Navigating the Modernization Mandate in Insurance

Summary

Insurance leaders need to modernize with care, speed, and control. Regulatory change, legacy complexity, rising customer expectations, and growing data demands all put pressure on core policy, billing, underwriting, and claims environments. At the same time, insurers can’t risk disruption to the systems that keep the business running.

Rocket Software helps insurers move forward with a practical, fit-for-purpose approach across applications, data, and infrastructure. We help you strengthen what works today while building the foundation for what comes next.

The drive toward innovation

Even with economic uncertainty, insurers continue to invest in long-term capability:

• Nearly 90% of insurers anticipate recessionary conditions in 2026.
• 44% plan to increase IT budgets.
• Over 21% of current IT spending is allocated to innovation.
• By 2027, 68% of insurance executives plan to put agentic AI plans into action, especially for underwriting and claims efficiency.

These investments point to modernization that’s incremental, measurable, and tied to business value. 

IDC Spotlight, sponsored by Rocket Software, What Are the Modernization Priorities and Blind Spots for Insurance Executives?, #US54516326, May 2026

What insurers need to modernize now

Modernization isn’t just a technology refresh. It helps improve speed, accuracy, security, and trust across the insurance value chain. Rocket helps insurers focus on the areas that matter most:

• AI readiness and data governance: Rocket can help improve data visibility, quality, governance, and context across complex environments, so teams can support analytics, reporting, underwriting, and AI with more confidence.
• Mainframe modernization: Core mainframe systems often hold decades of valuable business logic. Rocket mainframe modernization solutions help insurers extend, integrate, and optimize these systems through APIs, automation, hybrid cloud strategies, and modern development practices.
• Security and compliance: Rocket can help protect host-based systems with modern access controls, stronger authentication, and audit support, while preserving reliable access to critical applications.
• Hybrid cloud enablement: API-driven architectures help connect core systems with cloud services, digital channels, and partner ecosystems without a disruptive rip-and-replace approach.
• Workflow modernization: Automation can reduce manual effort in claims, policy administration, and first notice of loss, helping teams improve response times, lower costs, and better serve customers.

Blind spots to address

Your modernization journey is too important to be slowed by avoidable risks. Common blind spots include:

• Underestimating the data preparation required for AI and analytics.
• Relying too heavily on legacy security assumptions.
• Leaving embedded business rules and actuarial models hard to access or adapt.
• Maintaining fragmented claims processes that delay decisions.
• Overlooking broker, agent, and partner workflows.