Transforming Operations to Reinvent Customer Experience: AIA's EASE Journey Qorus-NTT DATA Innovation in Insurance Awards 2026

Concept and Objectives

At AIA, we’ve systematically and iteratively reinvented customer experience through the transformation of our Operations. Through a US$800 million investment in our Technology, Digital and Analytics (TDA) programme, we transformed Operations from a business support function into one of AIA’s most powerful competitive advantages. With leaps in efficiency gains made through TDA, we implemented the EASE initiative (2022-2024) to translate these gains into an evolved customer experience.

Building on the efficiency gains unlocked by TDA, EASE (Empathy, Automation, Simplicity, Engagement) transformed how customers interact with us through four principles: Empathy, designing meaningful customer journeys and minimising friction; Automation, enabling instant decisions and eliminating unnecessary manual intervention; Simplicity, creating digital experiences that require minimal input; and Engagement, interacting with personalized, transparent communication.

Today, we continue to evolve our customer experience under Operations 2.0 (2025 onwards), which aims to build on the real, measurable progress achieved under EASE and deliver exceptional customer experience through three strategic imperatives:

1. Simplified Journeys: Reduce friction and reward customer loyalty

2. Delight the Customer: Excel in claims and service delivery

3. Leverage Emerging Technology: Continuous operational enhancement through GenAI

Our disciplined, systematic approach ensures sustained operational excellence that translates at scale across 18 markets where we serve the holders of more than 43 million individual policies and over 16 million participating members of group insurance schemes.

Reasons Behind

Customer expectations had evolved rapidly – smartphone proliferation and high-speed internet meant our customers now expected intuitive, friction-free journeys with instant responses for simple requests and expert support for complex needs. Traditional feedback mechanisms at fixed intervals could no longer provide the real-time insights needed to meet these expectations, driving our transformation towards systematic customer experience innovation through Operations.

Departments Involved

Led by the Group Operations team, EASE and Operations 2.0 (Ops 2.0) execution requires cross-functional collaboration with Group Digital (customer-facing applications), Group Technology (infrastructure and AI deployment), Group Marketing (customer insights), and Group Distribution (agent enablement).

Main Results So Far

Through EASE we delivered measurable improvements in customer experience:

Customer Satisfaction:

• #1 Net Promoter Score in seven markets: China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka (as of 2024)

• Top three NPS ranking across ten markets(as of 2024)

• 97% customer satisfaction for contact centres (as of June 2025)

Faster Service:

• Straight-through processing increased from 60% (2021) to 85% (2024) – across ‘buy,’ ‘servicing requests’ and ‘claims,’ 85% of requests are automatically processed end-to-end without human intervention, heavily reducing TAT (turnaround time) for customers and providing a seamless digital experience

• 93% first time resolution (as of June 2025) – the majority of customer requests are handled at first instance

• 81% of claims (as of June 2025) settled within one day – critical support when customers need us most

Seamless Digital Experience:

• New business: 99% digital submission (for overall markets as of June 2025), 90% automatic underwriting achieved in Malaysia (as of June 2025)

• Service requests: 95% digital submission, 91% straight-through processing (as of June 2025)

• Claims: 92% digital submission (June 2025), 98% digital payments (June 2025)

• Digital Policies: 88% e-output of digital policies and communications, saving 1776 tonnes of paper (2024)

Our Operations Strategy 2.0 continues to build on the success of EASE, deepening our capacity to offer exceptional customer experiences.

Simplified Journeys through Pre-Approval for Repurchase helps us to offer more comprehensive protection to customers. The system analyses each customer’s profile data and pre-approves products complementary to the profile or existing coverage, enabling smarter, more targeting cross-selling at scale. During the purchase journey, agents are prompted in real time if additional coverage options are available for the customer. This personalised approach has helped us achieve more than 40% customers in China accepting extended coverage when offered for medical products. Additional rollouts are planned for other markets and products.

Delighting Customers through Next-Generation Contact Centres leverages Gen AI powered copilot for customer representatives to automate their manual tasks, such as writing case notes, generating chat/email summaries, freeing staff from administrative burdens to focus on solving complex customer issues. As a result, customers receive faster responses and more personalised support when they need help with issues that require care and expertise.

Enhanced Claims Communication aims to meet customers at critical moments in their insurance journey with greater clarity and compassion. By redesigning the claims letters and notifications, customers better understand the decisions made and the next steps available to them, reducing uncertainty and anxiety during an already difficult moment. . To date, we have redesigned templates for over 340 types of letters and notifications in 4 markets with careful localisation to ensure correct messaging and resonance in each local language and context.