Allianz is cutting between 1,500 and 1,800 jobs in Europe as the German insurance giant pushes to replace manual tasks with artificial intelligence. The reductions will primarily hit call center roles at Allianz Partners, a subsidiary that provides travel protection and 24/7 hotlines for other companies that sell to consumers, according to German insurance publication Versicherungsmonitor.
"At Allianz Partners we are transforming our business with AI responding to and meeting the changing needs and expectations of our customers," a company spokesperson said. The spokesperson declined to confirm whether call-center employees specifically were affected, but pointed to the efficiency of an AI agent that now delivers roadside assistance in multiple languages around the clock.
Allianz, with a market capitalization of about €158 billion ($180 billion), employs close to 23,000 people across six global offices in its Partners unit. The company said it is looking for opportunities to move affected employees into other vacancies or reskill them. Shares in Allianz fell almost 1% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
AI adoption accelerates across industries
One in five U.S. businesses now use AI, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's June Business Trends and Outlook Survey, and that figure is forecast to hit one in four by year-end. Information, professional services, education, and finance and insurance firms show the highest usage rates. While AI has not triggered sweeping job losses across the economy, it is reshaping the labor market as companies lean on the technology to boost productivity and efficiency.
Insurance firms are among the top adopters of AI for Insurance, integrating tools that handle customer inquiries, claims processing, and roadside assistance - tasks once performed by call-center staff.
Tech giants cut jobs while spending billions on AI
Microsoft announced earlier this week it is eliminating 4,800 roles, about 2% of its workforce, after committing $190 billion in capital expenditure for the year. "I also want to be direct that the roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI," Amy Coleman, chief people officer at Microsoft, wrote in a statement. "At the same time, what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done." Meta Platforms and Amazon also announced job cuts earlier in the year, each allocating billions more to AI infrastructure.
Why this matters for insurance professionals
Allianz's cuts show that AI for Customer Support is moving from pilot programs to large-scale deployment, directly affecting call-center jobs. For insurance professionals, the shift means that routine inquiry handling will increasingly be automated. Reskilling toward roles that manage AI systems, handle complex claims, or provide human oversight will become critical. As insurers seek to cut costs and offer 24/7 multilingual service, the pressure to adapt will only intensify.
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