Liberty Taps Adam Baillie as President, Names First Chief AI Officer

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers named Rob Jadon its first chief AI officer this week and promoted Adam Baillie to president in the same shake-up. The moves land five months after ChatGPT-based quoting apps triggered the worst single trading day for public broker stocks since 2008.

Liberty is privately held and middle-market, exactly the slice of the brokerage business that analysts say sits furthest from that threat. It built a dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) leadership seat anyway.

A President Promoted From the Producer Ranks

Adam Baillie joined Liberty as a producer in 2014. He climbed through managing partner, chief strategy officer and chief operating officer before becoming president of strategic growth, a run detailed in its July 15 leadership announcement.

Liberty had already elevated him once before. The brokerage’s own site credits his 2023 promotion to chief operating officer to a decade spent building its business development, data and underwriting units.

“He combines the mindset of a producer, the vision of a strategist, and the leadership of an operator,” said Bill Johnson, Liberty’s chairman, founder and chief executive officer. As president, Baillie will oversee execution of the firm’s strategic priorities and help keep its culture intact as it keeps expanding.

Baillie called Liberty his professional home for more than a decade and said he plans to build on the firm’s momentum, people and culture as he steps into the wider role.

Scholz’s Finance Chair Gets an Operations Desk

Bernadetta Scholz joined Liberty in 2021 as chief accounting officer and was promoted to chief financial officer (CFO) a year later. She now adds chief operating officer (COO) to that title, taking on day-to-day operations while keeping the finance seat.

Scholz brings more than two decades of financial and operational leadership from public and private companies, spanning accounting, audit, treasury, capital markets and mergers and acquisitions. Johnson credited her with consistently sound judgment and a record of getting things done.

Scholz said she was honored to take on the expanded role and looked forward to continuing to support Liberty’s partners, producers, employees and clients.

What Does Liberty’s New Chief AI Officer Do?

Rob Jadon, previously Liberty’s chief operating officer and, before that, its chief innovation officer, now holds a newly created title: chief AI officer. His mandate is applying artificial intelligence to strengthen how the brokerage serves clients, supports producers and runs its own internal operations.

The greatest opportunity is not simply to automate work, but to help our people make better decisions, move faster.

Rob Jadon, Liberty’s newly named chief AI officer, said that in the July 15 announcement, adding that the goal is freeing producers to spend more time on the advice and service clients value most.

The ChatGPT Shock That Rattled Broker Stocks

Liberty’s new AI seat did not appear in a vacuum. Insurify, a US auto insurance comparison app, launched its ChatGPT tool on February 3. Six days later, OpenAI approved a similar app from Tuio, a Spanish digital home insurer built on infrastructure from startup Waniwani, and public broker stocks fell within hours.

Willis Towers Watson had its worst trading session since November 2008. Arthur J. Gallagher slid to a 52-week low. Aon, one of the world’s largest brokers, and the broader market followed close behind.

Bloomberg Intelligence’s insurance analyst Matthew Palazola summed up the mood bluntly: “The insurance broker stocks are getting hammered.” He linked the reaction to both apps and to a separate wave of automation tools just released by Anthropic, the AI company now pursuing its pending $965 billion IPO filing.

The panic did not stay inside insurance. Trading data tracked by insurance-sector analysts showed the selloff jumping into other industries entirely.

• Wealth management: Raymond James fell 8.8% and Charles Schwab dropped 7.4%
• Advertising: Omnicom slid 11%
• Real estate: CBRE tumbled 16%

Billions in market value moved in 48 hours over two apps that, at launch, handled nothing more complicated than a home or auto quote.

Where Wall Street’s Analysts Split

Five months on, Wall Street still cannot agree on how much this threatens the industry.

• Goldman Sachs called the selloff overdone, arguing the fundamentals never supported a 9% drop.
• Bank of America countered in a $15 billion commissions-at-risk estimate that low-complexity broker business faces real disintermediation risk.
• J.P. Morgan called the episode “a thought experiment for an AI world” and said it expects human-led and AI-led distribution to coexist for now, even as BMO Capital flagged brokers underperforming the market by over 10% in the two days after the launch.

Every analyst quoted here draws roughly the same line: routine personal lines are exposed. Complex commercial and specialty placements, the business Liberty and most middle-market brokers actually write, are not, at least not yet.

Liberty’s Growth Numbers Behind the Reshuffle

The reorganization comes off a strong year. Liberty grew revenue 16.3% to $222.4 million in 2025, well ahead of the 9.4% average organic growth rate independent agencies reported in the Big “I” Best Practices Study.

• 16.3% revenue growth in 2025, reaching $222.4 million
• 12 partnerships and acquisitions completed last year, pushing Liberty past 50 total deals since 2019
• $525 million first-lien credit facility led by JPMorgan, closed in October 2025 to fund expansion and producer hiring

That growth is part of why the C-suite math changed. A brokerage adding agencies and producers at that pace needs someone whose full-time job is deciding which AI tools actually help those people, rather than leaving it to whoever has spare time between deals.

The Executive AI Seat Becomes Standard Practice

Liberty is not the only brokerage moving this way. One 2026 roadmap for insurance AI adoption recommends naming an executive AI lead within two weeks as the first of four moves every carrier or brokerage should make, arguing that without a named owner and an independent budget, nothing else starts, a case laid out in a 2026 AI adoption playbook for insurers.

The infrastructure side is moving just as fast. Waniwani, the startup whose technology powered Tuio’s ChatGPT app, raised $8 million in seed funding in June, according to its seed funding announcement. “Distribution is moving to AI, and that shift is irreversible,” said Robin Diligent, Waniwani’s co-founder and chief executive.

Whether brokers are exposed to that shift remains unresolved industry-wide, even as broker stocks have partly recovered since February. Liberty now has an executive whose entire job is answering that question.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Does Liberty Company Insurance Brokers Do?

Liberty is a privately held insurance brokerage with more than 80 offices nationwide, built around entrepreneurial producers and agency leaders who serve clients under a shared ownership platform. It ranks among the fastest-growing privately held brokerages in the country.

What Does a Chief AI Officer Do at an Insurance Brokerage?

The role varies by firm, but a 2026 industry playbook frames it as an executive mandate paired with an independent budget, someone empowered to choose which AI tools touch underwriting, quoting and client service rather than leaving those calls to whichever department has spare time.

Could ChatGPT Users Buy Insurance Through These Apps?

Not fully, at least not yet. Insurify’s app compares personal auto quotes across all 50 states but does not bind coverage. Tuio’s app returns a live homeowners quote inside the chat window, with purchasing capability described as coming soon rather than live at launch.

Are Commercial Insurance Brokers at Risk From AI?

Less than personal lines, according to most analysts. TD Cowen, a Wall Street research firm, has specifically named the excess and surplus market and specialist wholesale brokerage, the kind of specialty business Liberty itself writes, as the segments most resistant to automation because of their customized coverage structures.

Did Insurance Broker Stocks Recover After the February Crash?

Partially. Insurance distribution stocks rallied about 7% over the three weeks following the plunge, outpacing a roughly 1% decline in the broader S&P 500 over the same stretch, though many individual broker shares still had not returned to their pre-selloff highs months later.

How Many More AI Insurance Apps Are Coming?

At least a dozen. Waniwani has disclosed more than 12 additional insurance AI applications sitting in OpenAI’s approval queue, meaning the app that rattled the market in February is likely a preview rather than a one-time event.