Dive Brief:
- The Hartford Insurance Group restructured its technology leadership team Monday, placing two executives in key roles to drive an ongoing modernization push. The company elevated Shekar Pannala to CIO and Jeffery Hawkins to chief data, AI and operations officer, according to the announcement on Monday.
- Pannala joined The Hartford in 2023 as CIO for the property and casualty division following five years with Chubb, where he rose to global CIO. The company recruited Hawkins the same year from CVS Health, where he served as CIO of retail, pharmacy and care delivery for two years.
- Both executives will report to the company’s Chairman and CEO Christopher Swift, effective immediately. Chief Information and Operations Officer Deepa Soni, who was appointed to that role a year ago, resigned to pursue outside opportunities, the company said.
Dive Insight:
The executive appointments underscore The Hartford’s investments in digital transformation and reflect a broader shift among industry leaders to leverage generative AI technologies.
“The transformational work we have done over the last five years has put us in a strong position to accelerate our market-leading competitive advantage, driven by technology, data science and an experienced workforce,” Swift said in January during The Hartford’s Q4 2024 earnings call.
Legacy insurers such as The Hartford, which dates its origins back over two centuries, leaned on cloud platforms to cut through technical debt, boost analytics capabilities and improve underwriting. As generative AI adoption gained traction, a number of The Hartford’s peers took steps to reinforce tech leadership, too.
Earlier this month, MetLife onboarded EVP and Global CIO Nick Nadgauda, who previously spent two decades at Citi. The appointment was announced shortly after the company launched its five-year New Frontier initiative last December to accelerate growth globally using AI and digitization.
Northwestern Mutual moved its EVP and CIO Jeff Sippel into the chief strategy officer role, concurrently elevating Christian Mitchell to chief digital and information officer charged with AI, data engineering, infrastructure and cybersecurity strategy last summer.
American International Group’s foray into AI-assisted underwriting was preceded by hefty investments in foundational technologies and the appointment of CIO Roshan Navagamuwa to oversee cloud, cyber and modernization strategy last year. The company spent more than $1 billion to modernize its data systems over the last six years, Chairman and CEO Peter Zaffino said during a November earnings call.
The Hartford reconfigured its executive structure last year when it united operations and technology functions under Soni’s leadership. Soni oversaw the company’s technology transformation, which encompassed migration to cloud-based digital platforms and adoption of AI-based automation.
“We have invested aggressively in technology – expanding digital capabilities, simplifying processes and platforms and applying data, analytics and artificial intelligence to enhance products, services and customer experience across the enterprise,” Swift said when the change was announced last March.
