New York Life Insurance logo

New York Life Insurance Engineering

To provide financial security through innovative technology systems that deliver reliable and secure services for generations to come.

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To provide financial security through innovative technology systems that deliver reliable and secure services for generations to come.

Strengths

  • INFRASTRUCTURE: Robust legacy systems with 99.95% uptime
  • SECURITY: Industry-leading cybersecurity protocols and compliance
  • STABILITY: 175+ years of financial strength supporting tech investment
  • TALENT: Deep insurance domain expertise within engineering teams
  • CAPITAL: Strong financial position to fund digital transformation

Weaknesses

  • LEGACY: Technical debt from outdated mainframe infrastructure
  • AGILITY: Slow release cycles compared to insuretech competitors
  • INTEGRATION: Siloed systems creating customer experience friction
  • TALENT: Challenges attracting top engineering talent vs tech firms
  • MODERNIZATION: Incomplete cloud migration limiting scalability

Opportunities

  • CLOUD: Full migration to enhance flexibility and disaster recovery
  • MOBILE: Expand self-service capabilities for agents and customers
  • API: Create ecosystem through open banking/insurance initiatives
  • DATA: Leverage vast customer data for personalization at scale
  • AUTOMATION: Streamline underwriting with straight-through processing

Threats

  • COMPETITION: Insurtech startups with superior digital experiences
  • CYBERSECURITY: Increasing sophistication of cyber threats
  • REGULATIONS: Evolving compliance requirements for data protection
  • TALENT: Insurance technology talent shortage in competitive market
  • DISRUPTION: Non-traditional competitors entering insurance space

Key Priorities

  • MODERNIZATION: Accelerate cloud migration to reduce technical debt
  • DATA: Unify customer data platforms to enable personalization
  • EXPERIENCE: Build seamless digital journeys across touchpoints
  • SECURITY: Enhance cybersecurity posture against evolving threats
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To provide financial security through innovative technology systems that deliver reliable and secure services for generations to come.

CLOUD FIRST

Accelerate our cloud transformation to enable agility

  • MIGRATION: Complete cloud migration for 70% of applications by Q4, reducing infrastructure costs by 15%
  • RELIABILITY: Achieve 99.98% uptime for all cloud-hosted services with auto-scaling implementation
  • DEVOPS: Deploy CI/CD pipelines across 80% of development teams, reducing release cycle to 2 weeks
  • TRAINING: Certify 90% of engineering staff on cloud technologies through dedicated learning paths
DATA UNIFICATION

Create a single view of customer across all platforms

  • PLATFORM: Implement enterprise data platform with 99.9% data quality score across all sources
  • INTEGRATION: Connect 100% of customer-facing systems to unified data layer via standardized APIs
  • GOVERNANCE: Deploy automated data governance tools reducing compliance issues by 70%
  • ANALYTICS: Enable self-service analytics for 500+ business users with proper security controls
DIGITAL EXPERIENCE

Deliver seamless omni-channel customer journeys

  • MOBILE: Increase mobile app engagement by 40% through enhanced self-service capabilities
  • PERSONALIZATION: Implement AI-powered recommendations increasing cross-sell rates by 25%
  • AUTOMATION: Reduce customer service call volume by 30% through digital self-service options
  • SATISFACTION: Achieve digital experience NPS of 60+ across all digital touchpoints
SECURE FOUNDATION

Strengthen our cybersecurity posture against threats

  • ASSESSMENT: Complete quarterly vulnerability assessments with 100% critical remediation
  • AUTHENTICATION: Implement multi-factor authentication for all systems with 95% adoption
  • MONITORING: Deploy advanced threat detection reducing mean time to detect incidents to <2 hours
  • EDUCATION: Train 100% of technology staff on security protocols with 90% certification rate
METRICS
  • AVAILABILITY: System uptime 99.98%
  • DEPLOYMENT: Release cycle time reduction to 2 weeks
  • SECURITY: Zero critical security incidents
VALUES
  • Integrity and humanity in all interactions
  • Financial strength and stability through technology excellence
  • Focus on long-term value over short-term gains
  • Customer-centric innovation
  • Security and reliability in all digital systems
New York Life Insurance logo
Align the learnings

New York Life Insurance Engineering Retrospective

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To provide financial security through innovative technology systems that deliver reliable and secure services for generations to come.

What Went Well

  • STABILITY: Core systems maintained 99.95% uptime exceeding targets
  • SECURITY: Zero major security breaches despite increased threat activity
  • MOBILE: Agent mobile app adoption increased 32% year-over-year growth
  • CLOUD: Successfully migrated 40% of applications to cloud environments

Not So Well

  • INTEGRATION: API gateway implementation delayed by 3 months vs. plan
  • AGILITY: Average software release cycle remained at 6 weeks vs 4 target
  • TALENT: Engineering vacancy rate increased to 14% from 9% last year
  • TECHNICAL DEBT: Legacy system modernization behind schedule by 20%

Learnings

  • METHODOLOGY: Hybrid agile approach needed for regulatory compliance
  • ARCHITECTURE: Microservices adoption requires cultural transformation
  • PARTNERSHIP: Vendor management critical for successful implementation
  • TRAINING: Investment in upskilling current staff shows positive ROI

Action Items

  • TALENT: Launch engineering excellence program to attract top engineers
  • DEVOPS: Implement CI/CD pipelines to reduce release cycles to 2 weeks
  • ARCHITECTURE: Accelerate API-first strategy to enable business agility
  • CLOUD: Create roadmap for remaining 60% applications' cloud migration
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To provide financial security through innovative technology systems that deliver reliable and secure services for generations to come.

Strengths

  • DATA: Extensive historical customer data to train AI models
  • EXPERIENCE: Early adoption of AI in certain customer service areas
  • INVESTMENT: Dedicated AI research team with executive support
  • INFRASTRUCTURE: Established data lakes supporting AI initiatives
  • GOVERNANCE: Strong risk management framework for AI deployment

Weaknesses

  • INTEGRATION: Fragmented AI initiatives across business units
  • QUALITY: Data inconsistencies limiting AI model effectiveness
  • TALENT: Limited specialized AI/ML engineering expertise in-house
  • ADOPTION: Organizational resistance to AI-driven workflows
  • ETHICS: Incomplete framework for responsible AI development

Opportunities

  • UNDERWRITING: AI-powered risk assessment for faster approvals
  • SERVICE: Intelligent virtual assistants to enhance customer support
  • PERSONALIZATION: Tailored product recommendations via AI
  • FRAUD: Advanced anomaly detection to prevent fraudulent claims
  • EFFICIENCY: Process automation through intelligent workflows

Threats

  • COMPETITION: Insurtech firms with native AI capabilities gaining share
  • REGULATION: Evolving compliance requirements for AI transparency
  • TRUST: Customer skepticism about AI decision-making in insurance
  • BIAS: Risk of inherent biases in AI models affecting fairness
  • PRIVACY: Increasing scrutiny of AI data usage practices

Key Priorities

  • TALENT: Build specialized AI engineering team through hiring/training
  • PLATFORM: Develop unified AI/ML platform for cross-company use
  • GOVERNANCE: Establish comprehensive responsible AI framework
  • EXPERIENCE: Deploy AI chatbots to enhance customer service