With the first half of the fiscal year proving highly profitable for insurers, a pressing question emerges: what exactly was AI's contribution? By the end of August 2026, all five major A-share listed insurance companies had released their interim reports. These industry leaders recorded a combined net profit of 317.387 billion yuan, a substantial 78.12% year-on-year increase, translating to an average daily profit of 1.754 billion yuan. Their planned interim dividends also topped 39 billion yuan.

Amidst the headlines about robust financial performance, some particularly striking metrics have captured the market's attention. China Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (SHSE: 601318) saw its average daily token consumption skyrocket from 30 billion in December 2025 to over 120 billion by June 2026, a fourfold surge in just six months. During the same period, New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (SHSE: 601336) reported that its marketing AI assistants had automatically generated over 4 million insurance proposals. China Life Insurance Company Limited (SHSE: 601628) announced the development of more than 500 AI agents. AI has firmly established itself as a "financial-grade metric" in corporate disclosures.

These impressive figures regarding token calls, AI agents, and digital employees beg the question: what tangible cost-saving and efficiency-boosting value are they delivering for the insurers? Both consumers and investors are curious to know the true extent of AI's contribution to the industry's record profits. Let's break down the AI assets of these five insurers, what these terms mean, and the real story behind the numbers.

Quantifying AI's Role in Boosting Insurer Profits and Efficiency

To comprehend the companies' varying AI disclosures, it's important to first understand the terminology. "Tokens" represent the fundamental unit of work for AI systems, meaning every interaction between a user and an AI customer service bot consumes a certain number of tokens. Simultaneously, the frequently mentioned "AI agents" form the underlying technology for creating "digital employees." These virtual colleagues, constructed with AI, are capable of independently executing tasks such as generating insurance proposals, processing claims, and delivering customer service.

A search for "AI" within the interim report of China Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (SHSE: 601318) yields 97 distinct results. This volume of mentions underscores the company's "AI in ALL" strategy, which deeply integrates artificial intelligence into its service processes to achieve precise matching, efficient execution, and an ultimately superior customer experience. As of June 2026, the company's average daily token consumption exceeded 120 billion. This substantial technical demand is supported by concrete outcomes: during the reporting period, AI agents handled approximately 939 million service requests, covering 81% of total customer service volume and assisting in driving 57.313 billion yuan in sales. In claims risk control, 59% of "flash claims" were settled within 30 minutes; 57% of auto claims utilized automated inspection, with AI verifying photos uploaded by customers. Furthermore, intelligent anti-fraud systems intercepted and mitigated losses amounting to 7.11 billion yuan, a 10.4% increase year-on-year. Within the medical sector, its AI doctor feature was used by over 9.7 million people with a 96% accuracy rate in assisted diagnoses. The combination of "AI and human doctors" now extends to 100% of the group's individual customers.

In its semi-annual report, China Life Insurance Company Limited (SHSE: 601628) emphasized its enterprise-level AI platform, which has supported over 90 digital application scenarios and more than 500 AI agents. These systems provide deep support across core domains including sales assistance, operational management, and customer service. The operational efficiencies are significant: in the first half of 2026, the rate of intelligent underwriting reviews hit 96.8%, digital underwriters handled over 37% of the workflow, and the intelligent audit rate for policy services reached 99%. Moreover, digital and intelligent methods now account for over 75% of claims processing, with more than 2.3 million medical insurance claims settled via one-stop direct payment. Zhang Xinyu, Assistant President of China Life, revealed during the mid-year results conference that with the support of large models for tasks like liability assessment and information analysis in accident and critical illness insurance, the company has successfully reduced its overall claims service time to just 0.36 days.

New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (SHSE: 601336) has shown its commitment to scaling its digital workforce. In the first half of the year, its marketing AI assistants automatically crafted over 4 million proposals, while claims-based digital employees processed over 30,000 image files daily with a recognition accuracy exceeding 99%. The hit rate for its group insurance bidding digital employees improved dramatically from 60% to 90%. Furthermore, its AI interview system has screened more than 3,000 candidates, and its digital human ambassador supports explanations for 16 different insurance products, demonstrating a clear push towards system-wide digitalization for enhanced productivity.

Meanwhile, People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited (SHSE: 601319) is concentrating its efforts on an AI-powered middle platform and sector-specific vertical large models to quicken the implementation of its "AI+" action plan. The company has already deployed AI across 246 application scenarios, with over 2.3 billion AI calls in the first half of this year. In a similar vein, China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (SHSE: 601601) is continuously developing its enterprise-level AI platform. For instance, its subsidiary, CPIC Health, is integrating AI capabilities throughout the entire lifecycle of health insurance, from purchase to service, to pioneer new fusion paradigms in health insurance.

Assessing AI's Share in the Significant Profit Surge of Top Insurers

Beyond the technological fanfare, the financial fundamentals tell the core story. In the first half of the year, China Life Insurance Company Limited (SHSE: 601628) emerged as the most profitable A-share listed insurer with net earnings of 134.489 billion yuan, a substantial 228.6% increase year-on-year. China Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (SHSE: 601318) followed with 92.585 billion yuan in net profit attributable to shareholders, up 36.1%. People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited (SHSE: 601319), China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (SHSE: 601601), and New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (SHSE: 601336) each reported net profits of 36.745 billion yuan (up 38.5%), 30.775 billion yuan (up 10.4%), and 22.793 billion yuan (up 54%), respectively. Collectively, all five achieved double-digit growth, totaling 317.387 billion yuan in combined net profits.

The primary driver behind this dramatic profit surge is the recovery of the capital markets. Taking China Life Insurance Company Limited (SHSE: 601628) as a case study, its report attributes the high growth to better asset-liability management, business diversification, disciplined liability cost management, and higher investment efficiency, alongside improved investment results. Interestingly, its total premiums for the period were 536.634 billion yuan, a modest 2.2% increase year-on-year, indicating that investment returns, not core underwriting, fueled the profit boom. In fact, investment income showed strong growth across the board. China Life Insurance Company Limited (SHSE: 601628) saw its total investment income jump to 314.504 billion yuan, up 186.998 billion yuan from the prior year, with a total investment yield of 5.58% (up 229 basis points). People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited (SHSE: 601319) reported a 59.9% increase in total investment income to 66.327 billion yuan, pushing its yield up to 3.7%. New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (SHSE: 601336) also reported a 27% increase in total investment income to 57.525 billion yuan, achieving an annualized investment yield of 6.7%.

Cementing their confidence, all five insurers have, for the first time, unveiled interim dividend plans. China Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (SHSE: 601318) intends to distribute nearly 17.745 billion yuan (up 3.16%), while China Life Insurance Company Limited (SHSE: 601628) plans a 10.119 billion yuan payout (up 50.4%). People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited (SHSE: 601319) and New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (SHSE: 601336) plan payouts of 4.865 billion yuan (up 46.67%) and 2.277 billion yuan (up 8.95%), respectively. China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (SHSE: 601601) is introducing an interim dividend of 4.041 billion yuan, a first for the company. These planned disbursements collectively exceed 39 billion yuan.

So, what is AI's measurable contribution to this profitability? Among the five, China Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (SHSE: 601318) stands out for disclosing a monetizable figure. Its AI agents aided in generating 57.313 billion yuan in sales. However, this performance comes with a caveat: the company's daily token consumption grew fourfold in six months, implying a dramatic increase in computing costs, yet separate AI investment costs were not disclosed. For consumers, AI is undeniably reshaping the insurance experience, often in subtle ways—from compressing claim settlement times from days to hours, to AI-generated proposals and faster customer service response times. These are tangible benefits of the technology. At this stage, AI provides insurers with a significant amount of "imagination premium" for the future. Ultimately, the AI race among insurers isn't about who can consume the most tokens; it's about who can build more solid business applications and accumulate a deeper data moat. The competitive battleground is shifting from a focus on raw token scale to a more rigorous review of unit economics, or "UE."