Artificial Intelligence Star 'Iris' Propels Sun Life to CIO Award Victory
Sun Life Financial Wins CIO Awards Canada for Second Consecutive Year
Sun Life Financial, a leading global provider of insurance, wealth, and health solutions, has been honoured with the 2025 CIO Awards Canada for its internally developed GenAI-powered virtual agent, Iris. This marks the second consecutive year that Sun Life has received this prestigious recognition.
Iris, a GenAI tool, is designed to streamline advisor workflows, saving 15-30 minutes of administrative effort per meeting, enabling more time for client engagement. The AI system is integrated with Sun Life's systems and knowledge base, allowing it to handle common requests like password resets, software access, and ticket status updates.
Iris uses Generative AI and Agentic AI to increase employee productivity and streamline service desk operations. It provides instant, conversational responses, freeing service desk agents to focus on complex issues. Iris has demonstrated impressive results, reducing the average service desk resolution time by 83%, resolving over 80% of queries in under two minutes.
Sun Life's innovation strategy is rooted in safety and security, ensuring that emerging technologies like GenAI are implemented responsibly. The company plans to extend the lessons learned from Iris to its global contact centres, aiming to deliver faster, more personalized digital experiences for clients.
Iris has already proven its worth, having handled approximately 10,000 employee queries and completing over 9,000 password resets with an 82% success rate. Its implementation is projected to save 24,000 combined hours annually for employees and service desk agents.
Laura Money, Executive Vice-President, Chief Information and Technology Innovation Officer at Sun Life, stated that the CIO Awards Canada recognition is a testament to the power of responsible innovation. She emphasized that the company's digital transformation, which also includes the recently launched Advisor Notes Assistant, aims to enhance operational efficiency and deliver on Sun Life's purpose of helping clients achieve lifetime financial security and healthier lives.
While the plan to introduce Iris in Sun Life's global customer service centres is not yet publicly announced, it is clear that Sun Life is committed to leveraging technology to improve its services and create better experiences for its clients.
