AFRICA – Leading insurance group, Prudential plc and Google Cloud have entered into a strategic partnership with an aim to enhance health and financial inclusion for communities across Africa and Asia.
Prudential has more than 530,000 agents across its 23 markets in Asia and Africa and over 170 bancassurance partners with access to circa 27,600 bank branches, serving more than 19 million customers.
It will leverage Google Cloud’s data analytics capabilities, secure and sustainable infrastructure, and the broader Google ecosystem, to accelerate its digital transformation and to enhance user engagement of its health and wealth platform, Pulse.
According to the insurance group, Pulse is part of Prudential’s multi-channel strategy to make healthcare more accessible and increase financial inclusion and the healthcare app is available in 17 markets and 11 languages.
“For Google Cloud, this partnership presents an opportunity to collaborate with a leading insurance provider to make protection, health and savings solutions simpler and more accessible across Asia and Africa,” Prudential in an official statement.
The recent agreement further deepens the existing relationship between Prudential and Google that began in 2019 thus Prudential expects to benefit from Google’s suite of data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools.
Solmaz Altin, Managing Director, Strategic Business Group, Prudential, said: “Harnessing technology, we want to empower people to live well for longer by making it easier for them to take care of their health and plan for their financial futures.”
Through the strategic partnership, Prudential will leverage new technology solutions to make the Pulse platform more intelligent and engaging with the aim of reaching out to more people especially those who cannot easily access health and financial information and services.
The insurance group pointed out that the health and wellness platform provides users with access to services such as health risk assessment and online doctor consultation to help them better manage their health needs as well as digital wealth tools to make financial decisions simpler.
“In the longer term, the leading insurance group will look to adopt Google’s AI across a broader digital strategy to make accessing insurance simpler, to drive greater efficiency, and to increase agent productivity,” the group announced.
For example, through technology such as advanced analytics and AI, Prudential aims to use data to help its agents better understand the needs of their customers.
It is also looking to improve customer experience, by digitizing the entire claims process, making submission, assessment, and approval more seamless and efficient.
“Prudential is using Google Maps in the Pulse application, and further projects with Google Health, Document AI and Fitbit are being explored to enhance efficiency, functionality and user engagement,” the group highlighted.
In addition, the collaborating parties will work together to make it easier for people across the African region to safeguard their health and protect their finances for the long term with digital tools that are accessible.
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