Allstate CEO Says AI Should Be Used to Employ More People, Not Cut Costs

Allstate has tasked individuals on each of its AI teams with looking into how the technology might change its business model to employ more humans, CEO Tom Wilson said. Rather than just sending an auto insurance customer money to fix their car after a crash, Allstate could pick up the vehicle, get it repaired and return it, Wilson suggested.

"The computer is going to do a whole bunch of work and companies could just cut costs, but that's not what people want from business," he said.

He has concluded that few executives lose their jobs or destroy their companies over just one bad decision. "The big challenge for CEOs is that they get risk-averse once they have the top job," Wilson said. " In 2025, he urged Americans to overcome "an addiction to divisiveness" and launched an initiative to address mistrust.

Allstate's latest earnings beat estimates and showed it gaining market share. Wilson said his board has long endorsed the idea that Allstate should serve its employees, customers and communities rather than shareholders alone. '" he said, adding that he might hire 500 extra people just to try something out.

"Shareholders will give CEOs space if they perform," Wilson stated. Allstate developed a "societal engagement framework" that has assessed roughly 100 different topics against three criteria: Does it help us do a better job for our customers? Do we know anything about it?

Can we actually effectuate any change? The framework guides which issues Allstate engages on publicly. Wilson said he is disappointed so few executives will touch topics that look vaguely political. "There should be more voices from CEOs," he added.

Allstate has put more than 75,000 employees through workshops designed to help them articulate and pursue their individual purpose. The company defines its corporate purpose as protecting customers from life's uncertainties. "If you want to be a purpose-driven company, you have to be powered by purpose-driven people," Wilson said.

Allstate pledged $7 million to an Aspen Institute initiative on building trust. " The report found that people trust their neighbors more than they do the average American. "We sell trust," Wilson said.

He believes that if people are gripped by a broader sense of distrust, it is bad for communities, bad for Allstate's team and bad for its business proposition.