Manulife
Manulife uses GenAI to draft personalised messages from its Canadian sales team to advisors
Manulife introduced a generative AI tool in its Canadian Individual Insurance business that drafts personalised messages from its internal sales team to advisors, using historical data. Manulife says interactions with advisors improved and that this contributed to an 11% year-over-year rise in the number of advisors placing business with it in the first quarter of 2025.
Key figures
Copied exactly from the sources. Copy any figure with its citation.
11%
Rise in the number of advisors placing business with Manulife in 1Q25 compared with 1Q24, to which Manulife says better wholesaler-advisor interactions contributed1
What it took
Cost, team size and timeline were not disclosed in the sources.
The problem
Manulife depends on advisors choosing to place business with it, and its internal sales team, which the filings call wholesalers, has to stay in useful contact with them. Writing personalised outreach for many advisors by hand takes time, and Manulife wanted that contact to be more relevant.
What they built
In its Canadian Individual Insurance business, Manulife introduced a generative AI tool for its internal sales team. The tool studies past data, finds openings, and drafts personalised messages for advisors. The filings do not name the model or vendor.
How they did it
The sources give no detail on build, team or cost. The first quarter 2025 report lists the tool among that quarter's highlights. The 2025 annual report repeats the description among its GenAI sales enablement examples and says the tool helps the sales team send messages that are timely and useful to the advisor.
Results
Manulife says wholesalers and advisors interacted better after the tool arrived. It says this helped lift the number of advisors placing business with it by 11% against the same quarter a year earlier, in the first quarter of 2025. The figure is the company's own and is not split out to the tool.
Lessons for your project
Aim the tool at a clear sales behaviour. Manulife's tool helps its sales team write timely messages to advisors, and the metric it cites is advisors placing business.
Feed the tool your own history. Manulife's tool draws on past data to spot openings for each advisor, rather than producing generic text.
Be careful with cause and effect. Manulife says the tool contributed to the rise, so track the metric against a baseline before you promise the same result.
Keep the sales team as the sender. Manulife presents the tool as support for its sales team's contact with advisors, not a replacement for it.
Caveats
- Manulife claims the improved interactions contributed to the 11% rise. The filing gives no controlled test, no other drivers and no figures on the tool itself, so the link is the company's view.
- The model, vendor, cost and team are not disclosed.
- The filings do not give a go-live date. The first quarter 2025 report lists the introduction among that quarter's highlights, so the deployed date is given as the year only.
Sources
- Manulife Financial Corporation First Quarter 2025 Report to Shareholders
Manulife (SEC Form 6-K) · 2025-05-07 · Filing · sec.gov
- Manulife 2025 Annual Report, Management's Discussion and Analysis
Manulife (SEC Form 40-F) · 2026-02-11 · Filing · sec.gov
Summarized in our own words from the sources above. Spotted an error? See corrections.