News

AF Group Investing in Innovation with Focus on Customer Experience

January 28, 2019

AF Group kicked-off its 2019 innovation efforts this month with an Employee Innovation Week, highlighted by numerous initiatives designed to enhance the customer experience, drive enterprise transformation and foster a culture of creativity and ideation across the organization.  AF Group is investing in new technology, data and analytics, and capabilities to improve the ease of doing business for agents and customers.

AF Group’s innovation effort is led by Abel Travis, vice president of Underwriting & Product Innovation. “Last year was pivotal for innovation at AF Group,” said Travis. “In a short period of time, we developed proactive research capabilities, partnered with InsurTech innovators and hosted a number of events to inspire and build a culture of innovation across our organization. As we equip employees with the knowledge to organically influence change, many exciting innovations are beginning to take shape for the company to better serve the needs of our customers.”

The groundwork for innovation in 2018 included:

• Creation of a first-ever Agency Innovation Council to obtain feedback and recommendations on future growth opportunities for the company and agency partners
• New InsurTech partnership to build a data-driven/digitally acquired insurance capability for agents
• Establishment of a new agreement with the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) to explore blockchain

In 2019, this continued focus on innovation will include:

• Data-driven underwriting – Streamlining the customer experience by leveraging third party data to underwrite small policies
• Wearables – Partnership with an InsurTech to deploy wearable technology to mitigate injuries to policyholder employees
• Engagement with Michigan State University Spartahack through creative hackathons to develop new innovations to better serve the needs of injured workers

“It is truly an exciting time to be part of the insurance industry and these efforts will establish AF Group as a thought leader focused on enabling and driving industry transformation,” Travis said.

For more information on AF Group’s innovation initiatives or to arrange an interview with Abel Travis, please contact Media Relations Advisor Bob Lapinski at 517-331-4890.