Global financial services leader Manulife has renewed and expanded its strategic multi-year partnership with Microsoft to accelerate enterprise-wide artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, operational governance, and agentic workflows.

As part of the five-year agreement, Manulife is adopting the Microsoft 365 E7 Frontier Suite, expanding Microsoft 365 Copilot access to more than 30,000 employees globally, and deploying Microsoft Agent 365 to monitor and secure its growing ecosystem of autonomous AI agents.

Key Highlights of the Manulife & Microsoft AI Expansion

• Enterprise-Scale AI Governance: Manulife becomes an early adopter of Microsoft Agent 365, creating a centralized control plane and registry to manage, observe, and secure autonomous AI agents.
• Mass Workforce Deployment: Expanding Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses to over 30,000 global employees to boost everyday operational efficiency.
• Financial Impact: Manulife targets $1 billion in enterprise value generation by 2027 through AI initiatives (having already realized $300 million as of year-end 2025).
• Developer Productivity Gains: Engineering teams leveraging GitHub Copilot report a 30% increase in developer productivity, enabling faster software design and deployment cycles.

Building a Governed, Secure Control Plane for Enterprise AI Agents

As financial institutions rapidly adopt autonomous agentic systems, governance remains a critical bottleneck. Manulife is integrating Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Foundry, and Microsoft Agent 365 into its unified global AI platform.

This foundation enables data scientists, developers, and non-technical teams to build, fine-tune, and deploy AI models autonomously while adhering strictly to Manulife’s Responsible AI Principles.

“Adopting the Microsoft Frontier Suite gives us the trusted foundation to advance AI across our global operations with confidence. It provides the scale, security, stability, and intelligence needed to embed AI responsibly across the franchise.”

— Shamus Weiland, Chief Technology & Operations Officer, Manulife

“Responsible innovation has to be built into how we operate—not treated as a separate layer of oversight. By strengthening how we govern and monitor AI across the enterprise, we move with greater speed and discipline while earning customer trust.”

— Jodie Wallis, Global Chief AI Officer, Manulife

How Manulife Uses Generative AI to Drive Financial Growth and Customer Service

Manulife has already integrated production-ready generative AI and agentic workflows across key markets in North America and Asia:

Use Case	AI Tool / Platform	Business & Customer Impact
Sales Enablement	Microsoft Foundry (Singapore & Global)	Delivers personalized data insights to financial advisors, improving targeted client engagement.
Underwriting Support	Quick Quote GenAI (John Hancock – US)	Streamlines the preliminary life insurance assessment process for prospective buyers.
Customer Experience	Azure Knowledge Tools (Global)	Enhances call center support for 110M+ annual calls with instant, source-backed answers and confidence scores.
Software Modernization	GitHub Copilot	Reduced rebuild time of Manulife’s mortgage renewal application down to just a few weeks.

Industry Recognition and Future Outlook

The expanded alliance solidifies Manulife’s standing as a benchmark for AI implementation in financial services. For two consecutive years, Manulife ranked as the #1 life insurance company in North America and Europe for AI maturity in the Evident AI Insurance Index.

“We are proud to be Manulife’s trusted partner in the agentic era, helping empower employees with Microsoft 365 Copilot and scale AI responsibly with the governance of Microsoft Agent 365.”

— Matt Milton, President, Microsoft Canada

For more details on Manulife’s ongoing digital transformation, visit AI @ Manulife.

Frequently Asked Questions (AI & Search Snippet Targets)

What is Microsoft Agent 365?

Microsoft Agent 365 is an enterprise-grade AI control plane and registry that allows organizations to observe, govern, and secure autonomous AI agents operating across their infrastructure.

How much value does Manulife expect to generate from AI?

Manulife projects over $1 billion in enterprise value by 2027 from its AI programs. This value is derived from realized run-rate expense reductions, top-line revenue growth from AI sales tools, fraud reduction, and operational capacity gains.

To learn more about Manulife’s AI progress, visit AI @ Manulife.