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Extreme-weather related costs totaled $115 billion in 2025, yet at the same time, a widening gap between policyholder expectations and the current reality of the shrinking adjuster workforce is slowing down the claims cycle. With the average adjuster age hovering around 40 years old, and the US Department of Labor projecting 21,600 job openings per year, this gap is only expected to grow.
To address this looming workforce challenge, the property & casualty industry must look to technology as a way to extend and preserve expertise. By pairing technology with talent, insurers can maintain and accelerate the claims cycle while laying the groundwork for the next era of adjusting.
Why technology is central to the modern adjuster role
As technologies like AI and 360º documentation tools continue to evolve, these solutions are undeniably reshaping the adjuster role to drive long-term sustainability. When claims cycles are delayed and payouts stall, adjusters who leverage emerging tools are able to accelerate the process and make access to technology a competitive differentiator. Thanks to technology, adjusters are no longer siloed specialists, but now act as strategic advisors that help bridge the gap between policyholders and carriers to speed up the claims cycle.
Consider how tools like 360º documentation create a real-time, single source of truth that supports faster review cycles and greater consistency across claims. In an environment with high adjuster turnover, this visibility is critical. Technology ensures continuity regardless of who is managing a claim, enabling adjusters to process more claims with greater confidence and accuracy.
For younger professionals entering the industry, technology is no longer optional, it's expected. Emerging solutions give adjusters greater autonomy over when and how they work, allowing them to scale their workload for additional income or operate more efficiently to support work-life balance. Technology provides more than just a single source of truth, it hands the next-gen of adjusters the control over their careers they desire.
Flexibility, supported by technology, has become essential to ensuring the adjuster workforce pipeline remains healthy and full to meet the demand of rising extreme-weather related claims. To attract the next generation of adjusters and support meaningful knowledge transfer between generations, carriers must prioritize meaningful adoption.
Technology as the bridge between generations
Technology does more than accelerate the claims cycle, it also helps fill in gaps when veteran adjusters exit the workforce. Whether the challenge is a complex claim in progress or the loss of institutional best practices, documentation technology plays a crucial role in safeguarding relevant experience.
Digital tools allow adjusters to capture records of best practices, document claim outcomes, and maintain transparent records that support faster decision-making. Solutions like 360º documentation enable insurers to build visual libraries of past claims that can be repurposed for training, quality assurance, onboarding, and reference materials. With the support of these tools and visual libraries, new adjusters can seamlessly enter the claims cycle and engage policyholders with confidence from day one.
Technology acts as the bridge between generations, ensuring that expertise is not lost, but passed forward. However, this transfer only works when all stakeholders are aligned and committed to adoption.
Driving adoption in a risk-averse industry
Despite increased investments into emerging technologies, organizations may see slower adoption rates due to a reluctance to disrupt long-established processes and changes to existing workflows. However, hesitation shouldn't become a barrier to innovation. Rather than avoid emerging solutions, adjusters should embrace technology responsibly and ethically.
To increase adoption within the adjuster workforce, carriers can start by piloting new solutions for 90 days across different environments to validate accuracy, quality, and compliance. For example, one group of adjusters can leverage the new tool in a controlled setting while another continues with traditional estimating methods. Side-by-side comparisons help validate performance and reduce uncertainty among more hesitant users.
Once testing is completed, carriers can drive adoption through engagement strategies such as gamification. For example, leveraging strategies like leaderboards and badges to highlight those who complete the most 360º tours in a month to encourage greater usage. These incentives help build comfort, confidence, and momentum.
Combining workforce development with thoughtful adoption not only supports today's claims volume, it creates a blueprint for future generations navigating an increasingly complex risk environment.
Charting the future of the adjuster workforce
Technology alone will not solve the adjuster shortage, but it can fundamentally reshape how the industry navigates it amid record-level disaster spend. The future of adjusting is arriving quickly, and meeting this moment requires both flexibility and intent.
By pairing emerging technology with deliberate talent development and structured knowledge transfer, carriers can build a more resilient adjuster pipeline. The adjuster workforce of tomorrow is defined by a balance of experience and innovation, working together to accelerate claims, drive consistency, and strengthen trust.
As the Vice President for Insurance Strategy with DocuSketch, Kimberly Dumas is committed to impacting the industry through innovation, education, and standardization of systems and processes as a six-sigma green belt.
Opinions expressed here are the author's own.
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