The rise of emerging technologies offers insurers the opportunity to transform the way they do business and engage with customers and partners. MetLife is building and scaling its core technological capabilities and taking them global in its effort to position the company for the future, says VP of global digital strategy and transformation Peter Chiang.
The insurance industry faces mounting threats as AI, machine learning, blockchain, data analytics and other emerging technologies are disrupting the sector. How is MetLife managing this disruption?
At MetLife, we view the rise of these ‘exponential, connected and intelligent’ technologies as tremendous opportunities to transform our company, rather than as threats to our businesses. As the insurance industry globally undergoes substantial change, these new technologies are transforming the way we do business and engage with our customers and partners while creating space for new business models and opportunities.
To capitalise on these opportunities, MetLife has invested heavily in building and bolstering our core capabilities – particularly around AI/machine learning, data science, innovation, and global sales and service platforms – that can integrate with these technologies. Over the last year, we have made tremendous progress – executing over 100 AI/advanced analytics use cases globally, delivering substantial top and bottom line impact while building new end-to-end digital sales experiences that are delivering incremental premium across our portfolio.
Separately, we have also built a strong ‘innovation ecosystem’ at MetLife that is specifically designed to look for new ideas both inside and outside of the company. This includes relationships with venture capital firms (currently 17) to curate the best ideas and capabilities across industries, as well as the MetLife Digital Accelerator powered by Techstars, which mentors promising new startups that align with our strategy.
Building and scaling these capabilities and taking them global is how MetLife is positioning the company for the future.
What kind of opportunities arising from this disruption can insurers take advantage of?
We see opportunity across three primary buckets: first, reinventing customer engagement; second, transforming our cost structure; and third, delivering incremental revenue through improved new business models.
When it comes to reinventing customer engagement in the new world, customers are expecting experiences that are more connected and personalised than ever. Expectations set by other industries such as Google and Amazon are setting the new bar for insurers. With the new capabilities in which MetLife is investing, delivering an omnichannel experience where customers can connect with us anytime, anywhere, from any device is now a real possibility.
Regarding transforming our cost structure, the growth and proliferation of new technologies have enabled us to take previously novel capabilities such as automation to new heights. Advancements in Intelligent Automation-related technologies, for example, are opening doors to fundamentally redesign our internal processes which, in turn, is reducing our industry’s decades-long reliance on paper.
As per new business models, technology is enabling us to realistically and rapidly launch new products and businesses faster than ever before. For example, digital-only product lines are now being explored across the industry. Additionally, our investment in digitising distribution is turbo-charging our ability to sell products that meet the specific needs of our diverse customer base, which can be seen in how we are changing our business in the Middle East.
What are the main challenges insurers face in implementing the digital journey?
As in many large organisations, taking the early steps in the digital transformation journey is always the most challenging. For example, framing too many ‘big bold bet’ initiatives and programmes that will take many years to play out can quickly sap organisations of change momentum, which results in digital being branded as only fluff or a buzzword. On the flip-side, focusing too near-term can drive organisations into a creative rut as teams convince themselves transformation is not needed or required to differentiate. At MetLife, finding the balance between the ‘big bold bets’ and the ‘immediate wins’ is the challenge we make to ourselves.
Our digital transformation roadmap is framed across three horizons, specifically to address this. First is foundation, which is focused on re-platforming and building core capabilities. Second is differentiation, which is about discovering new opportunities and adjacencies. Third is disruption, which drives us to fundamentally challenge the status quo and reimagine our business. As we progress on our journey, we intend to continuously review and rebalance our efforts across the three horizons to ensure we are delivering value while also positioning our company for mid- to long-term innovation.
How can insurers launch, manage and govern their digital transformation and scale innovation across their organisations, while avoiding the pitfalls that many fall into when tackling the digital journey?
There really isn’t a magic bullet or simple answer to this. MetLife is a storied global organisation operating in more than 40 markets with over 151 years of history. Recently, we have been very focused on building scalable, reusable capabilities vs one-off use cases. This is starting to enable faster and more sustained digital transformation across our company.
Additionally, we are challenging our teams to be more agile, both in process and mindset. On the one hand, our new programmes are being delivered through the Agile methodology, in which each team is challenged to frame and deliver outcomes and deliverables in short increments vs major multi-month or year deployments. On the other, we are also starting to incentivise and challenge our employees across all levels to ‘challenge the current’ so that we are delivering and reinforcing the message that everyone in the company can play a role in our company’s digital transformation.
How do you change the mindset of a culture that may be used to doing things a certain way?
It takes time and comes in increments. The most important factor is making digital real to individuals and stakeholders across the organisation. This ties back to balancing ‘immediate wins’ with ‘big bold bets’ and ensuring the former can lead to and connect into the other. As wins are registered, communicated and celebrated, you will see more and more people in the company converting. In short, companies need to show digital transformation and move beyond just talking about it and strategising.
MetLife has launched the global sales and service platform (GSSP). How does it redefine the sales experience?
MetLife’s GSSP is one of our core global platforms in which we have been investing in recent years. GSSP provides the reusable foundation that supports and enables the full sales process – from prospect creation to application – as well as key servicing capabilities from policy administration to claims. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, in which both the sales and service experiences can make or break customer and partner relationships, we saw an opportunity to build a capability that is aimed at delivering differentiated end-to-end experiences – ones that are conversational, simple, and reflect the unique needs of each transaction. This is what we are delivering at MetLife Gulf and we will be continuing to invest in these capabilities well into 2020.
What’s next on the digital transformation road?
We are truly excited for 2020. We believe we are well-positioned across our global markets, including the Middle East, to start leveraging and achieving value through the digital capabilities and platforms we have invested in over the past year-and-a-half. The GSSP mobile sales platform for MetLife Gulf will only be the beginning as we will look to bring our latest analytics and innovation assets to turbo-charge our business in the Middle East and our other markets. M
Mr Peter Chiang oversees major enterprise programmes focused on leveraging technology, data, analytics and innovation to transform the way MetLife does business across its global portfolio. He plays a leadership role in setting and managing the enterprise MetLife digital strategy and vision.