Younger Insurance Customers Expect Online Tools

*Updated December 8th, 2025

According to a survey from the Employers Small Business Opinion Poll, younger insurance customers and younger consumers are increasingly expecting to purchase insurance through digital channels and to interact with their insurer through a seamless digital experience that prioritizes speed, convenience, and accessibility.

Members of Generation Y, now commonly grouped with millennials and overlapping with Gen Z in certain market research definitions, represent a highly entrepreneurial segment of insurance consumers. Roughly 46 percent of these young consumers expect to start their own business within the next five years. As true digital natives, they naturally expect digital-first tools that allow them to manage insurance products, employee benefits, and future life and health coverage completely online.

More than 70 percent of younger customers indicated in the survey that they expect their insurance provider or carrier to be technologically advanced. Among this group:

• 86 percent want access to online insurance quotes

• 83 percent prefer online customer experience and contact center support

• 81 percent want full online insurance policy management

• 79 percent favor online payment options through digital interactions

These findings clearly show evolving consumer preferences and rising customer expectations for fully connected digital customer engagement across every stage of the consumer journey.

By contrast, Generation X consumers—those between the ages of 26 and 45 based on consumer age segmentation—show a mixed appetite for digital transformation. While many actively use digital tools to file claims, manage auto insurance, or explore home insurance coverage options, adoption drops at the higher end of the age bracket. Many Baby Boomers still favor traditional service models and value the human touch of face-to-face meetings over fully automated experiences.

Despite this clear shift in younger generations, many major insurance brands and insurance companies have historically lagged behind other industries in digital innovation. For years, websites served mainly as lead-generation tools designed to push customers toward phone-based sales rather than deliver true self-service functionality. As a result, insurance-related friction has remained high for younger users who expect instant access.

However, this is rapidly changing as AI adoption, automation, and AI-enabled platforms become the new tool of choice for insurers seeking to modernize the insurance world. Today, use of AI, including conversational AI, GenAI, and advanced AI tools, allows carriers to:

• Personalize policies in real time

• Improve claims processing and streamline filing a claim

• Enhance risk management and policy adjustments

• Deliver faster service through AI-driven virtual support

Recent market research also shows that the AI inclination index among younger insurance customers is significantly higher than among older generations, confirming that using AI is now fully embedded in their expectations.

As a result, insurance providers, tech companies, and forward-looking carriers are accelerating digital-first strategies across P&C, annuity, and life insurance segments. These improvements support stronger customer loyalty, higher retention, and more efficient distribution of products and services.

Ultimately, the greatest risk for any modern insurer is to fail to deliver the digital experience that today’s insurance customer now considers standard. Consumers understand what technology can deliver—and consumers want speed, simplicity, transparency, and intelligent personalization across every touchpoint.

The Employers Small Business Opinion Poll collected input from 1,258 policyholders through telephone interviews conducted in June 2010. While the data is historical, it accurately forecasted today’s reality—where digital interactions, AI adoption, and customer experience now define success across the modern insurance industry.