Allianz Partners to cut up to 1,800 jobs as AI replaces call center roles

Allianz Partners will eliminate between 1,500 and 1,800 positions across Europe as the travel insurance subsidiary accelerates its adoption of artificial intelligence, CEO Tomas Kunzmann confirmed at an event in Munich on Tuesday evening.investing+2

The cuts represent roughly 8% of Allianz Partners' more than 22,000-strong workforce and will primarily affect call-center roles handling customer inquiries and claims. The reductions will be carried out through severance agreements, early retirements, and similar voluntary measures, with Kunzmann saying the company had negotiated with works councils over the past six months and extended voluntary leave offers in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and the Benelux countries.insurancejournal+3

"This could happen to any of us at some point," Kunzmann said of the cuts. "We treat these colleagues exactly as is appropriate — fairly".investing+1

A Broader Industry Trend

The announcement marks one of the largest AI-related workforce reductions in the European insurance sector and follows a similar move earlier this year by Munich Re Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft in München, whose primary insurance unit Ergo said in February it would cut about 1,000 positions in Germany over five years, also partly due to increased use of artificial intelligence. Ergo said its reductions would focus on "simple and repetitive tasks in telephony and claims processing," with no forced redundancies.bloomberg+1

Allianz Partners' cuts are set to proceed more rapidly, unfolding over the next 12 to 18 months. The subsidiary employs roughly 14,000 people in customer-facing phone roles — underscoring the scale of automation's reach into the insurance workforce.globalbankingandfinance+2

Scale of AI Disruption

Bloomberg Economics estimates that 27% of workers in advanced economies are likely to be meaningfully affected by AI, a figure that lends weight to mounting concerns across the financial services industry. The insurance sector, with its reliance on high-volume, rules-based customer interactions, has emerged as a testing ground for the technology's labor market effects.investing

Allianz Partners had previously warned that staffing levels could be affected by AI-driven transformations. The company cited the technology directly as the reason for the latest round of cuts.insurancejournal+1