The Baseline: 2025 Human Layer Benchmark

• $250,000 in commission revenue per employee is the commonly accepted benchmark today.

• This is based on a largely human-driven process across service, sales, and admin, with varying degrees of automation layered on top (email templates, CRM reminders, policy download, etc.).

• Most agencies that hit this benchmark have some automation and tech support, but still rely heavily on people to move things across the finish line.

Enter 2030: Human + Machine Collaboration


By 2030, we expect:

• Significantly increased tech enablement: AI bots handling quote preparation, submission writing, follow-up scheduling, renewal processing, and perhaps even coverage comparisons and customer education.

• Human roles evolving into strategic, creative, and emotional intelligence roles: nurturing relationships, spotting coverage gaps creatively, solving complex problems, and mentoring less experienced staff or clients.


This means:

• Fewer humans can do much more.

• The value per human should increase — not just in production capacity, but in strategic output.

• But just as important, the “non-human layer” (bots, systems, and AI workflows) will now be producing tangible value and cost savings too — and that should be factored in.


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Projected Math for 2030 (Assuming AI Adoption Matures)


Let’s say:

• Each human role becomes 2x more productive through automation. (This is conservative.)

• That means the benchmark would shift from $250,000 to at least $500,000 per human layer in commission revenue.

• Some agency models, particularly those investing heavily in smart automation and reducing friction, might see this climb to $600,000–$750,000 per human, particularly in commercial lines and complex personal lines.

• Agencies that don’t evolve will fall behind in per-head revenue, not because the team is lazy or less skilled — but because they’re competing against augmented humans who are working with a fleet of bots behind them.


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What About the Bots?


Just like we budget for AMS licenses, E&O, and staff, we’ll soon:

• Budget for AI agents, workflow bots, and knowledge systems.

• Assign a “virtual FTE value” to each bot or AI-enabled process.

• For example, if a quoting bot replaces 40% of an assistant’s time, you might treat that bot as worth $100,000 of revenue capacity, just like you would a junior account manager.


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Summary:

• 2025 Benchmark: $250,000 per human layer

• 2030 Benchmark: $500,000–$750,000 per human layer (depending on AI leverage and complexity of business)

• Virtual layer contribution: Quantified based on task replacement or acceleration, possibly contributing the equivalent of 1–2 FTEs worth of output per agency


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The big takeaway? The real value of humans in 2030 will be based on emotional intelligence, problem-solving, trust, and strategic creativity — not just transactional processing. Bots will do the grunt work, but they can’t replace the nuance of a truly skilled agent, advisor, or account manager.