Case Study: AIA’s Vitality program kickstarts digital transformation journey

Life, health and wellbeing insurer AIA has invested in digital to help patients and the medical community navigate the uncertainty of the pandemic, and to fulfil their mission for customers to live healthier, longer and better lives.

Digital Nation spoke to AIA’s CEO and Managing Director Damien Mu about how its Vitality program kickstarted the company’s digital transformation journey.

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Vitality is a program that encourages AIA customers to participate in activities that promote physical and mental health. Through a mobile app, customers are encouraged to log their steps, sleep, meditation and other activities to track their health and wellness. They are then rewarded for their efforts.

According to Mu, “We're seeing huge engagement. We've seen over 300 billion steps taken by our Vitality members, over $10 million of active rewards achieved, but everyone earned gets their points for either getting their sleep, doing their exercise, or other, get their $5 active reward every week, and then over $22 million in rewards in total, where people have achieved from engagement in the program and they're all digital vouchers through the app."

Mu believes that the life insurance industry has come a long way in terms of digitalisation, but it was Vitality that allowed AIA to further engage with customers and build deeper relationships.

AIA’s vitality program is core to the business’ focus on creating shared value.

“Shared value is at the core of what we do as well. So what I mean by that is we think about what we do as an organisation, how does that intersect with society and helping to solve sort of issues and provide better outcomes for customers Australians?” says Mu.

“Vitality is a great example of shared value where obviously, you know, if we want to help champion Australia as the healthiest nation in the world and people to live healthier, longer, better lives than we need to have a framework and a tool.”

According to Sarah Downie, CEO of the Shared Value Project, purpose is often the "why" for organisations, while shared value is the "how".

“If we’re going to shift the needle on any big societal issues we have to find scalable initiatives. If we find that perfect shared value example, we create a kind of investment vehicle, inherent in the initiative,” says Downie.

AIA’s partnership with Medix is a solution working to remove the complexity in the health system. It seeks to place customers at the centre, and the digital platform ensures that all information is easily accessible for all doctors involved in the customer’s care.

This can result in better delivery of care, and better outcomes for patients, says Mu.

Medix’ digital solution is comprised of a network of 300 in-house doctors and 4500 local and global medical specialists.

According to Sigal Atzmon, Medix CEO, "Digital transformation and technology are at the forefront of everything we do at Medix, and it is what is required to improve healthcare systems around the world. Technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data, data-drive wearables and digital health apps streamline processes, increase accuracy and reduce inefficiencies, essentially transforming the way we provide and consume healthcare."

While Australia is widely recognised for having some of the best healthcare in the world, Mu says that creating this connected healthcare system is an ongoing challenge.

“Connecting it through digital is a way to make sure that everyone has a really good, documented history, and understand what could be the best way moving forward… we hope to be able to enable and list that initial engagement early on so that we can help diagnose something quickly.”

According to Atzmon, "With the digital transformation underway, we are confident we'll see a more integrated digital-physical healthcare ecosystem as we tailor medical approaches on a case-by-case basis."

"By leveraging the potential of digital transformation, we can set a new foundation for a better healthcare system that is equitable, efficient and accessible to all."