Allianz has told employees in its UK insurance arm that it is to cut 650 jobs because of difficult market conditions.
Media reports reveal that the German insurer informed employees on Wednesday morning that roles would be affected in its commercial, speciality and personal insurance business.
In the UK, Allianz Insurance employs about 4,200 staff across its various brands, including Petplan. Its head office is in Guildford, Surrey.
The reduction in headcount comes despite a highly successful financial performance last year. Allianz’s UK operations posted a 52% rise in operating profits, hitting £368 million, and increased its business volume to £4.7bn. However, the company stated earlier this year that it was continuing to face a “backdrop of higher claims costs and softening market conditions” in its personal insurance arm.
Financial services and redundancy
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Insurance providers for individuals and families (known as personal lines insurers) are facing inflation-driven claims costs, highly competitive pricing, and a sharp increase in weather-related losses.
While this is the backdrop, some in the insurance sector have questioned whether employees are making way for increased use of artificial intelligence.
Allianz said it would invest another £200 million this year to buttress its UK operations – matching its previous year’s investment – but did not specify how much of that would fund automation, AI, or internal restructuring.
In February, Colm Holmes, UK chief executive, said the “job is no means finished” as he highlighted a push to improve the group’s technical expertise, pricing and digital trading.
According to the Evident AI Insurance Index 2025, Allianz ranks second globally, after AXA, in the use of AI in talent, innovation, leadership, and transparency.
Industry experts at Insurance Business have said that “this leadership in AI innovation may help explain the scale and scope of the redundancies”, adding that manual workflows were being sidelined as insurers used AI to automate claims processing and refine underwriting.
Allianz, however, has not explicitly linked the cuts to automation but, say industry experts, its focus on technical expertise and use of new technologies could be a major factor.
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