What's Now Next In Workers' Comp
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Featured Articles
What “AI Embedded in the Workflow” Actually Means in Workers’ Comp
The phrase gets used constantly: AI embedded in the workflow. But what does it look like on a Tuesday morning in a claims operation? And how is it different from just having AI available somewhere in the system? The distinction matters more than it might seem, and it’s one of the clearest predictors of whether an AI investment delivers or disappoints.
AI Isn’t Replacing Your Team. It’s Deciding What They Spend Their Day On.
Generative AI is not coming for your adjusters’ jobs, but it is going to change what those jobs look like. The real question isn’t whether AI will reshape your team’s day-to-day. It will. The question is whether you’re going to use it to free your best people to do their best work or leave them buried in tasks a computer could handle better anyway.
Medical Severity Has a Story Arc: What Raji Chadarevian’s AIS 2026 Session Made Plain
Raji Chadarevian opened his AIS 2026 session with three injured workers and a clear thesis. Medical severity is not a single number. It is a sequence of demographic, treatment, and timing decisions that compound over the life of a claim. Senior Solutions Advisor Ryan Smith reads what it means for workers’ compensation carriers.
Three Bureaus, One System, No Single Story: What CA, NY, and NCCI Made Clear at AIS 2026
Tracy Ryan, Andrea Coleman, and Jeremy Attie closed AIS 2026 with a panel that made one case more clearly than any session in recent memory: workers’ comp is a federation, not a system. Senior Solutions Advisor Ryan Smith reads what the three-bureau dynamic means for carriers running across NCCI states, California, and New York.
The Workforce Got Older and Newer at the Same Time: What Coate and Hendrick Showed Us at AIS 2026
Patrick Coate and Paul Hendrick paired their AIS 2026 sessions to make a quiet but unmistakable case: the workers’ comp book of 2030 will look meaningfully different from today’s. Senior Solutions Advisor Ryan Smith reads what their data on aging workers, new hires, and industry mix means for 2026 underwriting and claims.
A Labor Market That Held Up by Almost Standing Still: Reading Stephen Cooper’s 2026 Economy Update
Stephen Cooper opened his AIS 2026 economy update with an uncomfortable truth: 2025 saw the slowest U.S. job growth outside a recession in more than two decades, but workers’ comp kept turning. Senior Solutions Advisor Ryan Smith reads what Cooper’s data means for premium, frequency, and severity heading into 2026.
The Eleven-Year Lucky Streak Just Tightened: Reading NCCI’s 2025 State of the Line
NCCI’s 2025 State of the Line marked the twelfth consecutive year of underwriting gains for workers’ compensation, but the underlying math tightened. Combined ratios rose five points. Accident year crossed 100. Reserve redundancy slipped to $14 billion. Senior Solutions Advisor Ryan Smith reads what these shifts mean for 2026 planning.
Twelve Years In, the Story Just Got More Honest: Five Threads to Pull from AIS 2026
Ryan Smith just got back from NCCI’s Annual Issues Symposium in Orlando. The twelfth straight year of underwriting profitability for workers’ compensation held. The rooms in Orlando sounded different about it. True’s Amy Sliger walks through five threads from AIS 2026 worth pulling on as carriers head into 2026.
From the Archive
Pilot Purgatory: Why So Many Workers’ Comp AI Projects Go Nowhere
By now, most workers’ compensation organizations have run an AI pilot. A meaningful number produced results that looked promising. And then nothing happened. Only 30% of carriers have achieved desired benefits from their AI investments to date, and the technology isn’t the problem. Here’s what actually is, and how the organizations escaping pilot purgatory are doing it differently.
What Mollick’s AIS Keynote on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Means for Workers’ Comp
Ethan Mollick takes the AIS 2026 keynote stage with a cross-industry frame on AI adoption. Workers’ compensation needs the localization. We unpack the honest state of AI adoption in our industry, where it is already paying off, where the gaps still are, and what ’embracing the AI revolution’ looks like for carriers, SIGs, captives, MGAs, and TPAs.
Medical Severity Isn’t One Number: What’s Really Driving Claim Costs Heading Into AIS 2026
When someone says medical severity is up six percent, it sounds like a single data point. NCCI’s Raji Chadarevian frames AIS 2026’s severity session this way: medical severity is more than a single metric. Here’s what’s driving claim costs going into the rest of the decade.
Every State Has a Story: What CA, NY, and NCCI Dynamics Tell Us About the Future of Workers’ Comp
Workers’ comp is a national industry with no national system. From California’s independent bureau to New York’s competitive pressures, state dynamics reveal what’s coming for the entire industry.
Demographics, Injury Patterns, and What the Data Says for Workers’ Comp
The American workforce doesn’t look the way it did five years ago. Workers are older, in different industries, and in different states — and the injury patterns are shifting with them. Here’s what the data says.
The Economy and Workers’ Comp: Why Macro Trends Hit Closer to Home Than You Think
Workers’ comp is priced off payroll and shaped by employment patterns. When the economy shifts, carriers feel it — sometimes immediately, sometimes with a lag. Here’s how to read macro trends before they hit your book.
Workers’ Comp AI Investment: Why Aren’t You Seeing the Return?
Seventy percent of workers’ compensation carriers that have invested in AI have not achieved the outcomes they were looking for. That’s not a technology problem. It’s an implementation one. The difference between the organizations getting real returns and those still waiting usually comes down to three things: their data foundation, their workflow design, and whether their people adopted the tools.
NCCI State of the Line 2026: What the Numbers Mean
Every year, the NCCI State of the Line defines the conversation at the Annual Insights Symposium. Here’s what the 2026 numbers are likely to reveal about combined ratios, loss trends, and the financial health of the workers’ comp market.
Navigating the Regulatory Maze: AI Compliance in Workers’ Comp
If you’re implementing AI in workers’ compensation and not thinking about regulation, you’re already behind. State AI insurance laws are hardening fast. Here’s what compliance looks like in 2026 and how to build a defensible governance framework.
True at AIS 2026: Meet Ryan Smith in Orlando
True’s Senior Solutions Advisor Ryan Smith will be attending NCCI’s Annual Insights Symposium 2026 in Orlando May 11-13. Find out what we’re focused on and how to schedule time to connect at the event.
Your People Aren’t the Problem. Here’s How to Make Them Your Biggest AI Advantage.
AI isn’t coming to replace your workers’ comp operations team, but it is going to change what every role on that team looks like, and the organizations that manage that transition well will outperform those that don’t. This is a practical guide to evolving roles, building the skills that matter, and creating the culture that makes human-AI partnership work in workers’ comp.
Workers’ Comp Meets the Cloud: A Playbook for Cutting Costs and Improving Outcomes in 2026
Economic volatility, driven by inflation, shifting tariffs, and evolving employment dynamics, is placing increasing pressure on the workers’ compensation insurance industry to adapt with greater speed and precision. This analysis explores how integrated, cloud-based platforms equip workers’ compensation carriers, MGAs, TPAs, and self-insured groups to reduce costs, streamline operations, and improve claims outcomes. Leveraging automation, predictive analytics, and real-time insights through solutions such as TruePolicy™, TrueClaims™, and TruePortals™, organizations can maintain profitability and elevate service standards amid uncertainty.