Transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) in the insurance sector in Southeast Asia.
In our latest CIO ASEAN Leadership Live session, I - Estelle
Quek, Editorial Director of CSO ASEAN engaged Violet Chung, Senior Partner at McKinsey, on how artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) are reshaping the insurance sector across Southeast Asia. Our conversation was structured around key questions that CIOs and senior technology leaders must address to move from experimentation to enterprise transformation.
We began by asking what explains Southeast Asia’s relatively low AI maturity scores, despite its digital readiness. Chung pointed to the
need for holistic transformation-beyond technology procurement, emphasizing leadership alignment, change management, and scalable enterprise capabilities.
As embedded insurance gains traction, we asked how insurers
should evolve their business models. Chung highlighted the importance of agile partnerships with non-financial players and the co-creation of customer-centric value propositions.
On GenAI, we explored what lessons CIOs can draw from early
pilots. Chung cautioned that many initiatives lack integration and measurable ROI. She stressed the importance of infrastructure flexibility, workforce enablement, and a clear roadmap for scaling.
I also asked how insurers should approach AI governance, particularly in underwriting and customer-facing applications. Chung advocated for embedding compliance from the design phase, maintaining human oversight, and ensuring data transparency.
Finally, we examined the readiness of insurers to scale GenAI amid legacy systems and siloed data. Chung recommended infrastructure-agnostic platforms and agentic architectures, supported by public-private collaboration to close protection gaps and accelerate innovation.
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CIO ASEAN Leadership Live with Rich Ford, CEO of Vision Zero Connect
In this episode, CIO ASEAN deep dives into how digital innovation is transforming the property sector in Southeast Asia and Singapore - in terms of operational efficiency, business impact and in helping the built environment move toward sustainability and net-zero goals. Joining Estelle Quek, Editorial Director of CIO ASEAN is Rich Ford, CEO of Vision Zero Connect.
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CIO Leadership Live with Nobumasa Takeuchi, Editorial Director, CIO Japan
Nobumasa Takeuchi, Editorial Director Japan, CIO.com, shares his findings from many conversations with Japanese technology leaders on the current state of technology adoption in Japan, the challenges that Japanese organisations face, and what the future holds.
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CIO Leadership Live ASEAN with Bryan Tan, Reed Smith
Bryan Tan - Partner (Entertainment and Media Group) at Reed Smith - talks about the role CIOs play in protecting their organisations from potential copyright infringement when using AI-generated content, how mature copyright laws are right now when it comes to AI, and more.
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CIO Leadership Live ASEAN with Dr CJ Meadows, S P Jain School of Global Management
Dr CJ Meadows - author, speaker, professor, entrepreneur, and former Accenture consultant - shares her thoughts on the future of work, how that is changing with AI, and how organisations should prepare for this change.
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