ACORD, the international organization responsible for insurance data standards, has released the 2026 Insurance Data Standards Insurance digital maturity research Assess how digital capabilities translate into business performance across industries.
The analysis covered 210 of the world’s largest insurance companies across property and casualty, life and reinsurance businesses and found that only 7% of companies were classified as digital competitors, the most mature category.
ACORD’s survey results show that although nearly one-third of insurance companies have completed extensive digitalization across their business lines, less than 10% have reached the most mature stage.
Most are still in the mid-stage of development. ACORD noted that the widening performance gap between leaders and slower adopters is not due to total technology investment, but to how effectively organizations translate digital capabilities into operational execution and measurable outcomes.
“For many insurance companies, core back-office operations remain largely manual and siled, with digital efforts viewed as a collection of discrete projects rather than a coordinated, enterprise-wide transformation initiative,” commented Dave Sterner, senior vice president of R&D at ACORD. “Insurers that view digital as a comprehensive business system encompassing technology, data, operating models, culture and governance are best positioned to differentiate in an increasingly complex and competitive market.”
ACORD classifies insurance companies into five maturity levels. At the top are digital competitors, which ACORD describes as companies that use fully integrated digital capabilities to impact customers and partners, improve performance and support strategic positioning. Below are digital companies, followed by digital aspirations, local digital and digital laggards, the latter reflecting organizations with limited, fragmented or de-prioritized digital activities.
ACORD’s research shows that only the digital competitor group achieved above-average profitability across the entire sample and also recorded the strongest long-term profit growth. ACORD reported that over the ten-year period, the group’s total shareholder return was 254%, compared with 180% for the Digital Companies category and 154% for the Digital Vision category.
ACORD’s analysis also shows a link between greater digital maturity and broader enterprise adoption of ACORD data standards. According to ACORD, less mature insurers often use these standards in siled areas focused on compliance or limited integration, while more advanced organizations apply them across the value chain to enable connected operations.
“Data standardization is a key prerequisite for the effective use of artificial intelligence,” Sterner added. “Insurers can only scale AI if their organizations already have modern, integrated front-to-back capabilities. While AI is accelerating industry ambitions, digital maturity determines whether these ambitions translate into lasting advantages.”