Study: 83% of Americans Would Let an AI Tool Compare Their Car Insurance; Free ChatGPT App Launches to Do It

77% of Americans have abandoned or delayed a car insurance search out of frustration; BestMoney's new Car Insurance app on ChatGPT runs the comparison instead.

WILMINGTON, DE, UNITED STATES, September 25, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Most Americans who set out to shop for car insurance quit before they finish. A new survey from BestMoney finds that 83% would consider using a free AI tool to do the comparison for them, and the company has now launched one: a free BestMoney Car Insurance app inside ChatGPT that runs the comparison in conversation.

The survey of 1,031 U.S. adults examined how drivers shop for coverage, where the process breaks down, and what an AI tool would have to do to earn their trust. It found that 76.6% have abandoned or delayed a car insurance search out of frustration, with roughly 40% walking away entirely and never returning.
The findings suggest the demand for an alternative is already mainstream rather than speculative, and that drivers have a specific idea of what would have to be true before they would use one.

Key Findings

• 83% would consider using a free AI tool to help them compare car insurance options.
• Millennials (77%) and Gen X (74%) are the most likely of any generation to try one.
• 59.6% say an AI tool would have to pull real, up-to-date data rather than AI guesses to earn their trust.
• 76.6% of Americans have abandoned or delayed a car insurance search due to frustration.
• Roughly 40% abandoned a search entirely and never returned; another 37% paused before finishing later.
• 95% report experiencing at least one pain point while shopping for car insurance.
• 59% say they don't know whether they're getting the best deal; 52% point to re-entering their information across multiple sites.
• Nearly 70% visit between two and five different websites just to establish a baseline, and 49.9% spend one to more than five hours reaching a decision.

Three in Four Car Insurance Searches Stall Before a Decision

Frustration is doing measurable damage to the insurance shopping funnel.

• 76.6% of Americans have abandoned or delayed a car insurance search due to frustration.
• Roughly 40% left a search and never returned.
• Another 37% paused their search and completed it later.

The near-even split is the more revealing figure. The findings suggest friction is not only costing carriers and marketplaces the shoppers who quit, but also stretching the timeline for those who eventually convert.

Frustration Is Close to Universal, and It Starts With Price Uncertainty

Almost no one gets through a car insurance search cleanly.

• 95% say they've experienced at least one pain point while shopping for car insurance.
• 59% don't know whether they're getting the best deal.
• 52% cite repeatedly entering their information across multiple sites.
• 47% report unwanted sales outreach after requesting quotes.
• 43% struggle to compare quotes side by side.
• 30% worry about overpaying for coverage.

The top three complaints describe a process problem rather than a pricing one. The findings suggest shoppers are not primarily objecting to what coverage costs, but to being unable to tell whether the number in front of them is a good one.
The Real Cost of Comparison Shopping Is Time

The mechanics of comparison shopping impose a substantial labor cost on the shopper.

• Nearly 70% visit between two and five different websites to get a baseline understanding of their options.
• 49.9% spend between one and more than five hours making a decision.

Half of all drivers are giving up an evening or more to a purchase they make on a renewal cycle. The findings suggest that repeat-entry fatigue and the hours spent reconciling inconsistent quotes are what turn ordinary comparison shopping into abandonment.

Most Drivers Would Hand the Comparison to AI

Openness to AI assistance in insurance shopping is now the majority position.

• 83% would consider using a free AI tool, such as a ChatGPT app, to compare car insurance options.
• 77% of Millennials say the same.
• 74% of Gen X say the same.

Millennials and Gen X registered the highest openness of any generation in the study, and they are also the cohorts most actively shopping and renewing their own policies. The findings suggest AI-assisted comparison is being taken up first by the core of the insurance-buying population rather than at its edges.

What Would Earn Their Trust: Real Data, Not AI Guesses

Willingness to use an AI tool comes with conditions attached.

• 59.6% say they would need to know it pulls real, up-to-date data rather than AI guesses.
• 54.5% want to see options clearly compared side by side.
• 51.8% want assurance that their personal data is secure.
• 50% say the ability to ask follow-up questions in plain, conversational language would increase their trust.

The first and fourth conditions pull in different directions, and together they describe what consumers appear to want: a conversational interface sitting on top of verified comparison data. The findings suggest a general-purpose assistant answering from memory would not clear the bar drivers have set for a financial decision of this size.

BestMoney Builds the App Against Those Conditions

The BestMoney Car Insurance app, now live in ChatGPT, was designed against the same requirements the survey surfaced.

Shoppers start a chat and answer roughly seven questions, typically taking a minute or two. The app returns a ranked set of insurer options matched to those answers, presented visually alongside the conversation with the differences between providers laid out, which addresses the 54.5% who said side-by-side comparison would earn their trust. Rather than generating answers from the model alone, the app connects to BestMoney's provider data, the condition 59.6% named as their first requirement. When a shopper is ready to move on price, the app hands off to the provider's own site. The single in-chat questionnaire replaces the two to five separate sites nearly 70% of shoppers currently visit.

"We recognize that decision-making is increasingly happening within chat platforms. We specifically build apps for areas where decisions are notoriously difficult and information is overwhelming. Our goal is to eliminate the endless tab-hopping between using chat for research and bouncing across individual brand pages. We want to save users from having to enter the exact same information over and over again, and actually help them go the extra mile, bridging the gap between simply researching options and confidently completing their purchase." — Maayan Gal, product manager, Bestmoney.com

BestMoney has said it plans to add interactive financial calculators and expand support for existing policyholders reviewing their current coverage. The app is available by searching "BestMoney Car Insurance" in ChatGPT.

Taken together, the results describe a shopping process consumers have already decided is broken and a clear account of what should replace it. The hours, the tabs, and the repeated forms are producing abandonment at scale, while four in five drivers say they would accept help from a tool that does the comparison for them, provided it can show its work.

View the full study here: https://www.bestmoney.com/financial-advisor/learn-more/ai-car-insurance-comparison-app

About BestMoney

BestMoney is an online comparison resource covering a broad range of financial services, including auto insurance, with editorial content and side-by-side provider comparisons intended to help consumers evaluate their options. The site is operated by Natural Intelligence Technologies Inc., a licensed insurance producer. BestMoney recently launched a car insurance comparison app inside ChatGPT, pairing conversational guidance with its structured provider

Taylor Jay
Resolve Marketing
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