AI disruption surging through the finance industry: Insurify's new tool launched, U.S. insurance broker stocks experience a "Black Monday."

Notice that the launch of an artificial intelligence tool by the private online insurance shopping platform Insurify has raised concerns in the market about the industry facing disruption, causing heavy losses in the stock of American insurance brokerage companies on Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Insurance Index closed down 3.9%, marking the biggest drop since October last year. Insurance brokerage company Willis Towers Watson PLC (WTW.US) performed the worst, closing down 12%, experiencing its most brutal trading day since November 2008. Following closely behind were Arthur J Gallagher & Co. (AJG.US) falling 9.9%, and Aon Plc Class A group (AON.US) falling 9.3%. Insurance analyst Matthew Palazola, who conducts industry research, stated, "Insurance brokerage stocks are facing a severe blow," noting that "the market may have concerns about Insurify's new tool and Anthropic's new AI tool." He added, "While these applications may pose a threat to some consulting businesses of insurance brokerage companies, we believe they are more of 'efficiency multipliers' rather than survival threats." Insurify's application uses ChatGPT to compare auto insurance rates by combining vehicle details, customer credit history, driving records, and other input information. The company stated that the app went live on February 3rd. Investor concerns about how new AI applications could disrupt multiple industries have sent shockwaves through the stock market last week. This was primarily triggered by the release of new tools from AI startup company Anthropic, which aim to automate various work tasks related to legal, data services, and financial research.