• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechMastering Data

Why Warren Buffett May Be Wrong on AI and Insurance

By
Jeff John Roberts
Jeff John Roberts
Editor, Finance and Crypto
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 18, 2017, 10:03 AM ET
Tesla Introduces Self-Driving Features With Software Upgrade
A member of the media test drives a Tesla Motors Inc. Model S car equipped with Autopilot in Palo Alto, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. Photograph by Paul Morris—Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Oracle of Omaha this month warned that artificial intelligence poses a threat to Berkshire Hathaway’s auto insurance business. Speaking at the company’s annual meeting, Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett said the use of AI in self-driving cars will mean fewer drivers and fewer customers for the company’s Geico insurance products.

Turns out Buffett may have spoken too soon. According to a new report from Accenture, the overall auto insurance will actually grow in the future, creating $81 billion in new revenue between 2020 and 2025.

The report, published on Thursday, explains that self-driving cars will lead to a big drop in individual insurance premiums. But that drop will be more than offset by new categories of car insurance, especially ones related to cybersecurity, which Accenture says will be worth $12 billion in 2025.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

The report also points to new opportunities in product liability insurance related to autonomous vehicles (predicted value of $2.5 billion) and a smaller opportunity ($0.5 billion) in the form of insuring infrastructure like cloud computing that will be needed to run fleets of driverless cars.

Here is a chart that shows how Accenture believes the new products will, for a time, buoy the auto insurance market even as sales conventional premiums begin to stall and decline:

According to John Cusano, the global head of insurance for Accenture, many auto insurance claims in the future will be different than ones we see today. For instance, insurers will have to pay out for incidents such as faulty AI products or a hacker stealing personal data from a vehicle. Cusano adds that the new opportunities are significant but not every insurance company is equally positioned to take advantage of them.

“Obviously, the ones who will be most challenged will be those on the retail side of the business since the new risks are on the commercial side. Retail insurers will have to transform their business along the way,” he tells Fortune.

This suggests the likes of Geico will indeed face pressure but that they still have time to adapt and grab a share of the commercial market. And in the short term, Cusano says the growth of autonomous vehicle technology will actually bolster retail insurers. That’s because cars now come with more expensive AI-related technology, like cameras and sensors, which make the cost of repairing a fender bender much higher than it used to be.

A final wild card in auto insurance markets of the future is the potential entry into the business of manufacturers. Cusano says Tesla’s small forays into the insurance markets could expand. Meanwhile, Google is using its fleet of self-driving vehicles to amass huge troves of risk-related data, which could put the search giant in a position to join other new entrants as a fierce competitor in the insurance market.

About the Author
By Jeff John RobertsEditor, Finance and Crypto
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Jeff John Roberts is the Finance and Crypto editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of the blockchain and how technology is changing finance.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Uncategorized
Transforming customer support through intelligent AI operations
By Lauren ChomiukNovember 26, 2025
19 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Sorry, six-figure earners: Elon Musk says that money will 'disappear' in the future as AI makes work (and salaries) irrelevant
By Orianna Rosa RoyleDecember 15, 2025
6 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976—today it’d be worth up to $400 billion
By Preston ForeDecember 12, 2025
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
40% of Stanford undergrads receive disability accommodations—but it’s become a college-wide phenomenon as Gen Z try to succeed in the current climate
By Preston ForeDecember 12, 2025
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
AI
Deloitte's CTO on a stunning AI transformation stat: Companies are spending 93% on tech and only 7% on people
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 15, 2025
9 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
Trump admits he can't tell if the GOP will control the House after next year's elections. 'I don't know when all of this money is going to kick in'
By Jason MaDecember 14, 2025
24 hours ago

Latest in Tech

Mark Zuckerberg and the Meta logo
Big TechMeta
Former Meta integrity chief says new report reveals ‘disappointing’ ad fraud epidemic at the social-media giant
By Lily Mae LazarusDecember 15, 2025
17 minutes ago
AIregulation
Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt wonders why AI companies don’t have to ‘follow any laws’
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 15, 2025
1 hour ago
A close-up of Jeff Bezos' face
SuccessJeff Bezos
‘I had to take 60 meetings’: Jeff Bezos says ‘the hardest thing I’ve ever done’ was raising the first million dollars of seed capital for Amazon
By Dave SmithDecember 15, 2025
3 hours ago
AIChips
What happens to old AI chips? They’re still put to good use and don’t depreciate that fast, analyst says
By Jason MaDecember 15, 2025
3 hours ago
Photo of Sergey Brin
AIchief executive officer (CEO)
Google cofounder Sergey Brin said he was ‘spiraling’ before returning to work on Gemini—and staying retired ‘would’ve been a big mistake’
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezDecember 15, 2025
4 hours ago
CryptoCryptocurrency
Bittensor, the AI-linked cryptocurrency founded by a former Google engineer, just halved its supply. Here’s what that means
By Ben WeissDecember 15, 2025
5 hours ago