Dive Brief:
- Unum Group tapped former Aflac EVP and CIO Shelia Anderson to lead digital transformation, the company said Thursday. Anderson will serve as EVP and chief information and digital officer at the 175-year-old insurer, reporting to President and CEO Rick McKenney, according to an announcement.
- An insurance industry veteran, Anderson held CIO positions at USAA and Liberty Mutual prior to her nearly three-year tenure leading Aflac’s technology team. “I look forward to working together to continue building the future of insurance as part of a team pushing the boundaries of technology in insurance, transforming legacy systems, improving customer experiences and driving real impact in an industry that touches so many lives,” she said in a Thursday LinkedIn post.
- Anderson fills a position left vacant by Puneet Bhasin, who held the role of EVP and global chief information and digital officer until September, according to his LinkedIn profile. Aflac has not yet named a successor for Anderson but the company told CIO Dive it has confidence in its IT organization’s ability to “advance Aflac’s vision of blending technology with key talent to deliver on our business objectives.”
Dive Insight:
Anderson’s appointment comes as the pace of change in the industry accelerates.
Insurance companies, with their deep repositories of data and a long tradition of actuarial analytics, are fertile ground for cloud transformation and AI implementation. The industry also presents challenges for IT executives, as they contend with decades of accumulated technical debt and stern data regulations.
Some of the industry’s largest players, including Unum Group and Aflac, have already charted a modernization course with AI adoption in their sights.
Travelers invested nearly half of its $1.5 billion IT budget in strategic cloud, analytics and AI initiatives last year. AIG piloted generative AI use cases to ease underwriting and Liberty Mutual deployed a customized ChatGPT assistant internally to speed various functions, including underwriting, claims and marketing.
Unum Group is investing in technology with an eye toward efficiency gains and customer experience improvements.
“Over the last several years, we have made significant investments to develop and deploy digital capabilities that help our customers adapt to their shifting needs,” McKenney said in the company’s 2024 annual report.
“Much of our recent technology investment has helped further integrate our products with the leading benefits administration platforms and our broker distribution partners,” he added, pointing to the Broker Connect for Employee Navigator platform launched last year.
Anderson helped drive adoption of a machine learning-powered claims platform called Code Based Processing at Aflac. The experience laid the governance and data-management groundwork for further AI adoption, Anderson said during a CIO Dive event in March.
Unum Group aims to benefit from Anderson’s prior work implementing internal and customer-facing technology platforms.
“The addition of Shelia to our executive team continues to accelerate our digital strategy, enhancing both customer and employee experiences,” McKenney said in the Thursday announcement. “She brings deep expertise and a clear strategic vision to fully leverage technology for the benefit of our customers.”
