Intact aims to boost growth with accelerated artificial intelligence deployment

Growth in Canada, growth in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are all expected to contribute to Intact Financial Corporation’s future success, say executives presenting at recent investor conferences.

In the two sessions – one with Patrick Barbeau, Intact’s chief operating officer, at the Scotiabank Financials Summit on Sept. 10 and the other with Ken Anderson, Intact’s chief financial officer at the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference on Sept. 15 – both note the company’s investment in AI. They say Intact plans to accelerate the technology’s deployment in pricing, operations, sales, commercial underwriting and claims “with the main goal to boost and support top-line growth,” says Barbeau. “Deploying and accelerating the deployment of AI into pricing and risk selection in commercial lines, speciality lines in particular, we see good traction there.”

The executives note that the company’s investment in AI began ten years ago. The company has 600 people working in its data lab. It has more than 600 models deployed at scale, two-thirds of which are deployed in pricing while the other third supports underwriting, sales and claims.

Today the company is using third and fourth generation models; it also sees considerable opportunity to deploy the technology in its US and UK businesses where deployment currently sits at about 30 per cent.

“This, in aggregate, is currently producing north of $220 million of recurring benefit annually that we can measure,” Barbeau says. He notes that a year and a half ago the company issued guidance saying it would reach $500 million by 2030. It has since shortened that time frame, saying it will reach that target by 2028.

“We’ve accelerated our investment recently and we’re seeing that the benefit on the pricing and reselection side in commercial and specialty lines is actually producing better outcomes than we anticipated at the time,” he adds. “The other thing, you won’t be surprised to hear, the technology and AI have made a big leap forward over the last 12 months.”

Speaking to the investors and asset managers gathered, he also outlines the company’s overarching AI strategy: to deploy the technology even further across the company’s pricing and operations, improve customer and broker experiences, drive down the cost of software development (the company also has 1,500 developers using AI-based code-writing techniques) and accelerate the development of AI itself.

In Canada, meanwhile, the executive says he expects hard market conditions to persist in both personal auto and personal property “for slightly different reasons.”

Personal auto continues to be dogged by mid-single-digit inflation. Despite this, the company has done well in the segment, even in Alberta. “It is an area where we are enjoying a good level of outperformance,” he says. “We’re preparing ourselves to capture market share in this environment.”

Personal property, meanwhile, looked more profitable in 2025, but Barbeau attributes this to a lower-cost catastrophe season that year. “The industry needs to price also for a mid-single-digit inflation rate in personal property,” he adds. “Inflation and climate trends are likely to help the hard market conditions persist.”

Finally, M&A was a topic of conversation with both executives. Barbeau spells out the opportunity noting that, leverage included, the company could complete an acquisition around $6 billion before needing to issue more shares. “We’re not trying to plant flags in new areas,” he adds, noting that the company currently has 20 per cent market share in Canada. “We really can grow that by 50 per cent. So, a lot of appetite there.”

Anderson also notes that the company is not constrained by the $6-billion figure either. “We believe, given our track record on capital deployment, that equity markets would be there to support us for any larger-sized transaction that we would look at.”

Anderson’s presentation also stated that the company currently has a $17-billion Canadian premium base, with plans to increase that to $25 billion by 2030. Today 50 per cent of the company’s business comes from personal lines while the remaining business comes from commercial lines and specialty business.

“There, the pressure is in the large account space,” he says of the commercial business, but adds that the majority of the company’s commercial business, about 70 per cent, comes from the small and medium-sized company market. “Much more rational and constructive conditions,” he says, describing the market. “We see much less rate pressure in those segments.”