- Expert quote: "This is not a technology program with an end date; it is becoming part of how we operate, serve and grow." –
Bill Pappas , executive vice president and head of global technology and operations at MetLife. - Forward look: MetLife is moving from isolated transactions to connected customer journeys.
How is an almost 160-year-old insurance company staying focused on innovation?
By not losing sight of the ROI, according to
"We are not innovating for innovation's sake. We will measure progress by tangible outcomes: better experiences, faster cycle times, lower costs, greater productivity and more capacity for higher-value work,"
Pappas, who joined the company in 2019, directs a team of more than 38,000 people and is responsible for technology development, infrastructure, information and cyber security, data strategy and analytics, customer service, operations and crisis management.
These responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
What innovation and tech-related initiatives is MetLife focused on?
Over the past several years, we have invested more than $3.2 billion to simplify and modernize our technology ecosystem — retiring legacy platforms, reducing complexity and strengthening our cloud, data and cybersecurity foundations. That work is helping remove friction, improve experiences, create capacity for our people and enable the business to grow.
What is helping the company create better outcomes for customers, employees and business and what is the ROI on these initiatives?
It starts with recognizing what customers need from us in the moments that matter. Filing a disability claim, caring for a sick pet or calling with a benefits question can already feel overwhelming. That's why we employ a high-tech, high-touch strategy.
Technology can remove unnecessary steps and uncertainty, but it should never replace the human judgment and empathy customers value. Our goal is to use digital capabilities to make routine tasks simpler and faster, creating more capacity for our people to focus on the moments where care, expertise and personal guidance matter most.
We are seeing that approach deliver tangible results. In our call centers, AI is driving an increase in self-service, helping customers reach resolutions faster while allowing our teams to focus on more complex, higher-value interactions. In claims, digital intake has doubled and auto-adjudication has increased significantly, improving turnaround times and making the experience more seamless.
Upwise is one of our products which helps employees choose their benefits during enrollment and make the most of them throughout the year through personalized recommendations and ongoing guidance. This is helping employees make more informed benefits decisions through personalized recommendations and ongoing guidance, reaching 1.4 million eligible employees and contributing to increased participation in voluntary benefits during enrollment.
Beyond customer experience, AI is helping us accelerate growth and expand access to our products. In Latin America, Xcelerator, our embedded insurance platform, enables partners to offer MetLife products through channels customers already use.
We are also applying AI internally to help our teams work more effectively. AI-generated code, knowledge management and testing automation have increased developer productivity, with additional opportunities ahead as we continue our transition toward an AI-first approach to software development.
That is how we think about ROI: delivering better customer experiences, driving growth and enabling our workforce to be more productive.
What is MetLife's AI strategy?
Technology should make life easier for our customers and help our employees do their best work. We've built a strong foundation that enables us to apply AI responsibly across the enterprise by improving experiences, increasing productivity and creating new opportunities for growth.
As we look ahead, we're moving beyond individual use cases to redesign entire customer and employee journeys, embedding AI into how work gets done and creating a more connected, intuitive experience. That's how we'll continue delivering value for our customers, employees and shareholders.
What's ahead for MetLife?
The next chapter is moving from isolated transactions to connected customer journeys by reimagining entire workflows from end to end. Customers do not see risk evaluation, policy management, service and claims as separate parts of an insurer; they expect one intuitive experience.
We are seeing the greatest value when we simplify processes, connect historically fragmented steps and embed AI into how work gets done. AI and automation can make routine interactions faster and easier while giving our associates more time to apply judgment, empathy and expertise when customers need us most.
Our CEO-led, federated model will help us scale that work across the enterprise while keeping it close to the businesses and teams that know the opportunities best.
We are not innovating for innovation's sake. We will measure progress by tangible outcomes: better experiences, faster cycle times, lower costs, greater productivity and more capacity for higher-value work. This is not a technology program with an end date; it is becoming part of how we operate, serve and grow.
Anything else you would like to share?
The best ideas emerge when business leaders, technologists, educators and community organizations bring different experiences to the same conversation. That is why MetLife invests not only in technology, but also in creating forums that broaden access to ideas, expertise and opportunity.
[The conference] Triangle Tech X (TTX) brings that belief to life. In 2019, MetLife launched TTX in North Carolina's Research Triangle, home to our Global Technology Hub which houses 2,600 employees. Since then, TTX has grown into our flagship technology conference — a free, virtual forum that brings innovators, technologists and business leaders together to make emerging technologies more accessible and turn ideas into real-world impact.
At the end of the day, technology is valuable because of what it enables for people. The goal is to make experiences simpler, help colleagues do their best work and create more opportunities for customers and communities to build a more confident future.
