Reflecting on our AI journey and how far we've come in one short year

"If you'd have told me a year and a half ago that 160-year-old life insurance companies were going to be in the vanguard of artificial intelligence usage, I probably would have been a bit surprised, but that's turning out to be the case."

The quote above is from Matt Wood , Amazon Web Services’ Global Vice-President of AI Products. It is a testament to just how far we have come as a company in the past year with the adoption of AI. Hearing our strategic partners talk about us in this way gives me an immense amount of pride for the work we’re doing in the digital space.

This month, after Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day (#AIAppreciationDay), I’ve been reflecting on our journey adopting emerging technology here at Sun Life.

Over the past year, artificial intelligence (AI) and even more so, GenAI, has rapidly integrated into various aspects of our jobs and lives. GenAI’s advancements have enhanced our industry’s capabilities, which in turn, continue to provide better experiences for our Clients.

I wrote an article last September about the buzz around GenAI and its potential. I wanted to share a few of our biggest learnings and what we’ve done to incorporate these insights into our GenAI tools:

Having our own GenAI tools is essential, especially when it comes to keeping our Clients’ data safe.

We’ve developed our own internal, safe and secure ChatGPT-like tool called Sun Life Asks, which Employees have been adopting and using for just over 8 months. Our people are using Sun Life Asks to help with everything from summarizing documents and drafting content to analyzing visual data like charts and graphs. We developed Sun Life Asks to provide our people with the ability to use a tool similar to other GenAI tools that are readily available, like Gemini or ChatGPT, to assist with daily tasks while keeping our information safely and securely within our organization. It’s uptake has been monumental and we’ve even just won an award for its innovation.

It’s a test and learn process. Releasing tools in iterations allows us to incorporate employee feedback as we move along.

We’ve decided to roll out Sun Life Asks in phases so that our people are involved in every step of the process of making this tool the most beneficial it can be. Taking this route also means ensuring our people have a strong understanding of how AI works, which is why we’re also upskilling. One way we’re doing this is through offering a course called Destination AI, in partnership with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), covering machine learning, GenAI, big data, and an overall view of the role we play in shaping this emerging technology. To date, over 2,500 people at Sun Life have taken the course. We also just added a new training, Getting Started with Prompt Engineering, to help people in any role learn how to craft their prompts in tools like Sun Life Asks more strategically to get optimal outputs. Sun Life Asks recently surpassed 400K queries and moved from its beta environment into a permanent (production) home with a new large language model. As of recent, we’re seeing more than 5,000 individuals using the tool each week!

Being transparent with our people and encouraging them to ask questions and voice any feedback to ensure everyone is on the same page.

We’ve received so many amazing and insightful questions from our people around GenAI, which shows us how interested and excited they are about what’s to come. Whether it’s through town halls, social posts or team meetings, we’re constantly sharing information with one another about what we’re learning and any tips and tricks on how to use these tools most effectively. This is what’s allowed us to move quickly and efficiently, ensuring we stay on top of the latest developments.

I’m focused on continuing to find ways to make our Clients’ lives easier by adopting emerging technology. Allowing our people to have time for more meaningful work is a driving factor for us when developing tools using GenAI. I’m excited to see what the future of technology holds and all of the ways GenAI can continue to help us create even more exceptional experiences for our Clients.