Life insurance, wealth and retirement giant Aviva has appointed Chris Cochrane as group chief information officer (CIO), with his role beginning in the summer.
The appointment, which is subject to approval by the financial services regulators, comes as current CIO John Cummings retires after nearly a decade at the company.
Cochrane will join from investment advisory M&G, where he was chief information and technology officer, after initially joining the company in 2021 as interim CIO. M&G is a savings and investments business, managing money for around 4.6 million clients and more than 900 institutions.
He also spent 15 years in IT roles at BT, where he began in 2003 as a senior software engineer, and was later BT Global Services CIO.
Cochrane has a degree in electrical engineering from Queen’s University Belfast and a master’s degree in major programme management from the University of Oxford.
“Aviva is a company I admire hugely, and one which is performing strongly,” he said. “I am excited to be joining and playing my part in helping continue to drive the momentum which the business has across the insurance, wealth and retirement sectors.”
Aviva, which manages £419bn in assets for 25 million customers, finds itself in a sector being transformed by digital developments. Fintech developments are challenging legacy firms like Aviva to modernise and simplify, including how they engage with customers.
Artificial intelligence
Cochrane joins at a time of great change at traditional financial services such as Aviva, with artificial intelligence (AI) one example of technology shaking up the sector.
According to McKinsey, AI has changed consumer expectations in the insurance sector, “to the point that customers now expect higher accuracy and reliability during the consumer journey, human-like conversations with AI bots (whether text- or voice-based), hyper-personalised offers and communication, and on-demand products and interactions tailored to their needs”.
The firm said generative AI (GenAI) and agentic AI in particular are changing the sector. “One key difference from previous technological leaps is that GenAI is capable of levels of reasoning, judgment, creativity and empathy that far exceed previous innovations’ capabilities – skill sets with particular salience to insurers,” it said. “That’s why GenAI has the capacity to truly transform the insurance industry.”
The advisory firm added that while there is huge potential, scaling AI across the enterprise is challenging, with “security risks, high costs, the danger of getting locked in with suppliers, talent shortages, cultural resistance, governance gaps and legacy infrastructure often hinder progress”.
Chris Skinner, fintech industry expert and CEO at The Finanser, said: “The main tech challenge for insurers is that life insurance and pensions are purchased for 40 years or more ahead, and so many of their policies were taken in the 1970s and 80s. How to convert those systems that were built half a century ago to be fit for today is a huge wall.
“New players will not be taking those old clients, but they can steal new ones with more innovative solutions,” he added.
Tata Consultancy Services
As part of its modernisation programme, Aviva contracted IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to support its UK pensions business. It will provide technology services to over five million pension policies over the next 15 years.
The contract is underpinned by TCS’s own software-as-a-service core banking platform, known as BaNCS.
By outsourcing parts of its business, such as pension administration, businesses like Aviva can free up IT resources to focus on technologies such as AI, which will provide them with opportunities to be more competitive amid demand from customers for personalised services.
