Take a sneak peek at AIA, NTU’s awesome collaborative innovation centre

EDGE LAB aims to find ways to make insurance more accessible.

AIA, in partnership with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), have launched a collaborative innovation centre called the EDGE LAB. It aims to raise the quality of living of individuals and families through insights-driven innovations to help them lead longer, healthier and have better lives.

The EDGE LAB is located at Singapore’s startup hub NTUitive, Ayer Rajah Crescent, which has often been described as the location with the world’s densest startup ecosystem. The team is also creating a workspace in the NTU campus to facilitate engagement with faculty and students.

The EDGE LAB is focused at finding ways to make insurance more accessible and better manage issues around rising healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes by leveraging technology, big data and analytics.

According to AIA Group chief operations officer of group technology operations, Simeon Preston, the EDGE LAB will explore how customer experience and engagement can be improved and find ways to make the insurance industry more relevant to changing technologies, customer expectations and needs in the digital world.

He adds that EDGE LAB will also support AIA’s business units and functions in advancing the company’s digital innovation drive by bringing together NTU’s expertise in Computer Engineering, Design, Business and Medicine with AIA’s commercial capabilities and expertise. Early themes for the lab to explore include customer experience and agent performance.

“Innovation will drive not only the success of AIA, but also the evolution of the life insurance industry. In doing so, we are committed to contributing to the growth of communities in Singapore and across the region. Working with top-ranked university NTU, AIA aims to raise the quality of living of individuals and families through insights-driven innovations to help them lead longer, healthier and better lives,” said Simeon.

Being big believers in the power of collaborative innovation, AIA and NTU’s approach is to put collaboration partners front and center. Simeon notes that they are confident that working together through the EDGE LAB will provide quality insights to guide AIA’s business decisions as they continue placing their customers at the heart of their business and align their customers’ health and financial needs with company’s solutions.

The collaboration between AIA and NTU

The initiative behind EDGE LAB was led by AIA Edge, the innovation group within AIA, and managed in NTU by NTUitive, NTU’s innovation and enterprise company, along with their School of Computer Engineering. The lab will be led by co-managing partners, Prashant Agarwal, director of Group Innovation and Viktor Cheng, NTUitive director of Information & Communications Technology.

According to Simeon, they have been fortunate in forging a strong partnership with NTU, with the EDGE LAB led by Professor Lam Khin Yong, NTU’s chief of staff and vice-president of Research at NTU. He said, they are embarking on a very exciting journey, and they hope the biggest obstacles to come will be around capacity, in deciding which insights to pursue.

“AIA will work to overcome the challenges ahead as we remain committed to making a positive difference to the lives of individuals and families across the region,” Simeon added.

Singapore Business Review seeks out for new innovation centres and R&D labaratories in Singapore. Send a message to Lee Anne at [email protected] for possible feature.