MetLife - Enterprise Tech Ecosystem Series

MetLife - Enterprise Tech Ecosystem Series

Summary

This report provides insights into MetLife’s digital strategies, including its digital transformation strategies, innovation programs, technology initiatives, estimated ICT budget, and major ICT contracts.

MetLife is a financial services firm that offers insurance, employee benefits, asset management products, and services and annuities. The company markets and sells its products and services to individuals, corporations, and their respective employees, and other institutions through independent agencies, brokerage firms, sales offices, bancassurance, direct marketing, career agencies, and other third-party distribution and ecommerce networks. The company operates across Asia, the US, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. Japan is its largest Asian operations base. It has also set up a data analytics center of excellence in Malaysia.

In January 2018, MetLife launched MetLife Digital Accelerator powered by Techstars, with $100 million to invest in innovative companies. It is an insurtech investment program designed to identify, invest, and mentor early-stage startups that are developing disruptive technologies in the insurance sector. MetLife assists these startups in developing and commercializing their ideas. To make MetLife Digital Accelerator accessible to more startups, the company launched a new incubator, met.X, at its Global Technology Campus in Cary in 2019, as an additional operating center for the Accelerator.

Launched in 2015, LumenLab is an innovation center based out of Singapore that partners with startups and other disruptors to create new businesses in health, wealth, and retirement. LumenLab organizes an open innovation program known as Collab, which works with entrepreneurs and insurtechs to enhance their business and implement their solutions within MetLife to create a better customer experience.

Introduced in 2014, Ignition is a platform where MetLife’s leaders unite with startups and venture capital partners to explore the potential of disruptive technologies for various operations at MetLife, such as AI, data security, data analytics, compliance solutions, sales platforms, apps for customer interaction, virtual platforms to organize health treatments, business analysis tools, and employee onboarding and career development platforms.

Scope

• To target potential customers and offer personalized products, along with improving internal processes, MetLife follows a data-driven approach. It is empowering its salesforce with digital tools to effectively reach out to potential customers. Aside from risk and improved underwriting, the company has been leveraging machine learning for sales generation. This strategy is powered by its big data platform, to support areas such as customer service and claims. Also, the company leverages AI and data analytics to forecast service requests.
• MetLife aims to augment customer experience and achieve operational efficiency through AI, analytics, and RPA. Since then, it has been actively leveraging it across the company, from customer service to claims management, which alone has around 65 RPA-based software tools. For instance, the company developed voice empathy and stress software to enable service agents to better recognize and react to customer problems and concerns. Meanwhile, the khUshi app with AI technology delivers better predictions, personalized and customized solutions, and improved services.
• MetLife realigned its strategies to serve its customers better, while ensuring the safety of its workforce in the face of the pandemic. It has introduced a comprehensive approach and implemented digital solutions to streamline its business operations across all functions and markets, including information security, employee mobility, and infrastructure resiliency. Furthermore, it is growing its internal capabilities while focusing on improving HR operations and the productivity of its employees.
• MetLife is reaching out to innovative startups, companies, associations, and institutions to identify and create disruptive solutions. MetLife launched two insurtech investment programs for startups — MetLife Digital Ventures and MetLife Digital Accelerator — to develop digital solutions. It has collaborated with SparkBeyond and Cogito to create an AI platform and provide real-time alerts to claims agents. Furthermore, it implemented IPsoft’s AI solution, “Ali”, to manage its IT infrastructure across countries and minimize time-to-service delivery.

• Gain insights into MetLife’s tech operations.
• Gain insights into its digital strategies and innovation initiatives.
• Gain insights into its technology themes under focus.
• Gain insights into its product launches, partnerships, investment activity, and acquisition strategies.