Allianz Partners to Cut Up to 1,800 Jobs as AI Takes Over Customer Service

Allianz Partners, the travel insurance and assistance arm of German insurance giant Allianz, has announced plans to cut between 1,500 and 1,800 jobs. The decision was announced Tuesday evening at an internal meeting by Tomas Kunzmann, CEO of Allianz Partners, who tied the reduction directly to the growing use of artificial intelligence in customer service and claims handling.

Scale and scope of the cuts

The heaviest reductions will hit call center staff and employees handling routine, repetitive customer service tasks, precisely the areas most exposed to automation by chatbots and agentic AI systems. Allianz Partners operates from six global offices and serves insurance companies, airlines and hotel chains worldwide, offering travel assistance, roadside help and technical support.

Kunzmann stressed that the decision came after months of talks with employee representatives and that the company intends to treat departing staff fairly. The layoffs are to be spread over 12 to 18 months, with the company offering severance packages, early retirement programs and voluntary departures rather than blanket mass layoffs.

The changes may affect roles that currently rely heavily on manual processes - Allianz Partners statement

AI already reshaping claims handling

This isn't a plan for the future, it describes something already in motion. Allianz has been rolling out Insurance Copilot, a generative AI tool for auto claims handling, since 2024, and in November 2025 it launched Project Nemo, its first fully agentic AI solution for automating claims settlement. According to Maria Janssen, Chief Transformation Officer at Allianz Services, the project has cut claims processing and settlement time by 80 percent.

With Project Nemo, our first integrated agentic AI solution, we are achieving an impressive 80 percent reduction in claims processing and settlement time. This not only boosts productivity across our claims departments but also significantly improves customer satisfaction - Maria Janssen, Chief Transformation Officer, Allianz Services

In travel insurance, the business handled by Allianz Partners, 71 percent of claims are already resolved within 12 hours or less, and 65 percent qualify for full automation without human involvement. That helps explain why this division, heavily reliant on repetitive phone and form-based processes, became the first target for cuts.

A precedent in the insurance industry

Allianz is not the first European insurer to link job cuts directly to automation. Ergo, part of the Munich Re group, announced the elimination of roughly a thousand jobs back in February 2024 with a similar rationale. The insurance industry, with its heavy reliance on clerical and phone-based work governed by clearly defined procedures, is among the sectors most exposed to replacement by AI systems.

For the Polish market, the news matters at least indirectly: Allianz Polska, like other local units of the group, relies on the company's global technology infrastructure, including AI tools developed centrally. The trend of replacing insurance customer service staff with automated systems could eventually reach the Polish operations of international insurers as well, though Allianz has not announced similar plans in Poland so far.

What's next

Kunzmann said the company will keep expanding AI tools in customer service and claims handling, framing the current cuts as part of a broader transformation rather than a one-off cost-cutting move. For employees, that means further waves of automation at the company are highly likely, with staffing decisions to be made progressively as new agentic AI modules are rolled out.

Sources: Allianz Unit to Cut as Many as 1800 Jobs in Push to Adopt AI (bloomberg.com), Allianz layoffs: German insurance giant to cut up to 1,800 jobs amid growing use of AI (techstartups.com), Allianz zwolni prawie 2 tys. osób w Europie. Pracowników zastąpi AI (biznes.interia.pl)