AI for Australian marine insurance brokers.

A shifting market means more remarketing per renewal, and the commission-consent steps added in July 2025 put a new compliance action inside every retail file. The desk absorbed the added work on flat headcount, which is exactly why renewal preparation is where AI tools reached broking first, ahead of any governance paperwork.

Brokers under thirty hold 11 percent of the profession, the smallest share on record, and senior brokers take four to six months to place. Fifty-eight percent of firms carry no formal succession plan while three quarters of owners expect to exit within a decade. In marine broking the craft knowledge of hulls, class and salvage sits in the fewest heads of all.

When one facility tightens appetite for waterfront storage, older hulls or cyclone-zone risks, the local options run thin, and Lloyd's minimums price out the small end. A Treasury-commissioned review found marinas unable to place all of their risk. You carry the client conversation either way.

Industry compliance spend runs to $3.5 billion a year, 8 to 10 percent of operating expenses, and the same obligations sit with a small brokerage without a compliance team: reportable situations, DDO reporting, code data returns, CPD tracking, and now ASIC's AI governance expectations under REP 798. The regulator has already named the pattern of adoption running ahead of governance.

ASIC REP 798, the regulator's October 2024 review of AI use across 23 licensees, found adoption running ahead of governance: a majority of the AI use cases reviewed had no governance policy over them, and the regulator flagged the gap plainly. The expectation on your AFSL, your Australian Financial Services Licence, is that your governance keeps pace with your use.

The retail commission-consent regime that took effect on 9 July 2025 puts a written consent inside every retail renewal, and the added file work landed on the same desk that was already carrying the book. The compliance action is small per file and cumulative across the year, which is exactly where AI summarisation reached the desk first.

NIBA's Insurance Brokers Code of Practice 2025 annual report puts brokers under thirty at 11 percent of the profession, the smallest share on record, and Steadfast reports 58 percent of firms without formal succession, 75 percent of owners expecting to exit within a decade. The craft knowledge of hulls, class and salvage sits in the fewest heads of all, and the case for capturing it under proper controls has never been sharper.

Claims turnaround belongs to the insurer, and the daily inbox belongs to you: chasing assessors, parts and repairer shortages, surveyor availability on marine losses. In marine books the client relationship is generational, so a botched claim costs more than the file it sits in.