Three Canadian life carriers have been ranked among the most mature in terms of AI adoption across North America and Europe by Evident Insights, a financial sector AI benchmarking firm.
The study ranks 30 of the largest insurers on the two continents. Ten are life carriers, eight of which are headquartered in Canada and the U.S.
Manulife topped the list of North American life insurers and ranked number five overall, scoring 46.3 points on a 100-point scale. It had eight AI use cases with documented outcomes, according to the report.
Earlier this year, Manulife reported that three-quarters of its employees are using generative AI through training or direct access to tools like its proprietary AI assistant ChatMFC.
The company also named Jodie Wallis as its first ever global chief AI officer in June. Wallis was formerly Manulife’s global chief analytics officer.
Sun Life ranked fourth among North American life insurers and 18th overall, scoring 32.7 points. Meanwhile, Great-West Life ranked last among its North American peers and 27th overall, with 20.9 points.
European insurers generally ranked better than North American firms, a difference Evident attributed to culture and regulation. Europe’s more prescriptive guidelines mean AI governance is distributed more widely “beyond one centralized committee,” while in North America (and particularly in the U.S.) principles-based regulation encourages firms to self-regulate to protect against the risk of litigation or reputational harm, the report said.
Evident launched its AI index in 2023 to help financial services firms gauge their AI maturity level against their peers, and to increase transparency regarding how companies are deploying AI.
Use cases, training
Both Sun Life and Great-West Life had two AI uses cases with documented outcomes, Evident said.
While Evident found Sun Life and Manulife provided AI training to employees in specific areas, ranking them among the top insurers for talent development, Great-West Life did not show evidence of any training initiatives.
Great-West Lifeco performed well in Evident’s assessment of its leadership. Its CEO was singled out as just one of eight in the study to have remuneration linked to tech, data or AI targets.
The top American life insurers on the list were Mass Mutual (ranked eighth overall), MetLife (17th overall), Prudential (20th overall), Northwestern Life (23rd overall) and New York Life (25th overall).