This is a good question and luckily, Evident has some answers.
New data reveals 166 AI patents have been filed since 2023, with patent activity 30% below its 2020 peak
Evident, the AI benchmarking and intelligence platform for financial services, has released new findings from its Insurance AI Patent Tracker, offering the first clear picture of AI patent activity across the insurance sector.
The data reveals that 166 AI patents have been filed by 30 major insurers across North America and Europe since January 2023, with filings highly concentrated among a small number of US insurers. While insurers are rapidly increasing investment in generative AI, particularly for customer service and claims automation Just three Property and Casualty (P&C) insurers – State Farm, USAA and Allstate – account for 77% of all AI patents by insurers tracked in past decade.
“Patents offer a rare window into where insurers are placing their biggest bets on AI,” said Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Co-founder and CEO of Evident. “This data shows that innovation is overwhelmingly being driven by a handful of US firms, especially in P&C. While the volume of filings remains modest compared to banking, we’re seeing a sharp uptick in generative and agentic capabilities. The IP landscape is shifting from protecting past systems to enabling future ones.”
The Evident Insurance AI Patent Tracker reveals that:
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Insurer AI patenting is highly concentrated. State Farm (326 patents), USAA (218) and Allstate (136) account for 77% of all insurer AI filings.
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P&C insurers dominate, with 89% of all patents – a reflection of their structural advantage when filing AI-related IP. Their innovations often involve telematics, IoT-driven risk monitoring, and other sensor-based systems, which more easily meet the ‘technical contribution’ threshold required for patent eligibility in both the US and Europe.
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Patent activity peaked in 2020 and has not fully rebounded, despite growing insurer interest in GenAI.
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Generative AI patents have surged from 4% to 31% of filings in 2023 – mainly focused on customer service and claims.
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Agentic AI is emerging but rare. Only three insurers have filed agentic patents, with USAA leading.
Patents offer a tangible look at where insurers are applying AI today. Evident’s analysis also shows real world examples of the technologies insurers are most eager to protect, including:
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USAA – GenAI used to clarify aerial imagery for property damage assessment
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State Farm – ML-driven claims triage and autonomous vehicle fault analysis
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Allstate – In-vehicle AI assistant to automate claims and offer behaviour-based discounts
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Swiss Re – Predictive analytics for medical data and anomaly detection
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MassMutual – Interpretable underwriting and AI-tagged document indexing
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Liberty Mutual – GenAI-generated release notes for engineering teams
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Zurich Insurance Group – A system for matching user-typed addresses to a clean, structured address database
“The insurance sector is at a crossroads,” added Mousavizadeh. “Either patents remain the domain of a few frontrunners, or they become merely a signal of broader competitive intent. As generative and agentic AI reshape the value chain, insurers will need to decide whether to build IP defensively or lead from the front.”
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