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Root · Car insurance2 min read

Car insurance CEO says AI shopping assistants could upend the industry

Root's CEO says AI assistants could soon get car insurance quotes from every insurer for you, which might make price shopping easy. Here is what is claimed and what is not known.

By the Dashline deskSource: markets.businessinsider.com
Car insurance CEO says AI shopping assistants could upend the industry
Photo: Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0

The CEO of car insurer Root says AI shopping assistants could change how people buy car insurance. In an op-ed published Oct. 28, 2026 in Digital Insurance, Alex Timm argued that software could collect quotes from every insurer for you, and that this could shake up an industry built on big advertising.

What he is saying

An AI agent is software that carries out a task for you, such as shopping around. Timm says it can turn something no person would do by hand, quoting with every insurer, into a simple, automatic job. It could keep checking for the best price and coverage based on your demographic, location, car type and driving record.

He says agents do not value sports sponsorships, arena logos or catchy jingles. They look for price and coverage. So insurers would have to compete on how well they price each driver's risk. Timm says the edge will come from advanced segmentation and pricing, meaning sorting drivers into finer groups, not just being cheapest.

The release also points to Meta's AI agent Muse, which topped 10.9 million downloads since its Sept. 8 launch and reached an estimated 2.5 million daily active users.

What to keep in mind

The claim comes from Root, an insurer that says it is well prepared for this shift. Root says it operates in 38 states and has analyzed close to 38 billion miles of driving data. It is not yet known when insurance shopping agents will be common, whether they will lower what drivers pay, or how insurers will connect to them. The release is a forecast, not a result.

The takeaway

AI tools may one day shop car insurance for you, but that is an insurer's prediction, so keep comparing quotes yourself for now.

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