Cathay Life is using AI as a cornerstone of its strategy, reshaping life insurance operations in the digital age

According to Ming-Da Liu, Executive Vice President of Cathay Life, the focused application of AI and digital technologies is helping Cathay Life enhance operational efficiency, strengthen talent development, and deliver increasingly personalized insurance experiences for customers, including in the Vietnamese market.

As the global insurance industry undergoes a profound transformation driven by technology and data, Cathay Life views digital transformation not merely as a trend, but as a core foundation for sustaining long-term growth and elevating customer experience.

Speaking during a media exchange session with the Vietnamese press delegation at the headquarters of Cathay Financial Group in Taipei, Taiwan, Ming-Da Liu shared that Cathay Life is implementing a long-term technology roadmap centered around artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and automation. These technologies are positioned as key pillars to improve operational efficiency while redefining how insurance services are delivered and experienced.

Ming-Da Liu emphasized:

AI is not developed to replace people, but to empower advisors and employees to make faster and more accurate decisions, allowing them to focus more on the core value of serving customers.

AI and data: from operational optimization to customer experience enhancement

According to Cathay Life’s leadership team, AI is already being applied across multiple critical stages of the insurance value chain, including risk assessment, policy management, claims processing, and customer service. By leveraging big data analytics, the company is able to improve risk forecasting, optimize internal operations, and enhance the accuracy of business decisions.

This approach enables Cathay Life to improve productivity while maintaining agility amid an increasingly complex insurance landscape shaped by economic uncertainty, evolving consumer behavior, and rising expectations for transparency.

Beyond internal efficiency, Cathay Life positions technology as a strategic driver for customer experience transformation. Its digital platforms are designed to simplify the insurance journey from consultation and policy issuance to benefits management and after-sales support to create a more seamless and personalized experience for customers.

A focused AI roadmap centered on productivity and human value

Rather than adopting AI solely to follow market trends, Cathay Life has developed a focused implementation roadmap with clearly defined priorities. AI initiatives are directed toward areas that can create meaningful impact on workforce productivity and service quality, including AI-powered product assistants, document analysis and processing, risk management, as well as employee training and development.

This approach reflects Cathay Life’s broader philosophy: technology only creates real value when it helps people work more effectively, rather than replacing the human role in insurance — an industry fundamentally built on trust, consultation, and customer understanding.

Ming-Da Liu noted:

AI must be positioned correctly: as a tool that helps people perform better, not as a replacement for people in insurance.

AI Coach: Innovating insurance personnel training

One of the standout innovations within Cathay Life’s technology strategy is AI Coach, an AI-powered employee training platform. Instead of relying solely on traditional training methods, AI Coach creates realistic simulation scenarios that allow employees to role-play and practice advisory skills within a safe learning environment.

The AI system analyzes communication style, responses, and situational appropriateness, then provides real-time feedback and personalized recommendations for improvement. This enables employees to sharpen advisory capabilities more efficiently, shorten training cycles, and better adapt to increasingly diverse customer needs.

For Cathay Life, AI Coach is more than a training tool; it is part of a broader strategy to build a highly professional and consistently skilled advisory workforce — a critical factor in maintaining trust within the life insurance industry.

From assistive AI to generative AI

As part of its long-term roadmap, Cathay Life is gradually expanding from assistive AI applications toward Generative AI. This next phase is expected to enable systems not only to analyze data, but also to proactively suggest content, advisory scenarios, and tailored service recommendations based on specific customer contexts.

However, Cathay Life emphasized that the deployment of Generative AI will be approached carefully, balancing innovation with risk management and ethical standards, particularly given the sensitive nature of insurance data involving customers’ personal and financial information.

Opportunities for Vietnamese market

In Vietnam, where the insurance industry is entering a highly competitive phase focused on service quality and digital experience, models such as AI Coach and AI-powered product assistants offer valuable insights for the market. Investments in technology not only improve operational efficiency, but also enhance the quality of advisory teams — an increasingly important factor for Vietnamese consumers.

From Cathay Life’s perspective, digital transformation in insurance is not simply about digitizing processes. It is a comprehensive restructuring of how insurance companies operate, develop talent, and serve customers, with AI acting as a critical catalyst for change.

In the digital era, as customer expectations continue to rise and competition intensifies, Cathay Life believes that a strategy centered on both technology and people will be essential to sustaining competitive advantage and creating long-term value for society.