Japanese insurer Meiji Yasuda taps Accenture for company-wide AI roll out

Meiji Yasuda, one of Japan’s oldest insurance companies, has selected Accenture to help support the design and delivery of a major company-wide AI program.

Under the multi-year agreement, which runs until March 2030, Accenture will help Meiji Yasuda augment its employees with digital technologies, including AI-enabled digital assistants, to help maximize employee productivity and innovation.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Meiji Yasuda was created in 2004 following the merger of Meiji Life and Yasuda Life. Today, the company has over 47,000 employees, and is particularly well-known among football fans – Meiji Life has been is the main sponsor of the J1 League since 2015.

Commenting on the company’s vision around AI, CEO Hideki Nagashima said: “To achieve our 10-year plan (known as ‘MY Mutual Way 2030’), we believe it is essential to effectively integrate people with digital technologies to drive digital transformation.”

The program’s scope

The program will see Accenture will use a range of technologies including generative AI and agentic AI to help Meiji Yasuda transition to a data-driven way of working. This will include the delivery of AI-enabled digital assistants, which will allow the insurance group deliver personalized insurance recommendations to customers.

AI-enabled digital assistants will also be rolled out to the benefit of employees. The first example has already been adopted: the ‘MY Palette’ agent, an AI-enabled digital assistant that instantly analyzes diverse data such as customer attributes, preferences, and local event information to advise Meiji Yasuda’s salespeople on optimal communication strategies. It also simplifies the input of information during customer visits, minimizing the workload for salespeople and improving service delivery and satisfaction.

MY Palette is currently being used by approximately 36,000 salespeople nationwide and will be extended to all Meiji Yasuda employees in the future.

Accenture will also help Meiji Yasuda implement an enterprise-wide training program to build digital and AI skills proficiency, including developing 300 future leaders who can drive these initiatives in the long term, supporting Meiji Yasuda's sustainable growth.

“Partnering with Accenture, which possesses unparalleled expertise in digital technology and business reinvention, including generative AI, we will focus on the company-wide implementation of advanced technologies and people development through practical talent cultivation,” noted Nagashima.

Atsushi Egawa, CEO of Accenture in Japan (he is also the Co-CEO for Asia Pacific), said the company is proud to be supporting Meiji Yasuda on its transformative journey. “Meiji Yasuda exemplifies the ideal model of a sustainable company in Japan, where innovation-driven improvement in labor productivity is urgently required amid declining birthrates and an aging population. We look forward to partnering with them on this journey.”