AXA-SDA Bocconi – putting big data and AI at the service of customers

If it is true that data is to the economy of the 21st century what oil was to that of the 20th, it is also true that building the skills needed to transform the “raw material” into a strategic resource is becoming increasingly urgent. This is what AXA Italia insurance group is aiming for with their “Insurance Data Management” program, designed and delivered along with SDA Bocconi’s Custom Training, and now in its second edition. The company has a dual objective: translating business needs into the language of data and computer scientists, and understanding the full potential of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms for business. In a word, becoming a more proactive and consistent data-driven company.

The insurance industry is among those that can make the most of big data in strategic decision-making and operational efficiency improvement not only in terms of contract and claims management, the most obvious areas, but also in life insurance, which has an investment component, and wealth management in general. Artificial intelligence has great potential in the interaction with customers, in profiling and offering services that increasingly fit their needs; but it must be used with constant attention to ethical profiles and the protection of privacy.

All these elements underlie AXA Italia’s decision to invest in training on such topics. After last year’s first edition, created to accelerate the development of strategic-application skills in the management of corporate data assets, the insurance company is now launching this advanced course, which is part of their “Mastering Data for Insurance” upskilling program. The course is attended by 25 people from 11 different business areas so as to create “positive contamination” within the company and develop a “holistic” and across-the-board approach to the use of data. Spreading a “data culture” and the skills around it is a prerequisite for conceiving and developing increasingly customer-centered services and winning an ever greater competitive challenge.

The program has a duration of 150 hours and is split into 7 modules over a one-year period. Participants will become familiar with the syntax of Python, with machine learning, deep learning and data visualization tailored to the insurance field.

SDA Bocconi’s Custom Training has developed specific teaching tools for this program, including an advanced platform to download and consult learning materials, a “blended” mode to attend lessons, that is to say partly on campus and partly online (both synchronously and asynchronously), and a planning and scheduling flexibility that also enables executives to participate in some of the modules.

“AXA Italia is deeply committed to building the skills of the future by investing in people, and to equipping them with useful and immediately applicable skills for business and clients. This year we are doing so through new customer-centric content which is more and more tailored to our world,” said Simone Innocenti, AXA Italia Group’s HR, Organization & Change Management Director.

“We want to offer our customers the best user experience by leveraging technology and digital, focusing on new services and business models, going beyond insurance to meet their expectations and solve their problems. We have been working on the infrastructure and the investments in data culture and skills for 3 years now, reaching out to the whole organization,” said Anna Maria Ricco, Chief Transformation Officer of the AXA Italia Group.

“We are very happy to join in this important upskilling project by AXA regarding topics such as big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, that are now core to the educational programs of both Bocconi University and SDA Bocconi,” Program Director Gaia Rubera concluded. 



SDA Bocconi School of Management