Magnus Roe (pictured), global chief data and analytics officer at Aon, has been central to shaping how the firm integrates data, analytics, and artificial intelligence into its operating model. The firm has extended beyond building tools to embedding these capabilities into how the business functions end to end. That shift reflects a broader industry move away from experimentation toward measurable client impact.
The focus has been on connecting risk, workforce, and capital data to support better decision-making. Roe positioned this as a deliberate, multi-year effort rather than a response to recent AI hype. “This is not about point solutions or experiments, but really about embedding these capabilities in how we run the business as a whole,” he said.
Roe acknowledged the volume of innovation activity across the insurance sector but drew a distinction between activity and value. “The big focus for us is whether the innovation is leading to a better decision and a better outcome for our clients,” he said.
That philosophy has informed the firm’s 3x3 Plan, now in its third year, which has directed more than $1 billion in investment. The program was designed to accelerate response to client needs while embedding analytics and AI into core workflows. Rather than retrofitting technology, Aon built these capabilities with modern architecture from the outset.
This approach has been reinforced by structural simplification across the firm. By aligning under unified risk and human capital segments and consolidating operations through Aon Business Services, Roe said the organization can execute more consistently at scale. “That simplification allows us to drive change through our organization really effectively,” he said.
The integration of supporting clients across solution lines has enabled analytics to be embedded across broking, advisory, analytics and service. Roe emphasized that this is less about isolated tools and more about end-to-end workflows. “We know exactly where our priorities lie from top down…and we work backwards from the client outcome enabled by technology, not the other way around,” he said.
External partnerships have played a critical role in accelerating this transformation. Roe was explicit that Aon does not aim to build every capability internally. Instead, the firm prioritizes partners that can operate at scale and align with its enterprise-wide approach.
“My view is that no single firm should try and build everything themselves,” he said. “We lean on partners to allow us to accelerate.”
The selection criteria for partners reflects Aon’s emphasis on scalability and integration. Roe said the firm favors deep partnerships over a fragmented vendor ecosystem, particularly given the complexity and regulatory nature of the insurance industry. “We’ve been very intentional around not chasing lots of different point solutions,” he said.
A key consideration is whether partners understand Aon’s operating model and can embed within core workflows. This includes demonstrating the ability to deliver in high-stakes environments and aligning with the firm’s risk management responsibilities. Roe framed this as essential to maintaining consistency across geographies and business lines.
To support this, Aon has developed a transparent architecture that defines approved partners and capabilities. This reduces duplication and ensures teams are not independently procuring overlapping solutions. It also supports forward planning, allowing the firm to design capabilities with future needs in mind rather than reacting to immediate challenges.
Despite the scale of investment in technology, Roe identified change management not technology as the most significant barrier. Transforming workflows inevitably alters how employees operate and make decisions, requiring sustained effort to build trust and adoption.
“The hardest and, for me, the most important part is bringing colleagues and clients along for the journey,” he said.
He noted that resistance often emerges when change becomes tangible. “People like the concept of change until you change what they’re doing,” he said.
To address this, Aon has prioritized communication, training, and clear governance frameworks. Roe stressed that employees must understand both the purpose of new capabilities and how they improve outcomes. Without that clarity, adoption remains limited regardless of technical sophistication.
This focus has been evident in the rollout of internal AI tools such as AonGPT, an enterprise assistant. Roe said the firm invested heavily in execution strategy, including defining use cases, establishing guardrails, and managing communications. “We probably spent more time on the execution strategy…than we did on the development,” he said.
The broader objective is to position AI and analytics as enhancements rather than replacements. Roe described these tools as “amplifiers” of employee capability, designed to support better decisions rather than automate them entirely.
Aon has also embedded execution planning into the earliest stages of development. Business cases now include detailed plans for ownership, distribution, and success of metrics before building begins. This marks a shift from traditional approaches where deployment considerations followed development.
Roe linked this discipline to Aon’s “Aon United” strategy, which emphasizes cross-functional collaboration. By involving stakeholders from legal, risk, and operations early in the process, the firm reduces friction later and improves scalability. The result, he said, is a more coordinated approach to innovation that avoids siloed execution.
Roe framed the transformation as a long-term effort to align technology with business outcomes. “It doesn’t matter what we build if we don’t have a strategy for how it provides value,” he said.
