Acrisure, a global insurance brokerage, financial services and technology company based in Grand Rapids, plans to cut 400 accounting positions in the first quarter of 2026, the company announced Wednesday.
Roughly half the positions set to be eliminated are based in West Michigan, with the rest stretching across Acrisure’s global footprint.
The layoffs are the result of artificial intelligence technology deployed by Acrisure, which will automate a significant portion of the work performed by the affected employees, said company CEO Greg Williams.
“The last five years have been about innovating and deploying technology anywhere and everywhere that we can,” he said.
Acrisure was co-founded by Williams in 2005, and today employs 20,000 people globally, 2,000 of whom are based in Michigan. Just under 1,000 Acrisure workers live in the Grand Rapids area.
The private company, whose annual revenue over the past 11 years has grown from $38 million to almost $5 billion, provides insurance brokerage services to businesses and individuals. It also offers cyber security, mortgage origination, payroll, and employee benefits services to businesses.
Acrisure’s growth was driven by the acquisition of roughly 1,000 small- and midsized insurance companies throughout the U.S. and abroad.
In a letter to employees, Williams said the layoffs were “not an easy decision.” The cuts affect employees “who have been instrumental to our success” and have “given so much to our company and our community,” he wrote.
However, he cast the move as a necessary step as Acrisure adapts to a changing marketplace.
Acrisure’s goal is to help its clients, 98% of which have 100 employees or less, compete more effectively with larger businesses, Williams said. The layoffs will help Acrisure invest in and deploy more digital and AI services that its clients can use, he said.
“Those are the kinds of things from a solution standpoint we need to bring to those clients because that’s where they need the most help,” Williams said.
The company did not say how much it expects to save by eliminating the 400 positions.
Acrisure has made big investments in AI in recent years.
In July 2020, the company announced it had bought the AI-powered insurance practice owned by Tulco, a company based in Pittsburgh. The stock-for-stock trade deal, valued at $400 million, resulted in Tulco becoming a “significant minority shareholder in Acrisure.”
Williams said the 400 job losses announced Wednesday are an outgrowth of the effort to ingrain that technology into Acrisure’s operations.
“You kind of knew this day was coming at some point as you’re doing these investments and leaning into innovation, automation,” he said. “But it doesn’t make it any less painful … Our colleagues have been tremendous. They’re not only great teammates, but they’ve been a carrier of a culture and a strategy in a company that they’ve helped build.”
Williams emphasized that Acrisure is in good financial shape, and the cuts don’t reflect any challenges to the company’s bottom line.
“This isn’t anything about pressure or pain point in the bottom line,” he said. “This is about remaining competitive in a very competitive world and meeting clients where they want to be met and deploying capital where we need to deploy it in order to make all that happen.”
Acrisure has been in the news in recent years for reportedly considering becoming a publicly traded company. When asked if the layoffs are related to such a move, the company said, “This is about Acrisure’s technology and automation journey.”
In his letter to employees, Williams said the employees who are being laid off will be provided “severance packages with comprehensive outplacement support.” Earned “discretionary bonuses” will be awarded to employees as well.
The layoffs are the “most significant in scale” that Acrisure has made, Williams said.
“It’s not something that any company wants to do,” he said. “At the same time, we’re far from the only ones doing it.”
As an emerging technology, gauging AI’s impact on the job market is a much-discussed topic, but a definitive answer is difficult to find.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a national firm that provides outplacement services for laid off employees, said last month it has tracked 17,375 job cuts in 2025 due to AI.
While half of Acrisure’s 400 layoffs will affect its West Michigan employees, the company says it remains “very committed” to Grand Rapids and the state of Michigan. The company says it has 100 job openings in West Michigan.
Acrisure launched in Caledonia, south of Grand Rapids, but moved to a new, seven-story corporate headquarters at Studio Park in downtown Grand Rapids in August 2021.