Allianz Direct

Allianz Direct needed to establish itself as Europe's leading digital direct insurer while competing on price and digital experience. The company required a scalable platform that could be deployed across multiple European markets while maintaining cost competitiveness and delivering a superior customer experience.

With McKinsey's support, Allianz Direct built a state-of-the-art digital platform scalable across all countries, featuring cross-functional agile squads and a plug-and-play software architecture. A flagship '60-second claim' feature was developed using AI-based loss assessment and image evaluation, allowing customers to submit claims by uploading photos and documents. A third of employees now work in technology or data roles.

Allianz Direct achieved 15% year-over-year revenue growth in selected countries and reduced costs by 30-50% through its scalable platform strategy. Customer satisfaction ratings exceeded 90% following the reimagined digital experience. The company successfully captured two key market segments—'smart shoppers' and 'price seekers'—across Europe.

• Stubborn commitment to outcome quality ('never waiver on what good looks like') and investment in top engineering talent were cited as the most critical success factors.
• A scalable, country-agnostic platform architecture enables rapid cross-market expansion while allowing teams to share learnings and reuse components.
• Embedding AI directly into customer-facing workflows (e.g., 60-second claims) drives both cost reduction and measurable satisfaction improvements.