Manulife Asia pushes AI to drive health, wealth growth

The Canadian insurer plans to generate more than $1b in AI-driven value by 2027.

Manulife Financial Corporation is expanding artificial intelligence (AI) tools across its Asia operations as it builds health, wealth and protection businesses toward a 2027 goal of generating half of group core earnings.

“As we look across Asia, we're seeing strong momentum across three key areas: health, wealth, and protection,” Steve Finch, president and CEO at Manulife Asia, told Insurance Asia.

“Becoming an AI-powered organisation is a strategic priority for Manulife, and Asia is central to it,” he said in an emailed reply to questions.

The Canadian insurer operates a customer-facing AI assistant in Hong Kong that provides round-the-clock bilingual support. It had 91 generative AI use cases in production globally at the end of 2025, with another 121 in development as of 3 August, Finch said.

The company is also using AI to help agents and advisers handle administrative work and underwriting enquiries.

“The most immediate gains we see are in adviser productivity and customer experience, and the two are inseparable,” Finch said.

Manulife Asia’s net income rose 28% year on year to $768m in the second quarter. Core earnings increased 21% to $616m, or more than 40% of the group’s total, based on financial results posted on its website.

Finch said AI SalesPro gives agents data-driven customer insights, letting them spend more time advising customers, whilst an AI assistant helps agents with business and underwriting enquiries.

All Manulife employees globally have access to Microsoft Corporation’s Copilot and ChatMFC, the insurer’s generative AI assistant, in addition to the customer-facing assistant in Hong Kong.

The 2026 Evident AI Index for Insurance ranked Manulife third among 30 major global insurers and the top life insurer for AI maturity for a second consecutive year. Allianz SE and AXA SA ranked ahead of Manulife in the overall index.

Finch said AI investment was producing value through faster customer responses, more personalised interactions, and less administrative work.

Manulife has set a group-wide target of more than $1b in AI-driven value by 2027. Finch declined to disclose how much of that value is expected to come from Asia, but he said the region’s scale makes it important to achieving the target.

AI adoption remains limited across the wider financial service industry. A Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. survey published in May found that 21% of Asia-Pacific financial service firms reported at least moderate use of agentic AI, although that share is expected to reach 78% within two years.

Manulife has joined the Hong Kong Insurance Authority’s AI Cohort Programme as a core participating insurer and is working with Alibaba Cloud, a unit of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., to explore an AI hub.

Finch said these initiatives operate under controls covering responsible and secure AI use, with human oversight retained in decision-making.

On health, Manulife is using its ManulifeMOVE wellness platform and a partnership with Guardant Health, Inc. for early cancer screening to engage customers before they make claims.

The initiatives form part of the insurer’s effort to address Asia’s health protection gap, which the Swiss Re Institute estimated at $258b in premium-equivalent terms in 2024.

Finch said AI would continue to support Manulife's wider Asia strategy by expanding customer access and letting advisers and agents spend more time engaging directly with customers.