Manulife has reached approximately $300 million in value from its artificial intelligence investments, making early progress toward a $1 billion goal it set for 2025 through 2027, said Jodie Wallis, the insurer's global chief AI officer. The return, generated across use cases from personalized offers to fraud detection, signals that life insurers can translate AI adoption into concrete financial outcomes.
AI generates value by helping the life insurer reach more customers with personalized offers, providing product information to its wholesalers, advisors and agents through a conversational AI interface - a practical demonstration of AI for Insurance. The company also uses the technology to detect and prevent fraud, reduce run-rate expenses, and find cost efficiencies. "Much of the code and many of the testing activities can be done with a lot of assistance from AI," Wallis said, pointing to efforts to lower the total cost of software development.
Employee-wide AI access and training
Manulife provides all 38,000 employees with access to a basic version of Microsoft Copilot, routed through a proprietary in-house generative AI assistant called ChatMFC. About 5,000 staff members have joined an AI Community of Practice to share operational tips and tricks, Wallis said. The company recently gave its top executives comprehensive AI training.
"It wasn't enough to train everybody one time in 2023. We have to keep doing it and keep offering new and more programs, and I really believe that's a key to success," Wallis said.
Underwriting tools show AI's real-world impact
In January, Manulife announced the first fruits of its AI efforts. Its John Hancock Life Insurance division launched Quick Quote, a underwriting support tool that relies on Generative AI and LLM capabilities, while Manulife Canada introduced MAUDE (Manulife Automated Underwriting Decision Engine), a proprietary AI underwriting engine. These implementations embed AI across business functions, from setting systems requirements to reviewing results, Wallis said.
Scaling AI across the organization
AI implementation started with embedding the technology into business functions, then scaling operations and governance with AI, and training leaders at every level, Wallis said. The company may eventually use AI to advise customers. "We revisit our strategy every quarter to make sure we're on the right track," she added.
Why this matters for insurance professionals
Manulife's early returns show that carriers can generate measurable value by pairing broad AI access for employees with targeted underwriting tools. For insurance professionals, the emergence of AI assistants and communities of practice means that comfort with these technologies will become a routine part of daily work as more functions embed AI into underwriting, distribution, and fraud detection.
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