Financial institutions advance AI governance and implementation

Financial institutions are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence into their core operations while focusing on governance and employee literacy.

Masashi Ikutame of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company emphasizes that AI governance should not merely be about following rules or “putting things in boxes.” Instead, executives must view governance as a way to design the impact of AI on society, balancing the benefits of the technology with appropriate controls for risks such as hallucinations, drift, and bias.

Manulife Life Insurance Japan is pursuing an “AI for All” strategy, aiming to equip all employees with AI knowledge. The company has been working with machine learning for a decade and has recently implemented generative AI within its sales processes using Microsoft Azure and OpenAI models. To mitigate risks like hallucinations, Manulife utilizes a system where the AI displays a confidence level; if the confidence is low, the task is automatically escalated to a human expert. The company also focuses on maintaining updated databases for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to ensure accuracy.