AI talent gap is stalling insurers’ AI ambitions: FDM expert

Publication: Insurance Business

Date published: 19.02.2026

As insurers race to adopt the latest in AI tech and turbocharge their projects from pilot to production, many are running into a familiar obstacle: they don’t have the people to do it.

The AI skills crunch is hitting insurance harder than many sectors because of its legacy technology and regulatory burden. Mayank Arora, global head coach for Software Engineering at FDM Group says many companies still run on older core systems and have strong actuarial and risk functions but “often lack deep AI engineering and data science expertise.”

This gap becomes more visible as insurers try to move proof‑of‑concepts into live systems.

Pilots usually run on clean, curated datasets but real-world data is messy and siloed. Scaling to production requires specialized skills in areas like MLOps, data engineering, and compliance—and those roles are hard to find.

One strategy some firms are pursuing is to build AI capability from the ground up by embedding junior talent alongside experienced coaches inside carrier teams for extended periods, rather than relying solely on senior external hires.

Read the full article here.