Addicted to AIA Vitality - A CEO’s Confession

I remember the day I officially became an AIA Vitality member. I kept subconsciously checking my fitness tracker in between meetings to see just how many steps I was clocking in. By the end of the day when my step counter turned 7500 - I felt elated and satisfied. Never have I imagined it could be so gratifying and addictive.

AIA Vitality was launched in Malaysia in 2016. Hailed as a game-changer, the science-backed health and wellness programme was embraced enthusiastically by many. It was hard to understand at first. A health and wellness programme…that comes with my insurance plan? What does clocking in steps, sleep and groceries have to do with my insurance?

More than you think.

AIA Vitality was designed to provide the tools, knowledge and motivation to encourage and incentivise people to make simple lifestyle changes that will help them achieve a healthier and more active lifestyle. So while you make healthy choices like moving a little bit more, eating a bit healthier and getting an extra hour of sleep every night - you not only collect points to increase your AIA Vitality status, but you also intrinsically improve your health and wellbeing. Of course, getting rewarded through various partner discounts and additional insurance benefits is icing on the cake!

I got to experience these benefits first-hand when I became the CEO of AIA Malaysia in 2019. Stepping into a company culture that was steeped in Vitality, I embraced the programme fully (in part, highly motivated by the fact that almost all of my Executive Committee members are of the highest Vitality status: platinum!).

Driven by a competitive spirit, I began by clocking in at least 7500 steps daily, sometimes even doing laps around my living room just to meet my target. As they say, consistency wins the race. Before I knew it, I was hitting my Weekly Challenge targets and reaping the rewards with my favourite being the RM10 Jaya Grocer voucher - especially during the various pandemic lockdowns, as it was the one place I could go to and take a break from being in the house!?I worked on getting sleep points by ensuring that I had at least 7 hours of sleep every night. Soon, I was thoroughly engaged. I even completed my online health assessments, got my yearly health checks and became more conscious with my dietary intake, thanks to my online nutrition consultation.

I started to see the positive changes these habits had to my lifestyle. Well-rested and active, made me a better employee and leader of AIA. These changes also had a positive reinforcement on those around me. I was pleasantly surprised when my children showed interest in going for medical check-ups themselves!?

Experiencing the benefits only further reignited my desire to share this unique proposition with others. And I knew that it has to start with us. If we want to inspire and convince others to Live with Vitality, we need to Live with Vitality ourselves and I’m really proud of how our employees and Life Planners have fully embraced this.

As an insurance and takaful provider, AIA is driven by its purpose of empowering Healthier, Longer, Better Lives. It is not a slogan but a commitment for us to go above and beyond just providing protection. AIA Vitality is the perfect way for us to deliver on this promise and partner our customers in their health journey. We believe that everyone benefits from living healthier.

It is in this spirit that we’ve integrated AIA Vitality into our products and solutions, allowing us to go beyond the traditional role of insurer that only collects premiums and pays claims. We keep our customers out of hospital by encouraging them to stay healthy and active, but should they fall sick, we protect them and ensure that they have access to the best quality care and treatment available. If they live healthy, they can enjoy premium discounts or higher insurance benefits. To us, it’s an unbreakable ecosystem that ultimately gives our customers the best value proposition in the market.

Success for us is seeing our customers getting more out of life. I truly believe that the choices we make today can determine our future, and AIA Vitality is just one of the many ways we differentiate ourselves in the industry to give new meaning to what insurance can do for the people of Malaysia.

So, it all begins with a conscious decision - the choice to live well with vitality. Once you make that choice, it is our commitment to make it happen.

Keep a look-out for Part II in this three-part series with AIA Malaysia CEO Ben Ng to learn more about a complete health and wealth ecosystem that will change the way you see insurance.