Meeting customer demands for more sustainable solutions

At the start of our journey, we set a goal of 25% of gross written premiums coming from products that support our customers in the transition to a more sustainable world, but this has already been exceeded with 28% meeting the criteria. It’s the start of a longer journey, with more to do…

Over the past year, Ageas was able to develop a series of new or improved sustainable products, of which you can get a flavour here:

Work is continuing apace to embed an ESG by design approach into all our products both through innovation and development of new products as well as by adapting the existing offer to accommodate current and future societal needs. Particularly in the Non-Life business we see many opportunities. With interest being shown by customers in recycled parts for motor repair, we will for instance further explore how to increase circularity principles in all claims processes. Next to this, we will continue to support our customers in limiting their environmental footprint for instance by further developing the eco bonus at AG to include green renovation services and increasing protection for our customers in case of adverse events including seismic risk in Portugal.

To accelerate our progress, we have leveraged our internal expertise and explored many opportunities for collaboration, sparking creativity and creating momentum. This included a two-day ESG Product Hackathon at the start of 2023 which brought together sixty participants including underwriters, actuaries, and product developers from different countries around five important social themes: Savings, Well-being, Green Mobility, Sustainable Housing, and Inclusivity. The goal was to identify ways to build scalable product propositions, generate brand-new concepts and look for ways to adapt the existing portfolio. 

One product that evolved from the hackathon fell into the category of financial literacy. Leveraging the power of generative AI, a pilot is conducted to significantly improve chatbots in order to deliver a more natural, personal, and easy to understand message to customers. This enhanced chatbot will also be launched in the Philippines helping to better communicate to customers the importance of insurance. 

A special project in development in the UK is Cocoon, an initiative that provides a one stop solution that affords customers the ability to protect their home starting with a comprehensive digital energy audit all the way through to renovation works and beyond. 

As our sustainable product journey moves on, we will continue to learn and share best practices, inspired by the social trends we monitor.