AXA XL’s UK and Lloyd’s operations are reshaping their technology and data architecture around a simple but demanding brief from the market: be faster, more accurate and easier to trade with.
Christopher Read (pictured), chief operating officer for AXA XL’s UK region and its Lloyd’s platforms, describes the transformation as a response to clear external pressure from brokers and clients to do business in “a different way”, with speed and agility now a competitive necessity rather than a differentiator.
“The winners are going to be the ones that can respond fastest and be the most agile with the market,” he said.
The programme has been built deliberately with two “lenses”. The first is an external, market-facing lens designed to make placement and servicing as frictionless as possible for brokers and clients. That has meant working closely with market platforms and standards bodies rather than attempting to build in isolation.
AXA XL is engaging with digital placing and data platforms such as Whitespace, Placing Platform Limited and Acord, alongside other vendors, to ensure connectivity and interoperability with brokers’ preferred channels. Rather than mandating a single route, Read’s team has aimed to accommodate different ways of trading while still bringing data into the insurer in a usable form.
Internally, a second lens focuses on what happens once data and documents arrive in the organisation. Read characterises the approach as “tech, data and ops”: first ensuring data quality, then deploying technology to move and use that data, and finally reshaping operations to take advantage of both.
The most visible outcome has been a marked shift away from unstructured documentation towards structured data that can pass through underwriting and claims workflows with minimal rekeying or manual intervention.
“The biggest difference for us is our ability to move data through the organisation,” Read explained. Previously, large volumes of unstructured information demanded significant effort simply to get data into the right place in a usable form. Now, he said, the firm has been “building… the bridge that enables the information to flow in and out of the organisation”, while at the same time changing the nature of what is received so that it is “much more structured data”.
That, in turn, is delivering gains in efficiency, productivity, capacity, speed and accuracy, underpinned by internal transaction-level KPIs that track how business moves through the system.
Internally, AXA XL has divided its digital agenda into three domains: distribution (or “go to market”), underwriting and claims.
On the distribution side, the focus is on improving the interface between brokers, clients and underwriters, particularly in the London and global specialty markets where complex risk placement has historically been document-heavy and relationship-driven.
Underwriting, as the core of the business, is being supported both at process level and in decision-making. The aim is not simply to streamline workflows, but to use technology and data to enhance risk selection, pricing and portfolio management.
In claims, AXA XL is seeking to use technology, data and artificial intelligence to improve both the customer-facing experience and internal efficiency, from notification and triage through to settlement and reporting.
Read stresses that the insurer sees these domains as interconnected rather than siloed, with a single strategic thread running through the front, middle and back office.
Artificial intelligence is already embedded in several parts of the operating model.
On the front end, triage tools are used to prioritise incoming submissions, helping underwriters focus on risks with the greatest appetite and likelihood of binding. Read gives the example of receiving 100 submissions and using a triage system to highlight “the likelihood of us writing these rather than these”, enabling resource to be deployed where it is most productive.
AXA XL is also applying AI to policy wording comparison, using tools to identify differences between last year’s wording and this year’s proposed terms and to surface material changes for underwriters and wordings specialists.
In parallel, colleague-focused tools, such as Microsoft Copilot and other chat-based applications, are being introduced to support day-to-day work, while client and market-facing applications are being used to make interactions faster and more efficient.
Read is clear that implementation has not been a smooth, linear journey. New tools and models have been introduced incrementally, tested, refined and extended.
He describes the approach as “an evolution, rather than a revolution”, with an explicit embrace of agile methods, small, iterative changes rather than monolithic projects. Each rollout has generated lessons that inform the next phase.
That incrementalism has been especially important in the AI space, where the firm has consciously avoided attempting to do too much at once. Instead, it has focused on specific use cases such as triage, wording comparison and colleague productivity, proving value before scaling.
A key part of addressing the classic divide between business and technology has been Read’s own position. He reports directly to the UK CEO as COO for the UK and Lloyd’s business, while also sitting on the global operations and technology leadership team.
That “foot in both camps” is intended to align technology and data investment with business strategy, ensuring that global teams understand business priorities and that local management can draw on global capabilities.
Within his own remit, Read leads a small transformation team of project and change specialists who work directly with underwriting and claims to define needs, shape solutions and, crucially, drive adoption once systems go live. At group level, AXA’s global operations and technology function acts as an internal provider, either building solutions through a “digital factory” or managing external vendors on AXA XL’s behalf.
As in most large-scale transformation programmes, changing behaviour has been at least as challenging as changing systems.
Read notes that people are naturally inclined to revert to familiar processes if given the chance. To counter that, AXA XL has deployed change networks and “change champions” within underwriting and claims teams, coupled with regular engagement to embed new ways of working.
He is careful not to attribute resistance to any particular demographic. Rather than a simple “younger versus older” divide, he has seen variation by line of business, with some areas moving faster than others in adopting new tools and channels.
Externally, similar dynamics are playing out with brokers. Some are “more than happy to adopt” new ways of working, while others require “a little bit more persuasion”. AXA XL’s response has been to remain flexible at the market interface, accommodating different broker preferences, while seeking to standardise and streamline data and processes once business is inside the organisation.
“We can work with the clients in the way that they would like us to deal with them, rather than pushing them down any particular avenue,” Read said. The task then is to convert that diversity into something usable and scalable internally.
From an operations and technology standpoint, AXA XL is pursuing a global vision across its three principal territories: UK and Lloyd’s, Asia-Pacific and Europe, and the US. The aim is to be “as consistent, as standardised as we can on a global basis”, covering around 10,000 employees.
However, much of the recent work has been concentrated in the UK, where roughly 700 people in distribution, underwriting and claims have been early beneficiaries of the new tools and processes.
Read said the business has already secured industry recognition for its efforts, including awards this year for its digital initiatives. He also makes clear that the work is far from finished and will “continue to be a priority in 26”, with further enhancements and extensions planned.
For him, the overriding lesson from the journey so far is the importance of genuine collaboration with brokers, clients and technology partners.
He contrasts AXA XL’s current approach with earlier industry tendencies to build in isolation and then “reveal” solutions to the market, only to be told “that’s not what we wanted”. In his view, working closely with stakeholders from the outset has made a “big difference to the success” of the programme and will remain central as the next wave of digital and AI capabilities is rolled out.
Away from transformation roadmaps and governance committees, Read looks for headspace on the road and the golf course. A keen runner, he completed the London Marathon this year in about four hours, raising around £8,500 for the Matt Hampson Foundation, which supports people with life-changing injuries through a dedicated rehabilitation centre.
He describes running as good not only for fitness but for clearing the mind, while golf, when time allows, remains his sporting passion. It is a reminder that even in a market obsessed with data and digital, some of the most important decisions about the future of insurance are still being taken by people who need space to think.
