Microsoft transforms experiences for TAL

TAL has entered into a three-year strategic agreement with Microsoft. This will see the expansion of the life insurer’s access to new technologies, including Azure OpenAI Service and supercharging its internal engineering capabilities.

With the addition of Azure OpenAI, TAL’s engineering team is developing strong use cases across its business, where benefits to employees, customers and partners can be realised at scale and safely.

One use case focuses on streamlining customer and employee insurance claims processing. Developed using Azure OpenAI Service, the ‘Claims Assist Knowledge Search’ is a search assistant for TAL’s Claims and Customer Service teams, tapping into TAL’s knowledge bank to help them respond to customer queries faster.

The life insurer is also developing a solution that automates manual email indexing using AI and robotics to improve efficiency and accuracy.

Hinesh Chauhan, chief information officer at TAL, said it was adopting technology to lead with digital in the life insurance sector.

“The partnership approach allows us to benefit from Microsoft’s leading AI technologies like Copilot for Microsoft 365 while also collaborating closely to develop our own solutions for our customers, partners, and employees,” he said.

The agreement includes a significant uplift in employee access to several Microsoft Copilot solutions, making TAL one of the first organisations in Australia to deploy Copilot at scale.

An additional 2,000 licenses for Copilot for Microsoft 365 will be rolled out following strong results in time savings and operational efficiencies from TAL’s participation in the Early Access Program that kicked off in October 2023.

In addition, TAL engineers now have access to GitHub Copilot, using it to check their coding. This enables the fast and safe development of solutions for customers and partners. The broader Copilot roll-out will be underpinned by TAL’s adaptive framework for responsible and safe use of AI.

All TAL employees will have access to Microsoft’s Enterprise Skills Initiative, which supports broad uptake and skills development in AI, cloud computing, and data management. This initiative will provide employees with a comprehensive learning resource suite tailored to various company roles.