Insurance Underwriters

Moderate Risk
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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
3.1/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

58% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 197 votes

70% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 58% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Insurance Underwriters will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Insurance Underwriters was $79,880 ($38 per hour).

The median annual wage for Insurance Underwriters was 61.4% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Insurance Underwriters' job openings is expected to decline 2.6% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 107,820 people employed as 'Insurance Underwriters' within the United States.

This represents around 0.07% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 1 thousand people are employed as 'Insurance Underwriters'.

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What people are saying (8)

Leave a comment
Shivang Singh (Low)
19 Sep 2024 06:01
AI cannot assess socio economic status basis few data and also if data available its credibility cannot be justified. And for medical part AI cannot take deviations in prognostic approach or cannot take business calls. Underwriting is all about creating a large risk pool basis current risk appetite and competition and outside trend going simultaneously which is difficult to inculcate for a binary system.
Lakshmi (Highly likely)
02 Feb 2023 05:20
I work closely with underwriters. There is very little they do that a computer couldn't do.
Ahmed shah (No chance)
03 Feb 2021 19:46
Because robots don't have technical knowledge in Underwriting if they want technical knowledge then Underwriters should command robots. Humans have 75% chance in Industry when robots come
Jecca (Highly likely)
14 Oct 2019 18:31
Automation is already taking the medical underwriting part out of my life and DI job duties. It is only a matter of time until there is code that gathers all online information and analytical reports regarding financials, credit scores, databases, pharmacy scans, motor vehicle reports, and criminal records. I give myself 10 years or less.
Carl Daniel
23 Mar 2022 02:51
Hi Jecca,

I am considering entering insurance underwriting because claims were very bad, I must say.

Would you say that computer automation is taking over all areas of underwriting (commercial underwriting, property & casualty underwriting, etc.)? I do hear that it is taking personal insurance by storm.

Also, I am REALLY trying hard to find similar jobs to underwriting/insurance in case underwriting doesn't work out.

I'm looking at cost estimating (outside of construction), property assessment, and budget analysis. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you don't necessarily need a business or finance degree to go into these fields (I took several traditional/core business classes in school, and I also majored in a field much like "business psychology" - organizational development, which was in the business school).

Do you have any alternatives that you plan to explore in case you have to leave underwriting? Do you think any of the ones that I mentioned are feasible alternatives?

Thank you,

Carl Daniel
Paul (Highly likely)
07 Oct 2019 01:37
They have already announced at my company that underwriting will see significant changes in the next 5-10 years. The underwriters job will be "entirely" different within this time frame. They have told us there will be ongoing meetings and announcements regarding these changes as time goes by.
Brendan
09 Aug 2019 15:23
I am an underwriter. There is no doubt automation will transform this job and remove the need for the underwriter defined above. There are two different types of underwriting, staff and line underwriting. Line underwriting is what is defined above, an employee who reviews applications and degree of risk on accounts on an individual basis. Staff underwriters develop guidelines and initiatives to help drive the changes in product performance . Line underwriters then follow these guidelines and initiatives. Staff underwriting will adapt to automation and use the tools made available by it to make better decisions. You will see some reduction in this field due to ease of decision making and some of these functions will likely transfer to automation. Another thing to consider is that is the complexity of insurance. Insurance is ever evolving based on the ever changing ways of the world. Especially in commercial insurance, there are way too many unique situations that occur on a daily basis that there is no true basic answer to based on past history, but instead require an instinctive decision by an experienced underwriter. It is highly unlikely automation will be able to adapt to these daily situations. This is how some line underwriting will survive.
Carl Daniel
23 Mar 2022 03:28
Hi Brendan,

Do you mean to say that this definition removes the need for an underwriter? - "Review individual applications for insurance to evaluate the degree of risk involved and determine the acceptance of applications."

Oh, sorry, I just realized that you mentioned that this definition only applies to line underwriting, and that automation will decrease the need for line underwriters.

Thank you for clarifying that there are two types of underwriting - I wasn't aware of that. Underwriting is the only field in insurance that interests me, but I'm not into sales. I've been working in claims (and subrogation) for years, but it's not my cup of tea.

Since I don't have the educational background to be an actuary, underwriting is pretty much the only option left for me.

I've never heard of staff underwriting before - unfortunately, working in claims didn't teach me much about underwriting.

It seems like staff underwriting is the future of employment in underwriting.

You mentioned that commercial insurance/underwriting is hard to predict due to the constantly evolving and complex nature of insurance.

I'm considering getting my Associates in Commercial Underwriting while I search for a job in underwriting.

What do you think about the future of employment in commercial underwriting? Do you think there's any hope for cautious optimism, especially for staff underwriters in commercial underwriting?

Thank you,

Carl Daniel
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Job description

Review individual applications for insurance to evaluate degree of risk involved and determine acceptance of applications.

O*NET-SOC code: 13-2053.00