Manulife upgrades AI underwriting engine MAUDE to accelerate life insurance decisions

Manulife's life insurance application process created friction for advisors and slowed access to coverage for clients. The existing e-application workflow involved excessive medical questions and lacked adaptive questioning, making the process cumbersome and time-consuming for both advisors and applicants.

Manulife revamped its electronic life insurance application and upgraded MAUDE (Manulife Automated Underwriting Decision Engine), originally launched in 2018 as AIDA. The new e-application features fewer medical questions, adaptive questioning, drop-down menus for common topics, and flexibility for paramedical cases, all governed by Responsible AI Principles emphasizing fairness, transparency, and human oversight.

The upgraded MAUDE engine can handle a larger share of new business automatically, reducing friction in the advisor journey and accelerating access to coverage for Canadians. Manulife was named the number one life insurer for AI maturity in the inaugural Evident AI Index for Insurance. The company expects AI to generate more than US$1 billion in enterprise value by 2027, with roughly one-fifth from improved efficiency.

• Iterating an AI engine over years (AIDA → MAUDE, 2018–2026) enables progressively greater automation of underwriting decisions.
• Embedding Responsible AI Principles directly into underwriting AI builds advisor and client trust in sensitive risk-selection decisions.
• Simplifying the application form (fewer questions, adaptive flow) compounds the efficiency gains from AI automation.