INSURIFY / AI DISRUPTION — WHO'S NEXT?
Insurance brokers got hammered Monday (S&P 500 Insurance -3.9%, WTW -12%, AJG -9.9%, AON -9.3%) after Insurify launched an AI-powered ChatGPT insurance comparison app. This follows the SaaS massacre (IGV -30% from highs, Salesforce -26% YTD, ServiceNow -28% YTD, RELX -17% in one week).
The pattern is clear: AI is collapsing information asymmetry and disintermediating high-margin middlemen. The question is who's next.
NEXT SECTORS AT RISK — NAMES TO WATCH:
1/ RECRUITMENT & STAFFING — AI screening, matching, CV parsing
• Robert Half (RHI) — already under pressure, SELL-rated
• Hays (HAS LN)
• PageGroup (PAGE LN)
• Robert Walters (RWA LN)
• Randstad (RAND NA)
• Adecco (ADEN SW)
• ManpowerGroup (MAN)
2/ LEGAL SERVICES & INFO — Claude Cowork already hitting this
• LegalZoom (LZ) — down 20% in recent rout
• Thomson Reuters (TRI) — down 16%
• RELX (REL LN) — down 17% in worst week since 2020
• CS Disco (LAW)
• Wolters Kluwer (WKL NA)
3/ TAX & ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE — AI can do tax prep
• Intuit (INTU) — already -34% YTD
• H&R Block (HRB)
• Sage Group (SGE LN)
4/ COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE
• CBRE Group (CBRE)
• Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL)
• Savills (SVS LN)
• Cushman & Wakefield (CWK)
5/ MARKET RESEARCH & DATA — commoditized analysis
• Gartner (IT)
• Forrester (FORR)
• IHS Markit/S&P Global (SPGI) — data business exposed
• Dun & Bradstreet (DNB)
6/ FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES — comparison & broking
• Mortgage brokers, wealth platforms
• Watch: LPL Financial (LPLA), Raymond James (RJF)
THE FRAMEWORK:
Short = high-margin intermediaries with undifferentiated offerings, sitting on information asymmetry, doing pattern-matching work
Long = complex/relationship-heavy players where AI is a tool not a replacement (cybersecurity, bespoke advisory, illiquid markets)
Goldman's research team draws the parallel to newspapers — share prices didn't stabilize until earnings estimates bottomed. We may be early innings.