Major Insurers Lead AI Patent Activity - Here's What It Means for Carriers
Published: December 12, 2025
AI patent activity in insurance is concentrated in a few hands. Over the past decade, State Farm, USAA, and Allstate account for 77% of AI patents. Since January 2023, 30 insurers filed 166 AI patents, yet filings are still 30% below the 2020 peak. Property and casualty carriers hold 89% of all filings.
Where the filings cluster
The bulk of patents land in telematics, IoT-driven risk monitoring, and sensor-based systems. These areas fit the "technical contribution" standard that patent offices look for in the U.S. and Europe. If your teams file in these domains, study eligibility principles from the USPTO and the EPO to reduce rework and rejections.
Generative and agentic AI trends
Generative AI patents jumped from 4% to 31% of filings in 2023. Agentic AI is still rare. Only three insurers pursued patents here, with USAA out front. Expect early wins where closed-loop workflows are controlled and auditable.
How leaders are applying AI now
- USAA: Generative AI to analyze aerial imagery for property damage assessment.
- State Farm: Machine learning for claims triage and autonomous vehicle fault analysis.
- Allstate: In-vehicle AI assistant to automate claims; interpretable AI for underwriting and document indexing.
- Liberty Mutual: Generative AI to draft engineering release notes.
- Zurich: AI that standardizes and clears user-typed addresses.
Why the concentration matters
Leading P&C carriers are using IP to protect capital spent on claims, underwriting, and customer experience improvements. Scale helps: more data, more partnerships, more filings. For regional and midsize carriers, the patent gap can slow AI deployment and vendor leverage.
Practical moves for insurance leaders
- Tie patents to operations: Prioritize filings that reduce loss adjustment expense, shorten cycle times, or improve loss ratio by measurable points.
- File where eligibility is strongest: Sensor fusion, on-device inference, model-based control, and telematics-driven risk scoring tend to clear "technical contribution" hurdles.
- Map competitor IP: Track claims FNOL, subrogation, SIU, and underwriting automation filings to avoid overlap and spot whitespace.
- Secure data rights: Lock down agreements with auto OEMs, satellite/aerial imagery providers, and smart home vendors. Data access often decides who wins.
- Build explainability in: Interpretable models help with underwriting governance and regulator reviews. Document model lineage and monitoring from day one.
- Pilot agentic AI cautiously: Use it in bounded workflows (estimate validation, document intake, address cleansing) with a clear human-in-the-loop.
- Balance offense and defense: Use strategic filings, defensive publications, and selective open sourcing to deter thickets and protect room to operate.
- Track impact: Time-to-file, allowance rate, LAE reduction, claim touch-time reduction, subrogation yield, and complaint ratios.
What to watch next
- Potential rebound in filings as budgets reset and teams productize 2023-2024 pilots.
- More patents around connected vehicles, home sensors, and aerial/ground robotics for claims.
- Growth in explainable underwriting systems and document AI at scale.
- Early agentic systems for claims intake, salvage decisions, and repair routing-kept under strong controls.
- Continued differences between U.S. and EU eligibility standards that influence filing strategies.
The market is deciding whether AI patents stay concentrated or become a wider competitive tool. If you're building your roadmap, pressure-test your IP strategy alongside model ops, data rights, and compliance. The carriers that align filings with real operational wins will create the most defensible edge.
If your teams need upskilling on generative AI, prompt engineering, or automation for claims and underwriting, explore curated programs here: AI courses by job.
Stay informed and ahead of the curve - explore more industry insights and program opportunities at ProgramBusiness.com.
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