Toronto-based Manulife, a leading life insurance and financial services provider, has partnered with Akka, a provider of enterprise-scale software solutions, to strengthen its enterprise agentic AI platform.
The partnership will improve the platform’s security, reliability, and performance as Manulife embeds AI into critical workflows and expands adoption across the organisation.
Now in beta testing, the solution provides a secure, integrated foundation for building and deploying AI agents – intelligent systems that understand tasks, help make decisions, and take action to support customers and colleagues.
The offering is designed to streamline development, reduce operational costs, and enable high-volume, business-critical AI solutions, while embedding strong governance, safeguards, and Responsible AI practices.
Jodie Wallis, Global Chief AI Officer, Manulife, said, “Our insurance and investment businesses are built on trust, and that same principle guides our approach to AI. As we explore technologies that can help us scale reliable, compliant and resilient AI systems, solutions like Akka illustrate how enterprises can build and operate agentic systems with the speed, predictability, and governance required in highly regulated environments. Their focus on orchestration, safety, operational SLAs, and system reliability reflects exactly the kind of rigor that supports responsible AI and consistent customer value.”
Tyler Jewell, CEO of Akka, added, “Partnering with a leader like Manulife is an honour for us, and it’s a testament to our 15 years of enterprise scale and regulated industry experience. The Manulife team demonstrates the rare understanding of what it really takes to deliver agentic AI on a global scale. Without consistent engineering practices that address a complex and continually changing set of environment factors, AI systems, which are inherently random, will not be trusted to deliver business outcomes.”
The collaboration reinforces Manulife’s commitment to Responsible AI and sustainability, as outlined in its publicly available Responsible AI Principles. Through Akka’s solution, Manulife will:
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Prioritise customer, colleague, and organisational safety through sound delivery and governance processes.
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Design energy-efficient AI solutions requiring less infrastructure to run and maintain.
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Build AI solutions that are explainable and reliable, while maintaining human accountability for decision-making.
Shamus Weiland, Global Chief Information Officer, Manulife, said, “Manulife is embedding AI across nearly every part of our business while equipping our colleagues with the capabilities to design, operate, and scale solutions. Akka provides a secure, scalable software foundation to support high volumes of business applications to accelerate meaningful value creation across our franchise. This partnership is rooted in our Responsible AI Principles, with a strong focus on governance, human oversight, and safety, as we advance toward becoming an AI-powered organisation.”
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