Dive Brief:
- Deepa Soni will join financial services firm New York Life as EVP and CIO, the company announced Wednesday. Soni will report to President and CEO Craig DeSanto, overseeing enterprise technology, cyber, data, AI and the company’s venture capital arm, New York Life Ventures.
- Soni joins the company after a nearly six-year leadership stint at The Hartford across several roles, including CIO and chief information and operations officer. The executive previously held senior technology leadership roles at BMO Financial Group, M&T Bank and KeyBank.
- “Deepa is a distinguished technology leader with deep experience driving digital transformation and innovation in the financial services industry,” said DeSanto in the announcement. “We are thrilled for her to join the New York Life executive team as we continue to advance our technology, data and AI capabilities in support of our agents and advisors, clients and employees.”
Dive Insight:
Soni's appointment as tech chief will add sector-specific expertise to the leadership team at the largest mutual insurance company in the U.S. as the firm leans into AI adoption.
Last year the company rolled out Service Sage, a generative AI tool for service representatives that can quickly review complex policy documentation and yield responses. Adoption of the tool, built using AWS technology, reduced call hold times and improved customer service accuracy, the company said.
“As our clients, agents and advisors expect seamless experiences, we know that the foundation for those experiences is technology, data and AI,” said Don Vu, chief data and analytics officer, in a release.
Earlier this year, the firm partnered with Norm Ai, a company focused on compliance and regulatory applications of the technology. The vendor's Regulatory AI platform can review content for compliance based on several regulatory frameworks as well as company-specific guidelines, according to a June announcement. New York Life's compliance team is exploring additional use cases for the technology, the company said.
AI adoption at New York Life comes amid a sectorwide push to leverage the technology, as businesses search for increased efficiency and customer experience gains.
Generative AI efforts ramped up among insurance firms this year, according to Evident Insights data. The research firm said it found early signs of rising adoption in the typically risk-averse industry. New York Life ranked 25 out of 30 insurance firms analyzed by Evident in terms of AI maturity.
“Leadership stands out as New York Life’s principal strength in the Index, as evidenced by [Vu] spearheading the insurer’s AI and data strategy via key partners, including OpenAI & Anthropic,” Evident Insights said in its report.
