Zywave, the leading technology provider for insurance distribution, today released the results of its 2026 Broker Services Survey, an annual study that gauges what employers expect from their insurance brokers. This year’s findings, drawn from more than 1,400 U.S. respondents, show that artificial intelligence has moved from a background trend to a named factor in how employers evaluate and select their brokers, alongside a continued rise in demand for brokers who act as trusted, strategic advisors.
Zywave will host a webinar on Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 1 p.m. CDT to discuss the full research findings. To register and join, please visit our website.
For the first time, survey respondents named “integrating AI effectively into benefits administration and HR operations” among their top 10 employee benefits and HR challenges. At the same time, “failure to leverage modern technology and AI-powered tools” entered the list of top factors that would lead an employer to consider changing insurance brokers, and AI joined geopolitical instability, supply chain disruption and climate-related events as a driver behind a new top-10 commercial insurance challenge: addressing coverage needs for emerging risks.
“This year’s data tells a clear story: AI is no longer optional infrastructure for brokers, it’s becoming a visible part of how clients judge value,” said Martin Simoncic, Chief Executive Officer at Zywave. “Employers aren’t asking brokers to choose between technology and advice. They want both – brokers who use AI-powered tools to work faster and more accurately, and who still show up as a strategic partner. Brokers who treat those as separate tracks are the ones most likely to fall behind.”
Technology Gaps Are Now a Named Reason Clients Leave
Slow response times, inconsistent communication and a broker’s inability to act as a strategic advisor remain the top three reasons employers say they would switch brokers. But 2026 marks the first year that a broker’s failure to adopt modern technology and AI-powered tools appears among the top eight factors overall, a signal that clients are beginning to expect a baseline level of digital sophistication as part of good service, not as a differentiator reserved for larger firms.
The shift comes as the trusted advisor expectation continues its multi-year climb, rising from 56% of respondents in 2023 to 71% in 2026. Employers increasingly want both: technology that removes friction from day-to-day service, and a human advisor who can translate data into strategy. Meanwhile, the rise of client self-service portals is quietly reshaping the relationship in another way – desired weekly contact with a broker has fallen from 41.9% in 2025 to 33.4% in 2026, suggesting some clients are adjusting their expectations downward as self-service tools take on more of the routine workload.
AI Reshapes the Employee Benefits Conversation
On the benefits side, “integrating AI effectively into benefits administration and HR operations” debuted as a new top-10 challenge in 2026, joining a landscape still dominated by healthcare cost management, which has ranked as the top benefits challenge for three consecutive years, and compliance, which climbed back to its highest level of urgency since 2021. Employers are asking brokers to help them sort signal from noise as HR and benefits technology, including AI tools, becomes part of daily operations.
The survey also finds sizable gaps between what employers say they need and what brokers are delivering on core strategic services: 94% of respondents call a multiyear strategic benefit plan important, but only 51% say their broker fully provides one, and 89% rate broker guidance on healthcare cost management as very important, against just 69% who say their broker fully delivers it. Brokers who pair AI-enabled efficiency with these higher-order strategic services have a clear opening to close both gaps at once.
AI Becomes Part of the Commercial Risk Conversation
“Addressing coverage needs for emerging risks” entered the top 10 commercial insurance challenges for the first time in 2026, reflecting how quickly the risk landscape is changing. Employers cited artificial intelligence alongside geopolitical instability, supply chain disruption and climate-related events as forces creating exposures that cut across traditional coverage lines and lack established underwriting standards or historical loss data. Rising premiums remain the top overall commercial insurance concern, cited by 70% of respondents, but the arrival of AI-driven exposure on the list signals that businesses are looking to their brokers for help identifying blind spots before they can even begin to close them.
Brokers who stay current on emerging risk trends, including how AI is changing exposure across cyber, liability and other lines, are positioned to serve as forward-looking advisors rather than transactional intermediaries. Notably, only 58% of employers say their broker fully helps develop or refine their overall risk management strategy, even though 96% call that service important, one of the widest gaps in this year’s commercial insurance findings.
Zywave Apex™ AI Platform
To help brokers better address these widening gaps between client expectations and service delivery, Zywave offers Zywave Apex™, the first complete AI growth stack built specifically for insurance distribution. Zywave Apex transforms the growth model for insurance, delivering a robust growth engine for the front office that provides faster quoting, sharper account intelligence, and the pipeline clarity that turns potential into revenue. The platform embeds Zywave intelligence, including more than 1,000 carrier connections, proprietary data, and workflows, directly inside the AI tools brokers and agents already use, including Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot. For more information on Zywave Apex, visit here.
About the Survey
The 2026 Broker Services Survey draws on responses from more than 1,400 U.S. employers. For more than a decade, Zywave has used this research to help brokers stay informed, competitive, and aligned with employer needs. The survey results are broken down by line of business and respondent role, with a significant portion from C-suite executives. Rankings and statistics are based on weighted averages, providing a representative snapshot of current broker-client trends and service gaps. For the full report, please visit our website.
About Zywave
Zywave is transforming the growth model for insurance. The company’s Apex™ AI platform enables carriers, brokers, and agents to take smarter, faster actions that win, keep, and grow customers. Zywave is pioneering the industry’s shift to agentic AI, backed by deep industry expertise, unrivaled data, content and workflows, and a global ecosystem of 15,000 customers and partners. Learn more at zywave.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260727917316/en/
Media gallery
