Technology is a very malleable thing. It aided a lot of us during the global pause of the pandemic by allowing us to work from home, order food, pay our bills, and much more. For AIA Philippines, the premier life insurance company in the Philippines, it meant an opportunity to be better. They saw the silver lining that will not only benefit them, but their customers as well.
We had an opportunity to have a chat with their CTO Noel Mendoza to learn more about the digital push of AIA Philippines, and what else we can expect from them in the future.
Pre-pandemic, AIA was constantly working on improving their technological side. It was only abruptly hastened by the lockdowns. As Mendoza puts it, it was “the best and worst thing that happened for tech.” After enabling everyone to work remotely, they quickly shifted to fast track the development of platforms that will allow the business to continue despite the lockdowns.
The Innovation Lab
What spurred this sudden increase in pace to produce viable results is their “Innovation Lab.” Apart from being a company program, it’s also a mindset promoted to every employee that the best ideas and solutions will be given the chance to bloom and possibly implemented. This starts from internal company tasks to improvements towards the clients and partners.
One of the ways they utilized the results of Innovation Lab was via social media. Seeing the behavior of their users, the AIA Philippines team developed AYA and Bessie, the one-stop shop policy support in Facebook messenger for AIA and BPI AIA respectively. There’s also Pamilya Protect which is an instant and affordable policy that can be purchased via FB messenger too. Then various bots are tasked for bridge duties like agent request, updating of client info, processing of contract requests, and payroll credit validation among others. Indeed, no idea is too big or small when it comes to the Innovation Lab.
The mindset of the Innovation Lab is also supported by the core values of AIA Philippines itself. As Mendoza said, “AIA defines its leadership essentials with three qualities: Clarity, Courage, and Humanity (CCH) and these fold into the digitalization efforts of the company. We embrace CCH and embed it into our ways of doing things such that it organically becomes a part of our corporate culture.”
Examples of this are the Happy Hacks that recognize individuals who strive for change, and Communities of Practice where employees, industry experts, and experts from other AIA business units come together to share their best practices from different disciplines.
The Employees
Technologies and products may be at the front lines of any company, but the backbone remains the same – the employees – and AIA Philippines knows this. They recognize that more than the brand, salary, and perks, people want to work for a company that has a strong sense of purpose and culture.
Recently, AIA Digital+ was launched, AIA’s internal IT support company based in the Philippines that services the AIA business units from all over Asia. Its launch is a clear indication of the AIA Group’s (AIA Philippines’ Hong Kong-based parent company) recognition and confidence in the wealth of IT talent available in the Philippines. Their core values and the inclusivity of the Innovation Lab, among others, are very strong assets to attract and retain the top talents in the industry who want to make a difference and accelerate their career.
We also talked to Mendoza about the rise of AI and how it can possibly replace human employees in the future. They themselves have done this, as said earlier, with some menial digital tasks, but as seen in other trends online like the AI Art and ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is at the point of producing human-like results. Mendoza isn’t afraid of the technology though. While the introduction of new technology has displaced jobs that used to be menial, increasingly as the technology improves, people will have to decide how best to leverage technology and how best to leverage what makes people unique and valuable. The best approach is when AI is leveraged to augment human capabilities rather than replace them.
“AI will be integrated into most aspects of life, producing new efficiencies and enhancing human capacities. And yet, technology can’t replace the human aspect of empathic communication, leadership, and faith – it’s these traits that make people unique,” Mendoza said. “Technology will only be an enabler for our people to do their work faster and better, opening up opportunities for them to focus on more meaningful work,” he added, which is true. AI is a threat but we must not forget that all they do is collate information humans made, and scour through them every time there’s a task. Their real ability is connecting the dots which makes them human-like, but then again there are no real emotions when they do so.
The Future
Despite being an insurance provider in the Philippines, Mendoza and company are looking into current trends that are making waves in the tech space or somewhere else. Among these are blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, extended or augmented reality, genomics, and smart devices with some of these already in existing internal projects. Constantly looking out for new trends, developing internal talent, and always working on new things – it’s no wonder why AIA Philippines is at the forefront of digitalization in their space.
All of these culminates into AIA Philippines gaining more traction in their race against risk.
“The beauty of insurance is that you are able to help people protect themselves against risk – may it be sickness, accident, or death. You are able to help them save lives, protect dreams, and secure the future of families. For more than 75 years, AIA Philippines has been working tirelessly to deliver on these promises.”
“As we continue to strengthen our technology, digital and analytics capabilities, we will be able to do more, faster, to fulfill this mission,” Mendoza said.
