NTU and AIA establish Edge Lab to innovate life insurance

AIA Group (AIA) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have launched an innovation centre, aimed to help consumers in Singapore, and the Asia Pacific region, to get the insurance cover they need to lead longer, healthier and better lives.

Called the Edge Lab, it brings together start ups, government agencies, university experts and private sector collaborators to drive innovation in the life insurance sector.

A key focus of the lab is to find ways to make insurance more accessible and to better manage issues around rising healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes by leveraging technology, big data and analytics.

The centre will combine commercial expertise and market access from AIA, with NTU’s expertise in areas such as computer engineering, design, business and medicine.

The lab will be co-led by NTUitive director of ICT, Viktor Cheng, and AIA director of group innovation, Prashant Argawal as co-managing partners. NTUitive is NTU’s innovation and enterprise company.

The launch was officiated by Minister of State for Manpower Teo Ser Luck, AIA Group CEO and president Mark Tucker, and chief of staff and VP of research at NTU, Professor Lam Khin Yong.

Minister Teo said the collaboration is expected to boost Singapore’s ambitions to be a leading health and fintech hub across Asia.

He added: "It will create quality and diverse job opportunities for our people, help transform traditional businesses with innovation thinking, and play a part in building up capability for future workforce."

Creating diverse job opportunities, one of the objectives highlighted by the Minister Teo.

"Tapping on the resources provided by the Edge Lab, entrepreneurs can start their own innovation-driven processes to implement internal ideas otherwise unexplored; or to access to external ideas and unleash their hidden innovation potential," he explained.

"This can eventually translate into more job opportunities, better job and career prospects for Singaporeans."

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Digital health is an area AIA specialises in, having launched the AIA Accelerator in Hong Kong since late 2014.

Patrick Teow, CEO of AIA Singapore, commented: "We believe that innovation will drive not only the success of AIA Singapore, but also the life insurance industry and Singapore’s economy.

"Our hope, working with one of Singapore’s leading universities, is to contribute towards increasing the quality of living amongst families in Singapore through smart innovations and AIA Singapore will continue to invest in initiatives to protect and ensure the well-being of our community."

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