Why Most Insurance AI Patents Are Coming From Only Three U.S. Companies

AI Patents in Insurance Are Largely Controlled by Three U.S. Carriers, New Study Reveals

A new industry analysis shows that the race to patent artificial intelligence innovations in the insurance sector is increasingly concentrated in the hands of just a few major U.S. players. Despite intensifying interest in AI and a wave of new capabilities entering the market, the overall volume of insurance-related AI patents remains significantly lower than it was during the 2020 peak—about 30% below that high point. Yet within this smaller pool of activity, a handful of property and casualty (P&C) insurers are aggressively carving out a dominant position.

The findings come from Evident, an AI benchmarking and intelligence platform specializing in financial services, which recently released updated insights from its Insurance AI Patent Tracker. The dataset provides one of the most comprehensive views to date of how major insurers are building, protecting, and positioning their AI technologies.

Insurance AI Innovation Is Surging

According to Evident’s research, 30 large insurers across North America and Europe have filed 166 AI-related patents since January 2023. However, these patents are not evenly distributed. State Farm, USAA, and Allstate account for an astonishing 77% of all insurer-filed AI patents over the past decade, underscoring an exceptionally concentrated landscape. The P&C sector dominates overall patent activity as well, responsible for roughly 89% of filings. This imbalance reflects the fact that P&C carriers have stronger footholds in telematics, IoT-based risk monitoring, advanced sensor technology, and other data-rich systems that more easily meet U.S. and European patentability standards.

“Patents offer a rare window into where insurers are placing their biggest bets on AI,” said Evident Co-Founder and CEO Alexandra Mousavizadeh. She noted that while the total number of filings is still limited compared to what is seen in banking and other financial verticals, the types of innovations being patented are shifting rapidly. “We’re seeing a marked acceleration in generative and agentic AI capabilities. The IP landscape is moving from protecting legacy systems to fortifying the next wave of AI-driven infrastructure.”

Generative AI Filings Surge, But Overall Patent Levels Lag

Even with the widespread adoption of generative AI tools across the industry, insurers have not returned to the patent filing boom of 2020. Instead, activity is more selective, suggesting carriers are becoming increasingly strategic about which ideas they choose to protect. Within the smaller pool of patents being filed, generative AI has emerged as a major area of focus. In 2023, generative AI patents made up 31% of all insurer AI filings—up dramatically from just 4% a few years earlier. The majority center on automating customer service workflows, accelerating claims operations, and producing more intelligent front-end interactions.

Agentic AI—systems capable of taking autonomous action rather than simply producing content—has also started to appear, though it remains rare. Only three insurers have filed agentic AI patents so far, with USAA leading in early experimentation.

How Insurers Are Deploying AI Across the Value Chain

The patent activity mapped by Evident offers a detailed look at how top insurers are investing in and operationalizing AI today. Examples from recent filings include:

  • USAA, which is exploring generative AI for refining aerial imagery to support property damage assessments.
  • State Farm, which has filed patents for machine-learning-driven claims triage and autonomous vehicle fault determination.
  • Allstate, which is developing an in-vehicle AI assistant capable of automating pieces of the claims process and powering behavior-based insurance discounts.
  • Swiss Re, which is focused on predictive analytics for medical datasets and anomaly detection tools.
  • MassMutual, which has worked on interpretable underwriting models and automated document tagging systems.
  • Liberty Mutual, which is using generative AI to streamline engineering-related documentation.
  • Zurich Insurance Group, which is creating systems that standardize and clean user-inputted address data for more accurate policy processing.

Collectively, these patents highlight how insurers are embedding AI deeper into underwriting, claims, customer service, data management, and internal operations.

A Turning Point for AI Strategy in Insurance

Evident argues that the patent landscape signals a pivotal moment for the global insurance sector. One potential path is that AI patents remain the domain of a select few leaders—primarily U.S. P&C carriers—who use intellectual property to cement competitive advantages in automation, telematics, and analytics. The alternative future is one where more insurers begin filing patents as a way to formalize their strategic direction and protect emerging AI initiatives as they scale.

“The insurance sector is at a crossroads,” Mousavizadeh emphasized. “As generative and agentic AI reshape everything from underwriting to customer interaction, insurers must decide whether they want to protect their ideas defensively or lead from the front.”