What separates the carriers that are genuinely moving on AI from those still waiting for permission to start? In this episode, Equisoft's host, Olivier Lafontaine, speaks with Brian Poppe, Senior Vice President of Life Insurance Solutions at Mutual of Omaha, to explore how one of the industry's most established insurance companies is approaching AI-driven transformation. Brian emphasizes that the most meaningful gains come from rethinking and redesigning end-to-end workflows to eliminate inefficiencies at their source.

He also unpacks the structural differences between life insurance and property and casualty markets. Noting that life insurers must proceed more cautiously due to long-term pricing commitments and heightened regulatory exposure.

Across underwriting and customer service, Brian highlights one thing: AI will become increasingly embedded as a decision-support and automation layer, reshaping how insurers balance speed, risk accuracy, and human judgment, particularly in moments where empathy and trust remain critical. Key Takeaways:

• AI delivers the most value when insurers redesign end-to-end workflows instead of automating broken processes.
• Underwriting advantage comes from faster, better-integrated use of existing data rather than entirely new data sources.
• AI adoption must balance automation with regulation and preserve human judgment in sensitive, high-empathy moments.

Jump Into the Conversation:(00:00) Meet Brian Poppe(03:30) Leading life insurance solutions at Mutual of Omaha(04:37) Life insurance, health, annuities, and business unit overview(06:26) Brand power and the legacy of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom(08:14) Direct-to-consumer insurance and the pressure of public trust(10:06) Scaling simplified issue life insurance profitably(14:13) Data, process, and technology in modern underwriting(16:48) Will AI make underwriting decisions or just support them?(19:54) Human vs automated underwriting in practice(21:51) AI-powered call summarization in customer service(23:00) Virtual agents and automating routine customer inquiries(24:07) Why human empathy matters in claims experiences(26:02) Organizational adoption of AI and employee mindset shifts(26:56) Horizontal vs vertical AI implementation strategies(28:59) AI costs, token economics, and experimentation tradeoffs(32:25) Measuring AI value beyond tokens and lines of code(34:10) ROI in call centers and operational efficiency gains(36:27) Advice on AI adoption and process-first transformation(38:23) Closing thoughts and the future of AI in insurance

Resources:

• Connect with Brian Poppe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bpoppe/
• Learn more about Mutual of Omaha: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mutual-of-omaha/
• Connect with Olivier Lafontaine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierlafontaine/