By Maria Ward-Brennan

Copyright cityam

If AXA UK&I was listed on the London Stock Exchange in its own right, it would be part of the FTSE 100, its chief executive Tara Foley has said.

The AXA group is one of France’s best-known financial services firms, and its financials reflect this, having generated over €110bn (£95bn) in 2024. While back at home, the insurer, which launched into the market in 1998, trades as AXA UK and Ireland.

Speaking to City AM, Foley said: “We’re part of the AXA family, but we very much have our own personality, and I think there’s the right degree of independence.

“Yet it’s like a shareholder, we are answerable, but we set our own strategic direction, as long as we hit the milestones that we need to hit.”

With a background in banking, notably at Deutsche Bank and Lloyds Banking Group, Foley sought a new challenge, moving from her banking world to AXA in 2020 to become the CEO of its retail business.

She said she found the transitions, overall, to be not that difficult. “I think obviously there’s lots to learn. There are many differences, but there are also a lot of similarities,” she added.

She was promoted to lead the overall UK and Ireland group in September 2023, where her primary responsibility is to oversee the group’s three-year strategic plan.

The current strategy is in its second year of a three-year plan, with its primary focus on growth, technology, and courage.

“Our objective is to be at least a £7bn gross written premium (GWP) company, ” Foley pledged.

However, she stated that it is “not just about growing top line” but about ensuring the growth is relevant to customers, so that the insurer is in the right sectors with the right products.

“We want to grow our customer base in the businesses within. We want to look at where there are opportunities to grow and whether that growth is via acquisition or organic. We are open to both if it’s the right fit,” she added.

However, she pointed out that the insurer is not “on a shopping spree”, as she added, when an identified opportunity comes through, the firm “will pursue them”.

Back in February 2024, AXA Health acquired HBSUK, a provider of online outpatient services designed by specialists, “that gave us the opportunity to really turbocharge what we call digital pathways” for health, says Foley.

Health insurance is vital

The group oversees car, home, health and business insurance. Its health insurance is seen as a “critical differentiator” at AXA UK&I as issues in the public in the UK market have made it vital for future growth.

In terms of the ageing population in Western societies, Foley noted that “the models that are in place now are not sustainable.”

She pointed out that in the UK, specifically, health insurance is vital because the workforce is becoming more prone to sickness following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UK workforce faced a record level of long-term sickness, with 2.8m people affected, a significant increase since the pandemic in 2020.

“It’s shocking. It’s so stark, and it’s really affecting productivity. This government’s objective is around growth productivity, but you need an active workforce, and we have a workforce where at least a third of them have some kind of long-term health issue, and usually the most common forms of that are musculoskeletal or mental health,” the insurer boss stated.

She added, “And what do we know about those two? The quicker you get treatment, and the quicker you get seen, diagnosed, and treated, the more likely you are to recover and re-enter the workforce or maybe not leave it at all in the first place.”

However, compared to Ireland, which has a well-established private health market, AXA sees the health dynamic completely different in the UK.

She explained: “It’s a very different competitive environment, because you essentially have a government-funded player in VHI.

“With Laya, who will be trying to behave in a very commercial fashion, it’s a different set of challenges that the Laya business will have than the UK health business will have.”

“But both have challenges, and there are still some similarities,” she added.

Harnessing AI innovation

One of the other focuses of the insurer’s strategy is on technology.

However, she pointed out that “we have to be really careful with technology.” She stated that it’s an enabler but not the end of everything.

She noted that lots of businesses are like “let’s get all this sexy technology, put it in, and then we’ll figure out what to do with it.”

But she added: “I think it’s really important to be very current, to be experimenting with it.” As she explained, the insurance market has been utilising AI for years, and the sector is well-versed in its application.

One example of AI being used by the insurer is summarisation, which is utilised by all its agents. Previously, for regulatory reasons, when you had a call, it needed to be documented.

Previously, that task was distracting because it consumed a significant amount of time. Now, AI does all of that.

Not only can you get voice-to-text, but you can also teach the AI to summarise in a way that includes the keywords you need.

It’s structured exactly as you need. And then you can file it for retrieval, should the customer call again, or if the agent needs to see the history of that particular case.

However, in the future, as the UK market faces challenges, Foley said she sees opportunities for growth and diversification.

The insurer’s next three-year strategic plan is expected to be defined by mid-2024, aligning with AXA’s group-wide plan.

She explained that her next strategy will strike a balance between growth and technical excellence to ensure sustainable and competitive pricing.

“There are so many different avenues to pursue for growth, and we’re looking at all of the ones that are of interest to us.”