Manulife Deploys AI Agents Across Financial Operations

Manulife is moving artificial intelligence beyond customer support and into the core of its financial workflows.

The Canadian insurer announced it is deploying agent‑based AI systems across internal operations to automate high‑volume work and support decision‑making in real time. These systems operate differently from chatbots because they can complete sequences of tasks across multiple software tools and datasets without waiting for new human prompts at each step.

Manulife expects these AI initiatives to generate over $1 billion in value by 2027 through productivity gains and workflow automation. The company already has more than 35 generative AI use cases in production and plans to expand that to around 70 within the coming years.

Around 75% of Manulife's global workforce already uses generative AI tools in some form, according to the company's disclosures.

Insurance companies manage large amounts of structured data through systems that handle policy information, claims records, underwriting assessments, and financial reports. This creates an environment where automation tools can assist with document review and internal reporting without requiring constant supervision.

Manulife's new platform allows teams to deploy AI agents that can interact with internal systems and data to finish multi‑step workflows instead of stopping after a single action. Rather than asking users to manually move information between tools or wait for the next instruction, these agents are designed to handle sequences on their own, which speeds up processes that typically require handoffs between different teams.