Travelers Companies Inc., a cornerstone of the property-casualty insurance sector, is accelerating its embrace of artificial intelligence, with more than 20,000 professionals now using AI tools regularly. This push comes days after the Hartford, Connecticut-based insurer announced a partnership with Anthropic to equip nearly 10,000 engineers, data scientists, analysts, and product owners with personalized AI assistants. CEO Alan Schnitzer detailed these advancements during the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call, framing them as the dawn of “Innovation 2.0,” building on a decade of technology investments that have quadrupled underlying underwriting income.

The initiative builds on Travelers’ decade-long tech strategy, which saw $1.5 billion invested from 2016 to 2025, driving net written premiums up nearly 7% annually and the underlying combined ratio down almost 8 points to 83.9. Schnitzer highlighted AI’s role in claims processing, where the company handled 1.5 million claims in 2025—about one every 20 seconds—with payments topping $23 billion. Over 50% of claims are now eligible for straight-through processing, with two-thirds of customers opting in, and another 15% using advanced digital tools, rates that continue to climb. Carrier Management reported these metrics alongside a one-third reduction in claims call center staff and consolidation of four centers into two.

“Over the decade, we developed the competitive advantage of an innovation skill set. Now we’re bringing all that Part 1 know-how to Innovation 2.0 at Travelers, powered by AI—and not too far off quantum computing,” Schnitzer stated on the earnings call.

AI Agents Transform Engineering Ranks

The Anthropic deal, announced January 15, 2026, integrates personalized Claude AI assistants into Travelers’ data systems and workflows, aiming to speed software development, analytics, and machine learning models. Each assistant tailors to the user’s role, drawing real-time on company data. “We expect that this will result in faster and more cost-effective delivery of new capabilities across Travelers—everything from product development to new business prospecting to underwriting speed and quality,” Schnitzer said. Yahoo Finance covered the partnership, noting its potential to benefit business, customers, and distribution partners.

Mojgan Lefebvre, executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer, added that early tests of Claude and Claude Code assistants yielded “significantly elevated levels of engineering excellence and meaningful improvements in productivity.” This aligns with Travelers’ broader TravAI platform, already in use by over 30,000 employees globally. The company, a Dow Jones Industrial Average component with $46 billion in 2024 revenues, employs more than 30,000 worldwide. Carrier Management detailed the rollout to technical staff.

Industry observers see this as a competitive edge. Travelers leverages 65 billion clean data points accumulated over decades for AI-driven underwriting precision and claims streamlining via tools like TravAI, its internal generative AI platform. Since 2016, tech investments totaling $13 billion have cut the expense ratio by 300 basis points while returning $20 billion to shareholders, per Coverager.

Claims Processing Hits New Efficiency Peaks

In claims, a natural language generative AI voice agent for first notice of loss has seen customer adoption “exceeding our expectation,” Schnitzer noted. The tool processes phone intakes, contributing to 90% of catastrophe claims closed within 30 days. Automation and analytics further refine indemnity payouts, with efficiency gains flowing through loss adjustment expenses to benefit the loss ratio. Claims call center downsizing underscores the impact: staff reduced by a third amid center mergers.

Greg Toczydlowski, president of Travelers Business Insurance, emphasized gen AI agents mining internal and external data for business classifications and risk characteristics, accelerating underwriting and improving segmented pricing. Proprietary AI predictive models score property portfolios, while gen AI summarizes data for renewals, cutting average handle time by 30%. “The net result is that our underwriters focus their efforts on decisions most likely to improve profitability and do so more efficiently,” said Michael Klein, president of Travelers Personal Insurance.

Jeffrey Klenk, president of Travelers Bond & Specialty Insurance, highlighted AI automating new business intake from hours to minutes, now extending to renewals. Dozens of scaled gen AI tools are in production, automating millions of transactions. Travelers’ website showcases ongoing AI in claims, like deep learning on unstructured data from transcripts and imagery.

Financial Gains Anchor Tech Bet

Q4 2025 net income rose 20%, full-year 26%, with after-tax underwriting income up 22% to $1.7 billion quarterly and 40% to $3.4 billion annually. Favorable prior-year development added $815 million, a 2.4-point combined ratio benefit, pushing it to 80.2. Net investment income grew 10%. Premium per employee rises via productivity, despite $1.5 billion tech spend yielding a 3-point expense ratio drop to 28.5—a 10% improvement.

“Notwithstanding a significant increase in our technology spending, that improvement in underlying profitability includes a 3-point or 10% improvement in our expense ratio,” Schnitzer remarked. Personal lines shone: Q4 auto combined ratio at 89.4 (down 5 points), homeowners at 60.0; full-year auto 85.7 (down 9.3 points), homeowners 67.6 (down 6 points). The company renewed its property-catastrophe reinsurance January 1, 2026, lowering attachment to $3 billion from $4 billion.

Travelers opened an Atlanta innovation hub last year for data science, engineering, and AI teams. Lefebvre discussed at the 2024 Guidewire Connections event harnessing a product mindset and modern infrastructure fueled by data and AI for swift adaptation. Insurance Business quoted her on aligning tech to business strategy across underwriting, claims, and operations.

Domain Expertise Meets AI Scale

Schnitzer stressed, “As an industry leader, we bring differentiating domain expertise. Because AI amplifies existing strength, leaders in the domain are best positioned to drive improvement.” With high-quality data and scale, Travelers embeds agentic AI in operations. Future nods include quantum computing in Innovation 2.0. The CIO 100 Award in 2025 recognized AI-driven new business submission automation in Bond & Specialty Insurance. Travelers Careers.

Reinsurance News in 2023 quoted Schnitzer on AI’s “profound” opportunity, with intelligent process automation handling routine workflows and driving expense improvements. Partnerships like Amazon’s Generative AI Innovation Center develop tools for underwriting, claims, and back-office tasks. X posts from Insurance Journal amplified the earnings details and Anthropic news.

This strategic pivot positions Travelers amid industry AI adoption, where BCG notes insurers lead but must scale. Travelers’ moves—20,000 AI users, claims efficiencies, Anthropic scale—signal a model for blending tech with insurance prowess.