By Adedapo Adesanya
Insurance group, Prudential Plc, has partnered with Google Cloud to enhance health and financial inclusion for communities across Africa and Asia. This will help to deepen health financing in the two continents.
Under this alliance, Prudential will leverage Google Cloud’s data analytics capabilities, secure and sustainable infrastructure, and the broader Google ecosystem to accelerate its digital transformation and enhance the user engagement of its health and wealth platform, Pulse.
For Google Cloud, this partnership presents an opportunity to collaborate with a leading insurance provider to make protection, health and savings solutions simpler and more accessible across Asia and Africa.
Pulse is part of Prudential’s multi-channel strategy to make healthcare more accessible and increase financial inclusion. The app provides users with access to services such as health risk assessment and online doctor consultation to help them better manage their health needs and digital wealth tools to make financial decisions simpler1. Pulse is available in 17 markets and 11 languages.
Mr Solmaz Altin, Managing Director, Strategic Business Group, Prudential, said: “Across our markets, people are living longer, but not necessarily healthier and better. Harnessing technology, we want to empower people to live well for longer by making it easier for them to take care of their health and plan for their financial futures.
“Through this strategic partnership, we will leverage new technology solutions to make the Pulse platform more intelligent and engaging to reach out to more people across Asia and Africa, particularly those who cannot easily access health and financial information and services.”
This announcement deepens the existing relationship between Prudential and Google that began in 2019. Prudential uses Google Maps in the Pulse application, and further projects with Google Health, Document AI, and Fitbit are being explored to enhance efficiency, functionality and user engagement.
Prudential expects to benefit from Google’s suite of data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools, such as Kubeflow, Looker, BigQuery and Vertex AI, to enhance customer interactions and to provide more personalised, accurate healthcare information and education to Pulse app users.
In the longer term, Prudential will look to adopt Google’s AI across a broader digital strategy to make accessing insurance simpler, drive greater efficiency, and increase agent productivity.
It is also looking to improve customer experience by digitising the entire claims process, making a submission, assessment, and approval more seamless and efficient.
On his part, Mr Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said, “At Google Cloud, we aim to help our enterprise customers use technology to deliver outstanding experiences for their customers.
“Prudential is our significant partner and a leading insurer that has been protecting lives for nearly 175 years globally. Our work together will make it easier for people to safeguard their health and protect their finances for the long term with digital tools that are accessible.”
Aduragbemi Omiyale