nCino's Big 5 Insurance Predictions for 2026

Throughout 2025, insurance businesses have successfully navigated an unpredictable geopolitical climate, fiscal uncertainty, regulatory pressures, and demanding customer expectations. The UK insurance industry has also undergone rapid technological transformation, with the provision, analysis, and utilisation of both structured and unstructured data creating new opportunities to differentiate in a highly competitive market.

As we move into 2026, we believe rates will continue to soften, and competition will intensify. Whether you’re a broker, underwriter, or network, the urgency to transform how you operate will heighten. Those who take the lead and embrace the technology-driven new era will shape what the next decade of insurance success looks like.

From regulatory pressures to the democratisation of AI capabilities, here are our top five insurance industry priorities for the next 12 months.

1. The Winners Will Transform Data Intelligence Into Competitive Advantage

The vital importance of data to the UK insurance industry is well documented. And yet many businesses still operate with fragmented systems and incomplete customer views that prevent their people from acting on critical insights.

In our experience, the leaders today are those who've embedded comprehensive company intelligence directly into workflows. This means moving beyond basic CRM data to accessing real-time contextualised and actionable intelligence, including financial performance indicators, trade documentation, regulatory filings, and risk signals.

For brokers, this intelligence will help remove guesswork and replace it with precision decision-making. The capability to understand a client’s financial trajectory, sector exposure, and operational changes will move conversations from "can I quote your insurance?" to "I already understand your unique needs, so let’s discuss how to proactively evolve your coverage”.

Likewise, for underwriters, granular company data will enable faster, more accurate risk assessments. When comprehensive intelligence flows directly into submission workflows, it empowers faster and more informed decision-making. This will serve as a huge competitive advantage in a market where response time and accuracy increasingly determine risk placement.

2. Those Who Get it Right Will Differentiate on Service and Value, Not Price

In softening markets, the instinct is often to compete on price. But this creates a race to the bottom that erodes profitability and long-term client value. So, let’s flip the narrative. In a softening market, service, discipline, and agility are the key battlegrounds of success.

Technology and data once again hold the answer. A unified 360-degree client view that surfaces renewal timings, coverage gaps, claims history, and emerging risks transforms reactive service into proactive partnership. When brokers, underwriters, and networks can anticipate client needs before they're articulated, they’ll shift from vendor to trusted adviser.

We believe those who get it right in 2026 will harness end-to-end client lifecycle intelligence. From initial acquisition through onboarding, risk placement, policy management, and renewal. Informing every decision with a deep understanding of the client's business, not just their insurance history, thereby differentiating on service and value as well as delivering on premium positioning. The most sophisticated will also leverage data to identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities systematically.

3. Maintaining Underwriting Discipline Will Be Vital to Sustaining Growth

In a similar vein, the temptation to chase volume by loosening underwriting standards also tends to intensify when markets soften. But we would argue that sustainable profitability requires maintaining discipline even when those around you are not.

Technology empowers this discipline by providing the portfolio-level visibility needed to help better anticipate risks and spot emerging exposures, and thereby make better decisions about which risks to accept. Sophisticated data analytics also support more nuanced pricing strategies by helping identify specific risk factors that justify premium positioning.

This is not just important for underwriters, but also for networks overseeing multiple brokers. Comprehensive data platforms provide the oversight needed to guide collective underwriting appetite whilst allowing flexibility at the broker level.

We believe strongly that the winners in 2026 will harness technology to maintain discipline via confident data-driven decision-making that protects long-term growth and profitability.

4. Organic Growth Will Require a More Intelligent Approach to Targeting

Growth is absolutely possible even in softening markets; it simply requires a more intelligence-driven approach. Rather than broad-based prospecting, it’s increasingly important to leverage data to segment the total addressable market (TAM) and actively identify and prioritise high-potential opportunities.

This means pre-screening against rules-based criteria, including financial indicators, sector dynamics, predicted growth trajectory, and an understanding of both existing and future coverage requirements.

When brokers, underwriters, and networks can identify the right opportunities aligned with their specific expertise (or those of their members) and risk appetite, everyone wins.

The 2026 organic growth imperative requires a fundamental shift from reactive response to proactive opportunity identification. As we see it, this can only be achieved with intelligent data application.

5. Futureproof Operations Will Have Compliance Baked in

Regulatory compliance is often viewed as a burden rather than an opportunity, but if brokers, underwriters, and networks can embed regulatory requirements, including the Consumer Duty, into core operations and workflows, they’ll gain a significant advantage in the coming months

Technology platforms that automate monitoring of customer outcomes, track fair value assessments, and provide audit trails for regulatory reporting transform compliance from manual overhead into competitive strength as well as a commitment to customer interests. The even better news is that such an approach will also significantly reduce your compliance costs.

By the end of 2026, those that have fully integrated regulatory compliance into operations will find that client experience and commercial success really do go hand-in-hand.

Did You Spot the Common Thread Tying These Predictions Together?

Whether it's using company intelligence to drive meaningful client engagements throughout the policy lifecycle, maintain discipline, boost client experience, or embed and simplify compliance, success depends on embracing digital transformation.

The brokers, underwriters, and networks that invest now in technology platforms enabling intelligence-driven operations will emerge as the victors.

nCino is empowering insurance businesses to thrive in 2026, supporting them with the tools to grow more organically, build meaningful client relationships, onboard more efficiently, and comply with evolving regulations.

Start 2026 the right way. Request a demo and see our best-in-class intelligence solutions built for insurance in action.