Australian Insurance

Research evidence excerpt

Australian Insurance

Macquarie Equity Research Australian Insurance

• We surveyed the 23 largest general insurers, 17 health insurers, and 9 insurance brokers in

Australia to find the most commonly used AI models in the Australian insurance sector.

Figure 1 - Most commonly used AI models - Figure 2 - Most commonly used AI models - PHI

General Insurers 18

20 16

6 4

4 2

2 0

Source: Macquarie Research, May 2026

Figure 3 - Most commonly used AI models - Figure 4 - Most commonly used AI models (%)

Brokers

100%

8 80%

6 60%

40%

3 20%

0%

GI Broker PHI

Appendix A: California's Sweatfree AI Procurement Act

• California’s proposed Sweatfree AI Procurement Act (AB 2653) aims to extend the state’s

ethical labour rules to the AI industry. If enacted, any company selling AI systems to the

state would be required to certify that their entire production chain (including labour-

intensive tasks like data labelling, content moderation, and model training) is free from

forced or sweatshop labour. This represents a major shift in AI regulation by focusing on

the upstream supply chain rather than just the final software output, effectively treating AI

development as a manufacturing process that requires ethical sourcing standards.

• For AI vendors, this bill introduces strict new requirements for compliance, auditing, and

disclosure across their global workforces. California intends to use its significant purchasing

power to set a new market standard, forcing companies to reform their labour practices

worldwide if they wish to secure state contracts. Much like previous "sweat-free" rules for

the apparel industry, this act could have a massive global impact, effectively requiring AI

developers to re-tool their operations to meet California’s ethical standards.

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