AIA Bhd. honoured at Insurance Asia Awards with 5 accolades

Proactive underwriting, AI-powered tools, and a workplace wellbeing programme defined AIA's push to deepen value.

AIA Bhd. brought home five wins at the Insurance Asia Awards 2026 for the success of its several initiatives in empowering Malaysians to live by its brand promise of “Healthier, Longer, Better Lives.”

Amongst its award-winning initiatives is its mobile application AIA+, which has since matured into a daily digital companion that delivers convenient, intuitive, and highly engaging customer experiences.

One of the platform’s major advancements has been the enhancement of the AIA+ Wallet, which now enables customers to complete policy renewals and AIA Vitality payments directly within the app. It has also introduced an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Optical Character Recognition technology to automate document processing and information extraction, reducing manual effort, accelerating claims assessments, and improving turnaround times.

“What sets AIA+ apart is its ability to consistently translate digital capability into measurable customer impact. The platform has moved beyond experimentation into a phase of scaled execution, where every enhancement is designed to improve usability, drive engagement, and deliver tangible value to customers,” the company said.

AIA+ earned AIA Bhd. the Mobile App of the Year - Malaysia accolade for these enhancements.

The company has also clinched the Underwriting Initiative of the Year - Malaysia for its Forward Underwriting (FUW) solution, which has delivered instant, pre-approved upsell and cross-sell offers at the point of sale through a single upfront financial and medical declaration. It transforms underwriting from a reactive process into a proactive enablement by combining proven underwriting insights with real-time health declarations.

In as little as 15 seconds, customers receive personalised FUW Special Offers with a simple one-click option to “Accept Now” for immediate coverage or “Accept Later” to lock in today’s health status for future protection.

Within its first three months, FUW has reached 80% of eligible customers and generated RM65m in potential annualised new premiums (ANP) from its offer base. As of March 2025, it has delivered RM2.05m in realised ANP with a 2.9% conversion rate, whilst increasing average case size to RM18,000.

Meanwhile, AIA Bhd. undertook a strategic partnership with digital health solution Naluri in 2025 to launch HolistiCare, a holistic employee wellbeing ecosystem designed to address the growing interconnection between mental and physical health in the workplace. The ecosystem combines Naluri's AI-enabled, human-led multidisciplinary approach with AIA Bhd.'s four wellness pillars: Live Well, Think Well, Feel Well, and Plan Well.

Building on AIA Bhd.’s leadership in employee benefits and its earlier introduction of an end-to-end mental health solution in 2022, the partnership marks a shift from reactive mental health support toward a more proactive, preventive, and integrated care model.

Through the platform, employees are supported through self-help tools, health assessments, educational resources, multidisciplinary coaching, continuous wellness engagement, and 24/7 crisis and medical support. They also receive coordinated care from psychologists, dietitians, fitness coaches, medical professionals, and financial planners.

The programme has achieved a 35% registration rate, significantly exceeding traditional Employee Assistance Programme benchmarks, whilst nearly two-thirds of members have engaged across multiple health disciplines. Mental health outcomes have also been equally promising, with 90% of at-risk employees showing improvement in mental health indicators. Participants with pre-existing physical health risks have also recorded meaningful improvements in HbA1c levels, blood pressure, cholesterol, and body mass index.

AIA Bhd. received the Strategic Partnership of the Year - Malaysia for this collaborative work.

Integrated AI enablement

The company has also been redefining how AI strengthens the capabilities of its agency force by building an integrated AI enablement ecosystem that supports agents across the full advisory journey, from learning and preparation to customer engagement.

Central to this undertaking are the generative AI knowledge assistant TANYA, generative AI servicing platform ALEX, and the interactive simulation platform AI Role Play that helps agents transform knowledge into practical customer engagement skills.

TANYA functions as an always-available AI assistant that allows agents to ask questions directly and receive fast, contextual responses. It simplifies complex information into easy-to-understand insights and can also generate sales pitches tailored for needs-based conversations, helping agents explain products more effectively to customers.

At the same time, the AI Role Play provides agents with a safe and judgment-free environment to practise realistic customer interactions. Agents can rehearse needs-based conversations, objection handling, and product positioning through interactive simulations. This practical and repeatable approach enables agents to build confidence and improve communication skills before engaging with real customers.

Since its launch in September 2025, more than 70% of active agents have adopted the two tools, with overall usage increasing by 66%. Agents using TANYA monthly have also achieved 47% higher sales productivity compared to before the launch and 27% higher productivity than non-users. New agents who practised with AI Role Play between four and eight times have also been more than twice as likely to submit at least one case per month compared to non-users.

Meanwhile, ALEX represents a strategic redesign of the insurance servicing operating model by creating a single, trusted source of truth that delivers fast, accurate, and context-aware assistance to life planners and frontline teams.

It provides instant, personalised, 24/7 support across policy servicing enquiries, claims, underwriting clarifications, and operational processes, empowering life planners to extend consistent service beyond office hours. Every response is grounded exclusively in validated internal content, ensuring governance, auditability, regulatory compliance, and trust in a highly regulated financial services environment.

Beyond performance metrics, ALEX has catalysed a broader transformation in how servicing is delivered and governed, evolving across three key dimensions: from contact-heavy to digital-first servicing; from static documentation to structured, governed intelligence; and, from manual execution to AI-augmented professionals.

ALEX brought AIA Bhd. the Service Innovation of the Year - Malaysia win, whilst TANYA and AI Role Play have been recognised as the AI Initiative of the Year - Malaysia.

The Insurance Asia Awards, the premier awards programme for the insurance sector in the Asia Pacific region, celebrates the industry’s trailblazers. It recognises companies that have achieved outstanding milestones, set new benchmarks, and transformed the insurance landscape through cutting-edge innovation.

The Insurance Asia Awards is presented by Insurance Asia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2027 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's significant impact on its customers with exceptional products, services, and solutions in the insurance industry, you may reach Julie Anne Nuñez-Difuntorum at (+65) 3158 1386 ext 242 or [email protected].