WTW reported a strong Q2 with 5% organic growth and announced a major new AI program, 'Propel', targeting $350 million in net run-rate savings and a 30% operating margin by 2028. The call was largely focused on internal efficiency and growth prospects, with little commentary about other specific companies. Q2 organic growth was 5%, with R&B at 7% and HWC at 4%.
WTW reported a strong Q2 with 5% organic growth and announced a major new AI program, 'Propel', targeting $350 million in net run-rate savings and a 30% operating margin by 2028. The call was largely focused on internal efficiency and growth prospects, with little commentary about other specific companies. Q2 organic growth was 5%, with R&B at 7% and HWC at 4%.
Management said they are accelerating AI adoption across the business through the Propel plan, expecting about $400 million in run rate savings and $350 million in net savings by 2028, with reinvestment into growth areas. They highlighted specific AI tools now live in…
Q2 organic growth was 5%, with R&B at 7% and HWC at 4%.
Management expressed strong confidence in the growth strategy and the transformative potential of the Propel plan, highlighting accelerating adoption and tangible benefits already being realized across the business.
Expects $400 million in run-rate savings from Propel for a $625 million cash investment.
Management said they are accelerating AI adoption across the business through the Propel plan, expecting about $400 million in run rate savings and $350 million in net savings by 2028, with reinvestment into growth areas. They highlighted specific AI tools now live in production—like Neuron, Violet, and rewards AI—that improve speed, accuracy, and client outcomes, underpinning a competitive advant
AI-driven revenue growth expected to build over time, not immediate. Management expressed strong confidence in the growth strategy and the transformative potential of the Propel plan, highlighting accelerating adoption and tangible benefits already being realized across the business.
Capex is not a key theme in this call; the focus is on operating expense savings from AI and automation. Management detailed a cash cost to achieve Propel of approximately $625 million, with the bulk of spending expected in 2027-2028, and expects a significant step up in free cash flow margin after the plan completes in 2029.
Management expressed strong confidence in the growth strategy and the transformative potential of the Propel plan, highlighting accelerating adoption and tangible benefits already being realized across the business.
“Schedules of insurance that once took four hours are now generated in about five minutes.”
“CRB we generated strong new business across all global markets and had double digit growth in almost every specialty business.”
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Op margin | FY2028 | 30% | 30% | INITIATED |
Despite a softer pricing market, WTW is seeing double-digit growth in almost all its specialty businesses, indicating it is taking market share through specialization. — Indicates that WTW's strategy is yielding share gains in a competitive insurance broking market, a negative signal for its large listed rivals.
Hi, thanks. Good morning. I'll stick with the RMB segment for my question and follow-up. Just thinking about the very healthy acceleration in organic and RMB, maybe you can add more texture on what drove that and just sticking with that acceleration relative to 1Q I guess, should we ultimately think about the new business model, the global specialization model being a bit more maybe volatile or chunky revenue base versus kind of the previous Willis model? Thanks.
Sure. Thanks, Mike. As Carl and Andrew mentioned in their opening remarks, We did have a good high quality quarter which reflected that sequential acceleration we signaled last quarter. It did include a small amount of delayed activity from Q1 in CRB which moved forward as we expected. In CRB we generated strong new business across all global markets and had double digit growth in almost every specialty business. We also had strong client retention globally As that specialization strategy you called out continues to resonate. By geography, CRB's growth was led by North America, in particular in North America, construction, natural resources, surety, and M&A. Great Britain grew really well, even against significant rates, headwinds, and Latin America and Samia were standouts on new business. Globally, we saw meaningful contributions from natural resources, construction, marine, DNS, and crisis management. Another really good quarter in ICT driven by strong software sales and new multi-year deals in our tech practice. Just in terms of the outlook for the remainder of the year, we continue to expect softening pricing conditions in all markets with the exception of North American Casualty and just a few specialty pockets. We have monitored our new business pipeline carefully going into Q3 considering the one-off project revenue we called out in Q3 25 and our pipeline for the rest of the year is strong. Just reminding everyone that one-off revenue itself is not unusual. It's always an important part of our business. So I don't think that you should think of it any differently than you have before. We have excellent energy in the business, market share to grow into in every geography and every specialty, great momentum from new front people and tech, outstanding talent, contributing investment hires, and an ongoing pipeline of new talent joining, plus the excitement of what we expect to achieve during the execution of Propel, our AI acceleration work. and just 26, we remain confident in our full-year growth outlook of mid-single digits and the 100 basis points of margin expansion. Thanks.