The Next Chapter in Insurance: Digital Transformation and Human-Centric Innovation

Welcome to entity data insurance thought leadership podcast business transformation and technology conversations that matter today We'll be talking about the pivotal role that regulations play in shaping insurance companies Let's get started I think it perfectly captures you know the idea that success is and about reaching a finish line But about staying adaptive and innovative over time So your insights today from Kathy life's proactive approach to digital transformation Through your vision for human-centric innovation are truly valuable for anyone navigating change in this insurance industry The transformation is an infinite game in this race layers no finish line If we don't join now you won't even have a ticket to stay in the market So recent two years we reset the process from the digital transformation to enhance our every employees AI literacy So not only wrong faster but also wrong smarter Of course we cannot deny the lack of pass in the challenge but with the all-kip positive and remain optimistic So hello to all our listeners and welcome to entity data insurance thought leadership podcast I am your host AJ business architect and consultant at entity data In today's episode we are honored to welcome Teresa Lynn head of Catholic life insurance digital transformation and digital development Teresa leads Catholic's mid to long-term digital strategies including transformation, AI adoption, customer experience and innovation With over 17 years of experience in shaping the future of insurance Teresa has played a pivotal role in driving transformation across Catholic financial holding Teresa it's a pleasure having you today with us So today we will explore the next chapter in insurance That is digital transformation and human-centric innovation I think this topic resonates strongly with the market facing regulatory shifts and demographic challenges So listeners get your favorite beverage ready and sit back relaxed to hear some exciting insights from industry veteran Teresa Lynn So let's get started Teresa Could you please give us brief introduction to Catholic life insurance about its journey and history Thanks for the entities invitation and let me join this conversation So I think most of Taiwan most people are familiar with Taiwan especially for Taiwan's semiconductor especially for the TSMC But I think most of people are not familiar with Catholic life so let me introduce the Catholic life Catholic life insurance is the largest living shore in Taiwan with over six years of history So we serve more than 8 million customers so which is over one third of Taiwan's population It means every three people in Taiwan are our customers so I want to share more information to the audience that Catholic life is the part of Catholic financial holdings Financial holdings is the concept of the financial department store so you can imagine we provide lots of the financial business line Besides to the insurance we've got banking as a management investments and the even health management service So all decide to give customers a full spectrum of support Wow I mean that's really awesome 60 years of heritage that's impressive I think you guys might have seen everything right writing insurance on paper to its digitization So the scale of Catholic life with what you discuss and the strength of Catholic financial holding ecosystem I think this full spectrum stands out to the approach of providing financial and health security in Taiwan So moving forward with this heritage of existence in Taiwan, could you please share what are your company's strength in the current market Yes as I mentioned I said every three people are in Taiwan are our customers So you can imagine our market share of premium so far has a 10 to 20% to the 25% every year So I want to share our strengths are two key points The first one is we provide the diverse business the second I think we have very displaying risk management So the first one our strengths lies to our extensive network over 23,000 professionals sales agent and lay out our Thai agents In addition we have strong bank channels through CSA United Bank and the rapidly growth in digital channels By the way the second I want to share our displaying risk control management is also excellent as well After all to establish the deep roots in a market over many years strong risk management is very essential It's an environment of contents change with both micro or macro risk manager Such as the COVID even for the currency of fluctuation and geopolitical issues So I think this is why I think risk control and the displaying and the diverse business our at the change Sorry our strengths I understand this agent networks definitely will help you And you guys have as you mentioned 23,000 professional sales agent and digital channels This is a great way to expand and to put on this you mentioned about risk management I think risk management is something which is a need of an R because the industry is moving towards digitization And in digital world it's important for your agents for the insurers to see how risk management can be done most appropriately So that customer experience can become strong I think it really underscores how catalyves distribution strength and customer accessibility is so impressive Moving forward we spoke about catalyves but if we zoom out If we talk about the bigger perspective or big picture in Taiwan's life insurance market Could you share what are the key challenges that Taiwan insurance market is facing today? And because of this challenge is how insurers in Taiwan are facing it are changing the roles and operating model of life insurers And how this transformation is no longer an optional Yes, there are two major challenges in Taiwan. The first one compliance with I first 17 I first means international financial reporting standards And the second we will face to the rapid agent in Taiwan's population So let me share these two very key challenges The first one, this year we officially adapted the new rules as I mentioned firstly in I first 17 fundamentally changes how we calculate the asset, liability and revenues required a very complete operational rethink In Taiwan we don't just implement standards we over a chip lane unlike many international peers such as US or European or the Korea The countries they have already adopted the I first 17 so far lay reported quarterly But Taiwan's government has required monthly monetary and disclosure so make our financial statement transparency in time So this would be putting immense pressure on both employees location and IT infrastructure So it's not just a change in accounting It's complete digital transformation how we manage risk and capital The second I will share that we will face to the rapid agent in Taiwan population At the same time Taiwan become a super agent society last year in 2025 with over 20% of the population aged 65 It means every five people in Taiwan is more than 65. So the worst is in Taipei, our biggest city. The biggest city Taipei so far, the people here has already four people, every four people in here is more than 65. So you can imagine this the Asian society. And we know that in Asia, especially in Japan, the people are very familiar with the Japan-Layer series, "Parbon about the Asian society." And now, thanks to the issues, Asian population for a long time. However, the research projected the Taiwan's Asian index will surpass Japan's by 2035. So it's very worse situation in Taiwan. The more than a moment, the projection is led population in Taiwan dropped from 2020. And Taiwan's total population could drop from the 23 millions to below 20 millions before 2050. So this is rapid demographic impact highlights that the negative population grows in Taiwan. So it would be accelerating much faster. So our insurance-based strategy must be transformed to a just-to-future market. I agree. I mean, yes, this key challenge is we see all across the globe. I mean, IRFS team, this compliance, it's a great move in insurance industry, to align global insurance data. But at the same time, I think its implementation has become a global challenge. We work with customers, insurers across globe. As you did mention about Europe, North America, they do have this problem. And they are adopting this advanced technologies like Genai, AML, core modernization, pricing and rating strategies so that they can address such similar issues because of the digitization. And I think you mentioned that transformation is the future. I think that's absolutely on the right track. Given this challenge, we talked about the bigger market, Taiwan insurance market. But given this challenge, what steps has catalyzed taken so far to prepare for this transformation? Yes. We should cognize the need for a strategic shift and began our digital transformation in 2018. Our transformation goal is to be a technology company providing financial service. Our goal is to build a modern data driven organization. But you know, sometimes you don't know what you don't know. So we adapt the tower principle is very interesting. The tower TOWER. So we have the five steps to do this transformation project. The first one T means TAPDUN. So in 2018, we started to set the transformation committee. So committee will tap down to make the very clear our transformation goal. And we took some actions. And of course, we reveal them every month. The first one is T. The second is means all outside in. Sometimes you don't know how you don't know. So we have to nerve around outside, especially very excellent peers in the world. Such as I also remember a lead time. I had a business trip with our CIO, CTO, even for the HR. So we know lots of from the European and the US, such as Aliens and Mass Mutual. So we don't find them how to do the transformation. So what's the definition of the digital transformation? So outside in is we relied very much. The third word is W. We said the Warren Warren is means every Warren means the HR team. You know, sometimes in the insurance company we are very conservative. We don't know what's the Asia. We know the underwriting, we know the actuary, but we don't know what's the Asia, such as we work in the technology company. So we should be know how to work with the Asia mess. So we said the Warren. And the E means the HR team. So we choose, we pick up the very potential talents to do the P.O. We name the project owner of the platform owner. So we let our P.O. in power then let them to set the every Warren's goal and and had a meeting with our committee members. So the last is our review. So review every Warren's is very quick experiment. So quick every experiment. If it failed, it's okay. We will restart. So we will run the Asia. So T.O. W. E. R. is our principal, no matter in the Kasei life, even for as I mentioned, the Kasei financial holdings. So even in the P.N.C. or as a management, even our bank would use the tower principal to do this. All right. I mean, absolutely too. And an every creation to do something very big to align your organization, complete work, complete workflow for the betterment of customer. Right. And that's what every every customer would be looking for in an insurer. I mean, that's absolutely great. But when it comes to right, we talked about challenges like IFRS 17 compliance and a more specific problem of aging population, that is demographic shift. Right. How can a life is responding to it? You know, this is something where regulatory transformation and demographic pressure become very, very difficult for any organization. So how can life as responded to it? Tarissa. Yes. I think before that, I want to share less Chinese saying that goes, every challenge is tough, but you will always find a way to. So our transformation started to focus on three peelers, customer experience, aging power and operational efficiency. So these three peelers are our focus. So the first one, I will share the hour customers experience. After the pandemic, we have observed a very clear shift. People are more healthy, conscious and want to know exactly what they are paying for. Because they are, they look for the insurer, not only for the product only. They want also want to ask the insurer, could you give us more service for the platform, not only the policy, not only the policy. So I think in these response, we are not just providing the long term medical coverage and the physical service, but also empower our customer through our app. Our app, offering the full transparency and they can track their coverage gap and give them customized advice. The customer advice, we use a little AI foundation, so they can give the customized advice in the real time. So as for the product design, we shift our core product focus on an excellent and health lies and introduce an edge products tailored to agent needs and the engineer and engineered internal financial and profitably calculation to improve the transparency and the capital efficiency under the requirements of Iverse 17. And the last we also launched an OE1 agent platform, we call the new agent platform. If the tool works and our agent trust the app, they can work more efficiently and even take a nap. So we will, we will internals talk about the app. So the app will improve the service quality and integrate the smart platform for our new business underwriting, enforce business claims and even for the other after service. Yes. So I will share the customer experience, agent, empowerment and operational efficiency. That's impressive. I mean, I think we just spoke about agent empowerment and you talking about all in one agent platform. That's absolutely a good direction for any insurer because that's where your business will come from, a point of sale, right? That's really impressive. I mean globally we have seen the strengths where insurers are leveraging technology to enhance efficiency and I think this will obviously, you know, propagate to customer experience. This initiatives are particularly very critical because this market facing challenges like IFR is 17 compliance, demographic shifts, etc. So in this context, right? As I mentioned, entity data work with multiple insurers and that's where, and that's where we are trying to bring in solutions such as platform as a service which will accelerate digital transformation. We talked about rating and pricing transformations or strategies so that we can meet some regulatory, sorry, so that we can meet regulatory and market demands, right? So all of this in a package. Yes, indeed our agents can use this platform so considerably boost the service satisfaction and the effectiveness. So moreover, we recognize the urgent need to automate, automation is very important, automate the service process to counteract the operational impact of the future, the design in the labor force. Yes, I think moving ahead, right? You guys serve almost one third of the population and you have been since ages in the Taiwan market. You might have seen the transformation from manual process to digitization, right? And you know it, you guys know it very well that manual process cannot go so far. So what are the, you know, if you can provide one example that how this initiatives of digital transformation have impacted your operations or customer experience? Yes, I can give you some practical and the real case in our transformation journey. The first one is customer digital service. Since the pandemic, because the life has been pushing hard of the digital transformation. So we had to find new ways to serve our customer through remote service and the technology and not only our customer but also our agents. We moved to from the digital insurance to the remote insurance after COVID. So I think it's very important milestone for us. So we launched our remote one-stop insurance platform for our agent and the customers. So and the feedback has been great. Achieving a 95% satisfaction rate. Even after the COVID, we kept proving our app to ensure a digital experience. By March 2025, we reached over 3 million users. That means every three hour customer use our app. But now you know our goals still increase because I want this year, the end of this year. We can push to every two hour customer use our app. So I will use the high range of the usage. And the second case I can give you is our digital agent. As I mentioned, our 23,000 agents, 100% use the app and app. So they use the app because they have the 100% use in radio. Under this platform, we use machine learning to deliver more, personalized insurance recommendations and the JNI, our AI coach, assistant, our agent, inclined interaction and sales focus. So the platform now also 100 all the paperwork in one place. By using the app, it has improved the overall efficiency by 60%. It means saving 60, 60% time. So they are very happy for this result. And the last case is about digital claims. As the automation in the claims, when you are looking after the 1/3 of population, relying on manual effort just isn't enough anymore. So we expect our employee cannot handle the search of claims and underwriting soon. So therefore, we are standardized and the marginalized are work for to ensure, to ensure we can operate in efficiency while maintaining a superior customer experience. So take claim process in an example. So by implementing automation tools, we are cutting the training time to our new staffs by 50%. So the digital service, digital agent, and the last digital claims. All right, this seems to be all digitization. I mean, this is a great example. I would say not ease. It's all that are great examples of how technology and process innovation can create tangible value for your customers. And obviously your employees as well. So now what's equally important is how this operational transformation extends beyond systems, two processes, two people and particularly to your agent workforce because that's where your business will come from. They are the point of sales. So as customer needs become more personalized, agents need better tools that will help them focus on high high value conversations, rather than doing regular administrative work. And that's where you guys are. You guys have done good thing in the technology area, building a platform for your agent workforce. So looking ahead, what do you think get his life vision for the future? Yes, in our transformation path, I think around faster is not enough. So we should be a round smarter. It's the key way to stay efficient and sustainable for the upcoming future. So therefore, we are focused on rescuing employees, strengthening our ecosystem through partnerships and exploring new business models, especially for rescuing our employees under the pressure to leverage this clean in the future. So we are investing heavily in rescuing our employees focused to boost AI literacy and creating a friendly human machine corporation workplace. As I mentioned, no matter the agent, the name or the our underwriters smart claim or the smart underwriting, they all kind of the smart platform. So we have to use them very easily and very naturally. So our goal is to remain resilient and innovative in a rapidly changing environment. All right, I mean smart AI has been not only the talk of town, but it has been the talk of the globe. I mean, from experts to CXs, everyone is talking about AI and that's what is matching to your strong vision. I mean, globally insurers are investing heavily in AI driven ecosystems. And human machine collaboration to stay ahead. So building on this trend, V at NTT data has developed something in insurance as a platform called sugoi.ai. This is an agentic AI workplace which is designed to do transformation for underwriters, claim operations, etc. And what it actually does is, it takes into account the cognitive orchestration and autonomous agents to deliver efficiency and compliance while keeping humans firmly in control. So that we have digitization as well as humans working together in the loop. All right. So we talked about, yep. Yes, I can agree with you more. So what do you discover strongly recently with our, we are seeing across in this industry for us building AI literacy and a strong human machine collaboration model is just as important as adapting advanced technologies themselves. So we regard our employees as an engine behind our transformation. Yes, I mean, bringing in technology partners to do something great in the insurance business, right. It's obviously going to do magic because the technology would change the way game is being played today in the insurance market. So how do you see the collaboration with technology partners playing a role. role in shaping the future of insurance. With over 60 years of history, transformation of our massive courses turned hasn't been easy. To be honest, but we knew it was necessary. So we've invested heavily in our technology with the health health sensation, building and in-house IT and detecting about 600 people. So I think a very huge team. The list team converts diverse expertise, including traditional IT and very modern cloud architecture technology to the middle platform. So AI applications and data governance, I think is very important topic so far. So it's a list strong foundation and allows us to keep moving forward. So more of over external collaboration is essential. So we end to leverage our group strengths by integrating with banking rewards program and the medical checkup service to provide our further health-reality service. So our goal is to build a truly customer centric ecosystem with the future collaborating with external partners. So we're going to be able to leverage our governance, even for our government, regarding to the data governance. And even we cooperate with the big techs or the leading startups in the globally. So far, I think they are very important for us. We can amplify to our influence and expand the Kasei impact in Taiwan. This is model and the innovative opportunities to driving long-term growth and to shift the future landscapes of the insurance industry. All right. I think absolutely, you know, partnerships between insurers and technology providers is key to driving innovation. Right. Technology partners will bring in technology insurers will bring in business. Building both together is what we need to deliver better experience and to serve customers worldwide. There is also any closing comments for our listeners. Yes. I think technology is not everything. Back to our industry. I think insurance is about the trust. So as the technology changes, we believe continuous transformation. The process is supported by the right technology and the partnership. Just land will help us serve more customers better and stay resilient for the future. Because we can really solve our business problem and solve our customer pain points. So our CEO Andrew, they always encourage us. The transformation is an infinite game in this race. There is no finish line. If we don't join now, you won't even have a ticket to stay in the market. So recent two years, we reset the process from the digital transformation to enhance our every employees AI literacy. So not only wrong faster, but also wrong smarter. Of course, we cannot deny the path in the challenge, but with the whole keep positive and the remain optimistic. I agree. I mean, thank you Teresa for such valuable insights. And that's an inspiring way to close this conversation. I really appreciate how you describe transformation as an infinite game. I think it perfectly captures the idea that success is not about reaching a finish line, but about staying adaptive and innovative over time. So your insights today from Kathy, life's proactive approach to digital transformation to your vision for human centric innovation are truly valuable for anyone navigating change in this insurance industry. I mean, thanks for the valuable information that you gave for our listeners and to our listeners, obvious. We hope you found this discussion and lighting exciting as we did. Stay tuned for our upcoming episodes where we continue to explore the latest trends and innovation in the APEC insurance industry until next time, stay curious and keep informed. Did you find it interesting? Explore more episodes on our website insurance.antitidata.com. Thanks for being part of the conversation. Let's continue transforming the insurance industry together.