Manulife is expanding its use of artificial intelligence (AI) across its global operations after renewing and expanding its partnership with Microsoft, which aims to improve productivity, strengthen AI governance, and accelerate business innovation.
Under the five-year agreement, Manulife will extend Microsoft 365 Copilot to more than 30,000 employees and deploy Microsoft Agent 365, a platform designed to monitor, manage, and secure AI agents across the enterprise. The insurer also adopted Microsoft 365 E7 Frontier Suite as it continues its strategy of becoming an AI-powered organization.
“Our partnership with Microsoft is a critical enabler of Manulife’s continued evolution into a truly AI-powered organization,” said Shamus Weiland, chief technology and operations officer, Manulife. “Adopting the Microsoft Frontier Suite represents the next phase of that transformation, giving us the trusted foundation to advance AI across our global operations with confidence. It also provides the scale, security, stability and intelligence we need to accelerate innovation and embed AI responsibly across the franchise.”
The investment shows a trend in the financial services industry, where insurers and banks are adopting AI to automate repetitive tasks, improve customer service, speed up software development, and support business decision-making. As AI adoption grows, companies are also placing greater emphasis on governance to ensure the technology is used securely and responsibly.
Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Foundry will continue to support Manulife’s enterprise AI platform, allowing developers and data scientists to build and deploy AI applications while following company standards for quality, security, and cost efficiency. Microsoft Agent 365 will provide a centralized view of AI agents operating across the organization, helping improve oversight, compliance, and risk management.
Manulife said AI is already producing measurable business results. Its customer service solutions now support more than 110 million calls annually across North America and are expanding into Asia. The company has also introduced AI-powered tools for sales and underwriting, including a Sales Enablement platform now used in multiple markets and the Quick Quote underwriting support tool developed by John Hancock in the United States.
Developers using GitHub Copilot have increased productivity by 30%, enabling faster software development and allowing teams to focus on new digital services. One example is the rebuilding of Manulife’s mortgage renewal application in just a few weeks.
Manulife expects its AI investments to generate more than $1 billion in enterprise value by 2027, after achieving $300 million in value by the end of 2025 through productivity and operational improvements.
“Our longstanding partnership with Manulife has always been grounded in trust, innovation and a shared commitment to responsible transformation,” said Matt Milton, President, Microsoft Canada. “We are proud to be Manulife’s trusted partner in the agentic era, helping empower employees with Microsoft 365 Copilot and scale AI responsibly with the governance and security of Microsoft Agent 365. We look forward to continuing our work together as Manulife turns AI into practical value and better outcomes for customers around the world.”