INTERVIEW: Sumitomo Life to Mull Using AI Tech to Support Sales Agents

Bellevue, Washington, Oct. 18 (Jiji Press)–Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. will consider using digital technologies including generative artificial intelligence to support its sales agents, Yukinori Takada, president of the Japanese insurer, said in a recent interview with Jiji Press. The comment followed a series of scandals in the industry that called into question the relationships between life insurance companies and their sales agents and highlighted the need to review the practice of supporting agents by dispatching employees on loan. Takada, also chairman of the Life Insurance Association of Japan, said, “We are currently in a major turning point” for building appropriate relationships with sales agents. The interview was held in Bellevue in the U.S. state of Washington, where Takada attended a two-day meeting with the heads of two overseas subsidiaries of Sumitomo Life through Thursday. Japanese life insurance companies have dispatched employees to their sales agents such as banks to provide support in selling their insurance products. In recent years, there have been many cases of insurance companies providing excessive favors to sales agents and dispatched employees of insurers leaking personal information. The scandals prompted the association to announce in September new guidelines calling on insurance companies to discontinue the practice of dispatching their employees to sales agents in principle, pushing forward the review of the two sides’ relationships. As insurance companies, “We have to think how we can support the independence of our sales agents,” Takada stressed. According to Takada, Singapore Life Ltd., a Sumitomo Life subsidiary whose head joined the meeting with Takada, excels in insurance sales and agent management using digital technologies. He explained that Sumitomo Life has already promoted the sharing of such expertise from its subsidiaries, saying, “We would like to show that Sumitomo Life can provide our agents with such support.” Regarding AI, Takada said his company “has made its operations considerably more efficient” including by employing OpenAI’s ChatGPT. He emphasized that enhancing the value provided to customers through insurance will be crucial going forward. “The biggest objective” of the latest meeting is for Sumitomo Life and the two subsidiaries, also including Symetra Financial Corp. of the United States, to enhance corporate value starting with the utilization of AI. In its new medium-term management plan from fiscal 2026 currently under consideration, Sumitomo Life hopes to highlight how synergies can be generated among group companies with regard to AI use and asset management, Takada said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]