Roughly one in three European insurance customers - 34% - would accept AI setting the price of their policy with no human involvement, according to Guidewire's European Insurance Consumer Survey 2026. The finding, drawn from more than 4,000 respondents across the UK, Spain, France, and Germany, signals a gradual shift in consumer attitudes even as a stubborn quarter of the market remains deeply skeptical.
The survey revealed that 26% of customers said nothing would make them confident in how the insurance industry uses AI. That hardline bloc sits alongside a larger group that wants guardrails: 39% ranked "refer to a human" as the top way insurers could build trust when a customer disagrees with an AI decision. Transparency - an explanation of how the AI reached its conclusion - was cited by 25% as a confidence builder. The idea of an independent regulator was also flagged.
These findings underscore a practical reality for insurers investing in automated underwriting and pricing. The path to adoption does not require winning over the 26% who reject AI outright. It requires demonstrating to the persuadable middle that there is always a route to human review and a clear reason behind every algorithm-driven price. Firms building AI for Insurance applications are increasingly designing these fail-safes into their systems from the start.
Natural disaster anxiety eases
Concern about natural disasters dropped from 43% last year to 39% in 2026. The percentage of customers who have considered climate risk cover fell more sharply, from 38% to 31%. The numbers suggest that while extreme weather events remain a factor in consumer thinking, the intensity of worry may be softening - or that other financial pressures are crowding it out.
Pet insurance and cost-of-living pressures
Satisfaction with pet insurance varied widely by country, ranging from 76% in France to 59% in the UK. The cost of living continues to dominate customer behavior. Some 84% of respondents said they are concerned about rising prices, and 55% said they are likely to cut insurance spending in response. That figure puts pressure on carriers to justify premium increases at a time when households are actively looking for savings.
Why this matters for insurance professionals
The 34% comfort level with AI-set pricing is a meaningful benchmark, but the real signal is in the 39% who want a human fallback. For product teams and underwriters, the data suggests that the most commercially viable AI strategy is one that automates pricing while preserving a visible, well-defined human review process. The 26% who reject AI entirely are not the target - they are a fixed cost of doing business in a market where trust is slow to build and quick to fracture.
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