Aflac is embracing generative artificial intelligence, though the insurance company isn’t using the technology externally.
At least, not yet.
“Aflac is taking a more conservative approach,” says Shelia Anderson, chief information officer at the insurance company that’s best known for selling supplemental policies to cover health events ranging from cancer to life insurance. “Our goal is to never be first to market.”
To kick off its generative AI journey, Aflac developed guardrails and policies to ensure all applications of the technology would follow specific rules. The company also set up a steering committee to assess potential use cases and match them to business objectives.
Anderson says Aflac also spent a considerable amount of time educating the C-suite, board, and the broader employee base on what generative AI is and how it can be used to support the company's business goals. That work is still ongoing, with Aflac currently in the process of developing a curriculum that covers technologies ranging from AI to cloud computing.
With the right structure now in place, Aflac anticipates that it will have external use cases of generative AI ready in 2025. It's exploring a number of those concepts today in the company’s Hatch Innovation Lab, which is based at Aflac’s corporate office in Georgia, and consists of researchers, user experience designers, and tech specialists from different fields that explore emerging technologies.
Some areas of focus include agent recommendations, fraud detection, and churn predictions—the latter would help Aflac identify the customers that have the highest propensity to seek an insurance policy elsewhere. Armed with that insight, Aflac's sales team could take steps proactively to retain those clients.
The largest and most impactful AI model in place today at Aflac helps auto adjudicate simpler claims, giving customer service agents more time to focus on complex cases. A human will always remain in the loop and approve final submissions for “any type of denial or anything that would be kind of an adverse reaction,” says Anderson.
Aflac is exploring AI copilots and generative AI tools from existing partners like Amazon Web Services and Salesforce, as well as working with specialized, insurance-focused AI startups. The company is also exploring more niche products in the innovation lab, though Anderson says she’s wary of how much she’ll invest in customized solutions. She also keeps tight controls on Aflac’s data.
“Most of the AI models that we have, we will be leveraging data safely inside the walls of Aflac,” says Anderson.
Anderson has worked in the insurance industry for over a decade, serving as a CIO at Liberty Mutual and USAA prior to joining Aflac in 2022. Beyond generative AI, what’s kept her busy is the integration of acquisitions and making customer-facing processes more consistent as it relates to information about policies, claims, and billing.
Anderson also slowed down Aflac’s "rapid" cloud migration. She has led an effort to upskill the company's workforce so that Aflac could be more knowledgeable about when to lean on cloud and exactly where and how it can save money.
“It can actually end up costing you more if not well managed,” warns Anderson.
John Kell
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