Ping An Group – meaning peace and security – is a Chinese financial services conglomerate founded in 1988. From humble beginnings in Shenzhen as China’s first joint-stock insurance company, the company has diversified into asset management, finance and banking, and technology.
The company is known for integrating technology into its services, using big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain to improve customer experience and operational efficiency.
Today, it has 232 million customers and 500,000 employees and agents, meaning that one in 2,000 Chinese citizens works for Ping An.
On June 13, 2024, Forbes released its “Global 2000” ranking and ranked Ping An as the 29th largest company in the world, with total assets of RMB 11.58 trillion.
So how did this company go from an insurer, selling life, property and casualty insurance, to a tech giant with 11 tech subsidiaries operating beyond insurance and finance?
In simple terms: artificial intelligence.
Dr. Xiao Jing, Ping An’s chief scientist, however, said: “AI is used to assist humans in their work, not replace them, because human contact is just as important.”
Xiao was in Malaysia earlier this month and explained how the company pivoted into several other businesses after starting out in insurance.
“This is all due to big data and the emergence of artificial intelligence,” said Xiao, the keynote speaker at the “AI in Finance – Current Applications and Future Trends” event on September 12.
“With AI, we could digitize our traditional way of doing business, which would help us reduce costs and decrease the time it takes to serve a customer.
“We achieved this by integrating data, computing power and algorithms with professional knowledge and experience, and adding practical scenarios to achieve trustworthy AI.”
The company has also invested in training and hiring the best people and employs 30,000 IT engineers.
“We have invested in technological resources by hiring the best people to develop the solutions. As I said earlier, people are important to us,” he said.
“Finding the right people was the priority because we needed to improve the efficiency of our activities, whether in insurance, finance or technology.
“We wanted to find a way to improve the data, because when it’s already in the system, a person can avoid a lot of steps when filling out insurance forms or applying for a loan.”
Meanwhile, David Lim, CEO of Wise AI and the National Blockchain and AI Committee said Malaysia could learn from Ping An’s approach to AI.
“The bottom line is that AI is a tool. It’s not a business. Its purpose is to optimize the value of a strong business and help it grow,” Lim said.