Suncorp looks to AI and core overhaul to address insurance affordability

Suncorp is hoping that its investment in AI and a new policy platform will help it craft more affordable products, including some that appeal to consumers priced out of obtaining insurance.

CEO and managing director Steve Johnston told the company’s half-year results briefing that somewhere between two and four percent of the population in Australia and New Zealand “can’t obtain affordable insurance”.

He said that the insurance industry more broadly is working with the federal government on “how we might find an industry-wide solution for that problem”.

Johnston noted the delicate balance between insurance pricing today and the acute cost-of-living pressures that many consumers face.

However, he said that he hoped that technology investments that Suncorp is continuing to make would allow the insurer to strike the right balance, as well as appeal to more vulnerable customer segments.

“Over time, with the things we’re doing with AI and Digital Insurer, we need to get better at designing new policies, new premiums, [and] new products for that subset of consumers who are really challenged to continue with their insurance,” he said.

Digital Insurer is the codename for a multi-year core platform transformation, with the company progressively implementing Duck Creek as its new policy administration system.

Duck Creek is live for new home and motor customers of its AA Insurance brand in New Zealand.

“The system has started to deliver more simplified underwriting and greater automation, and we remain confident the expected benefits that are baked into the AAI business plan but also into the whole Digital Insurer business plan will be realised over time,” Johnston said.

“We’re now well into the delivery of our second release [of Duck Creek] in our AAMI brand, which is of course our flagship national [Australian] consumer brand. 

“We’re targeting this release for AAMI home and motor new business around the middle of this year, and migration of existing policies at renewal, which will follow soon thereafter,” he added.

The company has a longer history with AI technology, although it has ramped up investments recently around multi-agent and agentic AI, in part powered by Databricks.

Suncorp indicated today that it would seek to use the native AI that comes in its main core systems as well, including Duck Creek, Oracle, earnix, Genesys, Adobe and Salesforce.

The company will also look to partners to advance its AI ambitions, Johnston explained.

“We believe that we are uniquely placed to be towards the front of the AI adoption curve. We have market-leading AI capability within our Suncorp team and we have established partnerships with leading AI technology companies and BPO [business process outsourcing] partners. 

“These partners know us, know our processes, know how AI can be deployed alongside automation and process redesign,” he said.

Johnston said there were opportunities to apply AI in all corners of the insurance business.

“As a manufacturer of insurance, we see material opportunities for AI to improve product design in a hyper-personalised insurance future and to transform claims processes from a customer perspective, all along reducing our loss and expense ratios, and importantly addressing insurance affordability,” he said.

“As a distributor, we see opportunities for AI to both strengthen the effectiveness and deepen the customer engagement across our market-leading brand portfolio. 

“This will equally apply to consumer and commercial, or as premium pools move between those portfolios over time.”

Suncorp posted a net profit after tax of $263 million for the first half of the financial year. 

The result was heavily impacted by insurance payouts related to extreme weather events.