The Great Retirement Wave — Adapting Agency Operations When You Can't Replace Experience

The Rundown

 A recent Catalyit Live session with Sonant AI warned that the insurance industry is barreling toward a talent cliff — with 400,000+ professionals expected to retire by 2026 — and traditional hiring pipelines aren’t keeping up. 

The Context

• Speakers Lauren Crosby (Catalyit), Pedro Sena, and Quen Wilson of Sonant AI outlined how shrinking talent pools and drawn-out hiring timelines are squeezing agencies.
• Smaller firms face mounting competition from larger agencies offering higher pay and broader benefits.
• The panel urged operational redesign over endless recruiting — including virtual assistants and AI-powered tools to handle routine service work.
• AI can now manage phone coverage, simple policy changes, and post-call documentation, freeing licensed staff for complex, relationship-driven conversations.
• Agencies that adopted AI shared early wins in productivity and customer satisfaction.
  
  

Why it Matters

This isn’t just a hiring problem — it’s a structural one. Agencies that cling to legacy staffing models risk burnout, slower service, and lost clients. The firms that blend AI efficiency with human expertise won’t just survive the retirement wave — they’ll come out leaner, faster, and more competitive.