November 2026

AI Ready Index. Agentic buying is here but life insurance isn't ready yet.

We gave an AI assistant a real identity, a phone number and a job: buy life insurance from 110 UK protection firms. 3 blocked it, 85 had nothing to say to it and 12 reluctantly gave it a price.

See what happened Start today
Replay of recorded tests visit 0 of 110
0Sites tested
0Blocked it
0Nothing to say
0Prices
Real results recorded October 24th and October 25th 2026.
What's changing

Assistants are already shopping for insurance.

When Meta launched Muse in September 2026, ten million US users signed up within weeks. Insurify blocked it, then on 28 October opened a gateway so assistants can quote from its carriers under its rules. Grok is already live in the UK.

A consumer who sends an AI assistant to explore life insurance has already decided they want to buy. From that point on, the insurance firm that makes the AI insurance conversational process the easiest will win. Insurers and brokers who don't appear get missed.

Who's shopping
Grok
GrokxAI · live in the UK now
Muse
MuseMeta · ten million US users
Dots
DotsOpenAI · quoting through Insurify
$3–5tn

of consumer spending AI agents could steer worldwide by 2030.

McKinsey
55%

of US consumers would use an AI tool to shop for life insurance.

2025 Insurance Barometer, via Deloitte
0

of the 110 UK protection firms we tested has a door built for an AI assistant.

Our test, October 2026 →
In plain English

What is agentic buying?

  1. 1

    You ask an AI

    “Find me £300,000 of life cover for my mortgage.”

  2. 2

    It shops

    It answers the questions it can, asks you the rest, and gets prices from every firm it can reach.

  3. 3

    You say yes

    It shows you the best option and buys it for you, from a firm that lets it.

You ask an AI assistant to buy something for you, instead of doing it yourself. It does the searching, the forms and the comparing, then checks with you before it buys.

A firm the assistant can't reach never makes its shortlist.

Audit findings

We tried to buy life insurance with ChatGPT, Claude and Grok from 110 UK insurers, distributors and partnerships.

Here is what happened:

0

Knowingly helping AIs to buy

0 websites had an MCP server the agent could call. Nobody has built a door for an AI assistant to easily transact with.

12

Accidental AI sellers

12 websites had a quote journey good enough for an agent to complete. Six insurers, five bank brands and one aggregator. Crucially, the websites did not know that agent was an AI.

13

Taking first steps into AI

13 websites had written something for an agent, an llms.txt page or AI agents named in robots.txt. Someone has thought about AI but not given it a route to buy.

85

Have not considered AI

85 websites had nothing for the agent at all.

How we tested
The assistants
Grok, xAI's assistant, ChatGPT, Claude and Subcontext's own consumer facing agents worked through each firm's own website as a customer's assistant would.
The firms
110 UK firms that sell protection: 47 insurers and mutuals, 44 brokers and distributors, and 19 aggregators and partnerships.
At the door
The agent said what it was and recorded what each site showed it: bot walls, anything written for AI agents (robots.txt, llms.txt, agents.txt), any assistant or chat, and any route to quote or buy.
The customer
A real identity, phone number and payment card: £300,000 decreasing term over 19 years, male, 43, non-smoker, Poole. Nothing was bought.
Every month
The agent goes back every month and the AI Ready Index is updated with what it finds. Firms are not named here; each can get its own results.
Your firm's results

How did your protection customer journey do in our test?

If your firm is one of the 110 protection websites that promise life insurance, an AI agent has already tried to buy from you.

Your results show what the agent saw at the door, how far it got when it tried to buy, and where it stopped. They are private, free and updated every month.

Get your results

Not sure if your website was featured? Ask us, and the agent will visit your site on its next run.

AI Ready Index resultsExample
Your firmVisited October 2026 · Level 1 of 4: Invisible
  • At the doorLet the agent in
  • Told an agent what it may doNothing
  • Quote attemptPhone number before any price
  • Sold it a policyNo
  • Next visitNovember 2026
An example. Firms are not named on this page.
Why it matters

By 2030, AI agents selling life insurance could add $2 billion a year in US premiums.

Deloitte, May 2026 →

That is one market and one product. The business goes to the firms assistants can reach.

See it for yourself.

Captions are in the film. Float Insure is Subcontext's showcase insurer, and prices shown are examples.

Start today

Open your door to AI assistants with Subcontext.

None of the 110 protection businesses we tested has a door built for an AI assistant. Subcontext builds AI integrations for protection products so that you can access, and sell to, agentic traffic.

  1. 1Start here

    Let identified agents through

    Give an assistant a way to say who it acts for, a quote path with no wall or phone gate, and a clear point where the customer takes over.

  2. 2Next

    Put tools on your pages

    Browser agents ask for a quote or check eligibility in one step, instead of guessing at your forms. The page stays the same for people.

  3. 3Then

    Open a line any assistant can call

    An MCP server lets Muse, Claude, Grok and the rest quote, check eligibility and book a call with you directly, under your rules.

Open your door Get your results