The picture today is cautious but busy in the right places. Across 2025, businesses took a measured approach to hiring against a subdued economic backdrop, yet clear demand hotspots stayed open for specialist skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly's tech recruitment outlook for 2026. For insurers, that means the volume game has cooled while the competition for specialist talent has not.
The scale of the AI shift explains why. Demand for AI skills rose nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK Accenture data reported by The Register. Insurance, concentrated heavily in London, sits right inside that demand curve.
Longer term, the direction is set. For AI-related occupations, the net change ranges from roughly 696,000 jobs in an automation scenario to 1,072,000 in a technological opportunities scenario, with replacement demand rising from 3,077,000 to 3,193,000 jobs GOV.UK labour market and skills projections. Hiring now is about building teams that can work with AI, not around it.
Two things are happening at once. Insurers still need regulated expertise, and in financial services recruitment has generally been for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles rather than RQF 3 to 5 the GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List Stage 2 report. In plain terms, that means degree-level and above: underwriters, actuaries, risk and compliance specialists who understand regulated decisions.
Now a new skill is joining that mix: agent evaluation. As insurers deploy AI agents for claims triage, fraud checks and customer queries, someone has to judge whether those agents are accurate, fair and compliant. That blends domain knowledge with the ability to test, score and correct an AI system, which is exactly where regulated expertise and AI skills meet.
The talent pipeline is widening to match. Apprenticeships have risen from 3 percent of AI hires in 2020 to 19 percent in 2025 the GOV.UK and DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025, a sign that firms are growing these skills in-house as well as buying them in.
Start by writing the job for the skill, not the job title. Agent evaluation is new, so candidates will not all share the same label. Describe the work: testing AI outputs against policy, spotting bias, documenting failures and feeding fixes back to the model. That attracts people from underwriting, data and compliance who can do the work even if their CV never says agent evaluation.
Second, combine two filters. You want regulated domain knowledge at RQF 6+ level, which aligns with where financial-services recruitment already concentrates the GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List Stage 2 report, plus hands-on comfort with AI tools. Test both in the interview with a short practical: give candidates a sample agent output and ask them to assess it.
Third, build as well as buy. The UK government announced a partnership to upskill 7.5 million workers in essential AI skills by 2030, equivalent to around 20 percent of the UK workforce techUK's reporting on London Tech Week 2025. Pairing experienced insurance staff with AI training is often faster than waiting for a perfect external hire.
When a specialist insurance or agent evaluation role opens, speed and reach matter. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface people with the right mix of regulated expertise and AI skills, and we manage the process end to end. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. If you are hiring for agent evaluation in insurance today, let's talk about your next role.
