Manulife Expands Partnership with Microsoft to Accelerate Enterprise AI Governance and Innovation
● Manulife will adopt Microsoft's Frontier Suite and deploy Microsoft
Agent 365 to drive AI solutions at enterprise scale
●
Manulife will
expand deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot to more than 30,000 employees
Manulife and Microsoft today announced the renewal and expansion of
their longstanding relationship, supporting Manulife's strategic priority to
become an AI-powered organization. As part of this partnership, Manulife has
adopted Microsoft 365 E7 Frontier Suite capabilities to enable innovation at
scale with secure cloud and AI solutions. This includes expanding adoption of
Microsoft 365 Copilot to over 30,000 employees and deploying Microsoft Agent
365—a next-generation suite that provides a control plane for governing,
monitoring, and securing AI agents at enterprise scale. The five-year agreement
supports Manulife's continued transformation and responsible scaling of
AI-enabled capabilities across its global operations.
"Our partnership with Microsoft is a critical enabler of Manulife's
continued evolution into a truly AI-powered organization," said Shamus
Weiland, Chief Technology & Operations Officer, Manulife.
"Adopting the Microsoft Frontier Suite represents the next phase of that
transformation, giving us the trusted foundation to advance AI across our
global operations with confidence. It also provides the scale, security,
stability and intelligence we need to accelerate innovation and embed AI
responsibly across the franchise."
A secure, governed foundation for enterprise AI
Microsoft is a foundational partner in Manulife's global enterprise AI
platform, currently in pilot, which will help to enable Manulife's data
scientists and developers to build, deploy and manage advanced AI and agentic
solutions at scale, while adhering to shared standards for quality, security
and cost efficiency. Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Foundry provide critical
components and capabilities ranging from citizen development tools to advanced
model fine-tuning and monitoring, enabling teams to innovate autonomously
within a strong governance framework.
Manulife will also deploy Microsoft Agent 365, to serve as a registry
for AI agents across the enterprise, providing a single interface to observe,
govern, and manage how AI agents operate. This capability will help strengthen
Manulife's enterprise-wide approach to AI governance, observability, and risk
management.
"As AI becomes more deeply embedded across our business,
responsible innovation has to be built into how we operate—not treated as a
separate layer of oversight," said Jodie Wallis, Global Chief AI
Officer, Manulife. "For Manulife, that means giving our teams the
clarity, controls and confidence to use AI in ways that are secure, transparent
and aligned to our Responsible AI Principles. By strengthening how
we govern and monitor AI across the enterprise, we can move with greater speed
and discipline while continuing to earn the trust of our customers, colleagues
and communities."
Examples of AI solutions already enabled by Microsoft technology across
the business include:
●
Topline growth: The Sales Enablement tool, launched in Singapore
and now scaled across multiple markets, delivers personalized advisor insights
using Foundry models, driving more targeted engagement and improved sales
outcomes.
●
Underwriting
support: Quick Quote, a GenAI based
underwriting support tool launched by John Hancock in the U.S., which helps
streamline the preliminary assessment process for purchasing life insurance.
●
Customer
experience: Generative AI solutions support over 110
million calls annually across North America and are expanding into Asia,
enhancing speed, accuracy, and service quality through Azure-based knowledge
tools that provide instant, source-backed answers with confidence scores.
Additionally, Manulife has agentic solutions and AI-powered workflows
live in production across the organization, with more in the pipeline. Agents
can help employees quickly access information, support software development and
technology design, and enhance IT operations by streamlining workflows,
identifying risks, and improving productivity across the organization.
Accelerating innovation across the enterprise
Manulife developers across the organization continue to adopt assisted
and autonomous AI capabilities and have increased their productivity by 30 per
cent while enabling reinvestment to support business growth and develop new
capabilities to serve our customers. GitHub Copilot has helped lay a strong
foundation for the next phase of Manulife's AI strategy, by advancing
Manulife's autonomous development capabilities, supporting faster design, build
and release processes. This includes business-facing solutions such as
Manulife's mortgage renewal application, which was successfully rebuilt in a
matter of weeks.
Beyond engineering teams, Manulife is embedding AI across the
organization, equipping employees with tools aimed at streamlining everyday
work, unlocking productivity gains, and delivering greater value to customers.
Manulife expects to generate more than $1 billion[1] of
enterprise value by 2027, with $300 million achieved as of year-end 2025,
improving productivity and efficiency and delivering real impact for customers,
colleagues and shareholders.
"Our longstanding partnership with Manulife has always been
grounded in trust, innovation and a shared commitment to responsible
transformation," said Matt Milton, President, Microsoft Canada.
"We are proud to be Manulife's trusted partner in the agentic era, helping
empower employees with Microsoft 365 Copilot and scale AI responsibly with the
governance and security of Microsoft Agent 365. We look forward to continuing
our work together as Manulife turns AI into practical value and better outcomes
for customers around the world."
The partnership expansion reinforces Manulife's position as an industry
leader in AI innovation and underscores its commitment to becoming an AI-driven
organization. For two consecutive years, Manulife was recognized as the number
one life insurance company in North America and Europe for AI maturity in the
Evident AI Insurance Index. Continued collaboration with Microsoft helps to
ensure Manulife can sustain this leadership by leveraging the latest
advancements in cloud, AI technologies and enterprise AI governance
capabilities.
To learn more about Manulife's AI progress, visit AI @ Manulife.
*
Resources:
●
Responsible AI
Principles - https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4736194-1&h=1353355099&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.manulife.com%2Fca%2Fen%2Fabout-us%2Fai%2Fresponsible-ai-principles&a=Responsible+AI+Principles
●
Sales
Enablement tool - https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4736194-1&h=1881783438&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.manulife.com%2Fca%2Fen%2Fabout-us%2Fai%2Fsales-enablement&a=Sales+Enablement
●
Evident AI
Insurance Index - https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4736194-1&h=2023512389&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.manulife.com%2Fca%2Fen%2Fabout-us%2Fnews%2Fmanulife-named-number-one-life-insurer-for-ai-maturity-for-second-consecutive-year-by-evident&a=the+Evident+AI+Insurance+Index

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