How Answer Engines Search Could Change the Ways Consumers Buy Insurance

The way people shop for insurance is changing - and fast. With tools like Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE), ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot becoming part of everyday search behaviour, we're moving away from comparison tables and long quote forms towards something much simpler: asking a question and getting a straight answer.

According to Salesforce, nearly 60% of consumers have already used generative AI tools to research products and services, and that number is only going to grow.

Rather than browsing ten providers or jumping between aggregator sites, consumers are now asking natural language questions like "What's the best travel insurance to go to India?" or "What car insurance is most affordable for younger drivers?" and expecting a clear, personalised response. What's more, they can ask for reviews right in the same place.

For insurers, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The businesses that adapt to answer engine behaviour early stand to become the "go-to" recommendation, while others risk being filtered out of the conversation entirely.

We explore how answer engine optimisation (AEO) is set to reshape the insurance buying journey - and what insurers can do to stay visible, relevant, and competitive.

Pretty much since the dawn of the internet, comparison sites have been the main battleground for insurance sales. They've shaped consumer expectations, forced price competitiveness, and created a fairly linear journey: input details → compare prices → buy. But answer engines don't follow that path.

Instead of browsing and comparing, users are now asking . And instead of being shown a list of options, they're getting one summarised answer, pulled from trusted sources. That might be a broker's blog, a provider's FAQ page, or even an independent review site. If your brand isn't part of that answer, you may start to lose visibility.

This has significant implications. You're no longer just competing for clicks - you're competing to be the answer . That requires a different kind of visibility: not just paid placements or organic rankings, but content that AI models can understand, trust, and serve back confidently.

It's a shift from selling through listings to showing up through relevance. Insurers who adapt early will dominate this new layer of search.

Trust and transparency matter more than ever

Answer engines are trained to prioritise helpful, reliable responses - which means they favour content that's clear, honest, and easy to understand. In other words, if your product page is full of jargon or hides key exclusions in the small print, it's unlikely to make the cut.

This is a wake-up call for insurers. The brands that win in this space will be the ones who communicate benefits, limitations, and pricing in a way that feels genuinely helpful - not salesy.

It also means revisiting your content strategy. Pages structured around answering real user questions (think: "Does travel insurance cover cancellations?" or "What's excess and how does it work?") are far more likely to be cited by AI models when generating responses. FAQs, explainers, and comparison-style content all help build trust and improve your chances of being featured.

Put simply: if you're not answering people's questions clearly, someone else will - and that someone else will become the answer.

Personalised queries need personalised content

One of the biggest shifts in answer engine search is how tailored the results are becoming. These tools don't just return general advice-they respond based on context, intent, and sometimes even location. That means someone searching "best pet insurance for an older dog in London" will see a very different answer than someone asking " cheap pet insurance for a new puppy in Manchester."

As answer engines evolve, they're becoming far better at understanding context and intent. Rather than serving generic results, they generate tailored responses based on factors like user location, query phrasing, and even previous interactions. A search for "pet insurance for an older dog in London" will trigger a very different answer to "cheap cover for a new puppy in Manchester."

This shift means insurers need to rethink how content is created and presented. Broad, catch-all landing pages won't perform as well in an answer-led environment. Instead, content must be specific, scenario-driven, and written in a way that mirrors how people actually search.

To remain visible, insurers will need to invest in content that's not only relevant to a range of real-world queries, but also technically prepared to be "read" and repurposed by AI.

Fewer clicks and less control

One of the most disruptive aspects of answer engine search is that it removes the need to click . If a user gets a complete, trustworthy answer directly in the search interface, they may never visit your website at all.

This trend is accelerating. A recent study by SparkToro and Similarweb found that over 57% of Google searches now end without a click. That number is likely to rise as answer engines become the norm, especially with the rollout of AI Overviews in Google's Search Generative Experience.

Human advice still matters - but it's later in the journey

Let's be clear: answer engines aren't about to replace brokers or underwriters - especially for complex products like commercial insurance, high-net-worth policies, or private medical cover. But they are changing when and how people engage with human advice.

Increasingly, customers are arriving at conversations already armed with AI-generated insights. They've asked ChatGPT about policy types, researched the typical exclusions for income protection, and compared cover levels via Google's AI Overview - before they ever speak to someone in your team, or click on your website.

This means two things for insurers and intermediaries:

1. Expect more informed (and more selective) customers - The days of starting from scratch on every call are numbered. People will come in with assumptions - and sometimes misinformation - that you'll need to address.
2. Content still drives trust - Even in advice-led scenarios, your brand's visibility and clarity online will influence who gets the enquiry in the first place. If an answer engine references your firm as the authority, you're already a step ahead.

For firms offering advice-based products or advanced insurance software solutions , this shift represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Yes, people may be arriving with more information, but if you can position your brand as the trusted expert within those early answers, you'll be the one they come to when it's time to talk.

So while human expertise isn't going anywhere, it's increasingly being used to validate a decision rather than shape the initial search. Your digital presence - especially how you show up in answer engines - is now playing a bigger role in that first impression.

Now is the time to consider your visibility in AI-driven search results. Review your content. Tighten up your FAQs. Revisit how your products are explained online. And make sure you're not just appearing in search, but actually answering it.

Because as consumer behaviour evolves, one thing is clear: insurers who invest in answer engine optimisation today will still be in the conversation tomorrow.