them to help us get to the next level and beyond.”

Brown said younger workers may be more accustomed to emerging technologies, but AI has not fundamentally changed the company’s underlying talent challenge.

Looking ahead, he said the biggest opportunities could come from capabilities that businesses have yet to anticipate.

“The possibilities over the longer term are even bigger than most of us, including myself, can imagine,” Brown said. “I'm excited about how it will make the delivery of solutions to our customers better. It will enable our teammates to focus on more important items, in my opinion. I'm also excited about being able to have an even deeper understanding of our data than we already have.”