Admiral and Google Cloud partnership to place customers ‘at its heart’

Insurer Admiral has today (14 February 2024) announced that it has chosen Google Cloud as a strategic partner to help develop customer experiences in the UK.

Under the agreement terms, the insurer’s core insurance operations, policy administration and digital systems will be powered by Google Cloud – the technology giant’s suite of cloud services.

Admiral intends to use Google Cloud technologies to develop new digital products and services, such as improving its mobile app for customers, as well as accelerating its transformation strategy.

Currently, the insurer has 6,000 UK customers, with around 90% of its customer base transacting digitally. The other 10% transact via the phone or webchat, the insurer explained.

Prior to the new agreement, Admiral and Google have been working together since at least 2020.

Alan Patefield-Smith, Admiral’s chief information officer, told Insurance Times: “The best way to contextualise this is to work back from the customer.

”We spend a lot of time listening to our customers and the same two themes consistently come through – great pricing and great customer service.”

He explained that both pricing and customer service relied on “great data”.

“That’s really been the genesis of the partnership. We’ve been working together for the best part of four years now and this announcement embeds that for at least another five years,” he added.

The collaboration will enable Admiral to accelerate time-to-market for new products and services by deploying containerised cloud applications and adopting new software development practices.

The insurer will also continue to improve its operational efficiency using Google Cloud’s data analytics capabilities and better serve its customers with Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning services.

The partnership covers four core areas:

Evolving technology and customers

As the digital needs of customers are always evolving, Patefield-Smith said that insurers must keep pace, which is why data is key.

He explained: “We see data at the heart of not only being able to ever evolve our ability to deliver personalised pricing, but also a more personalised experience.”

This personalised experience must also be supplemented by ease of use, which is supported by a single platform.

He continued: “The best way to do that is to have a coherent and consistent way of doing that on a single platform with a great set of data.

“If we want to stay on the leading edge for our customers and staff, we have to be driving excellence across skills. For Admiral, at its heart, technology drives a business advantage.

“The reason the partnership works so well is Google is investing so heavily in the data and technology we need – it is an upscale technology provider and provides a leading edge.”