FWD Group has been named Digital Insurer of the Year Award at IIC Asia Award 2026, held on 25 March 2026 at Kowloon Shangri-La, Hong Kong. The accolade underscores the Group’s market leadership in advancing digital insurance through technology-driven innovation and customer-centric transformation across Asia.
FWD Group is a pan-Asian life and health insurance business that serves more than 40 million customers across 10 markets, including BRI Life in Indonesia. FWD’s customer-led and tech-enabled approach aims to deliver innovative propositions, easy-to-understand products and a simpler insurance experience.
Established in 2013, the company operates in some of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world with a vision of changing the way people feel about insurance. FWD Group is listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code 1828.
A customer-led direct-to-consumer digital platform
FWD’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) eCommerce channel plays a central role in delivering simple, fast, and intuitive insurance solutions for customers who prefer self-service. The channel offers typically smaller-ticket life, health, and accident insurance products, available 24/7 across desktop and mobile devices.
Designed with simplicity at its core, FWD’s DTC platforms feature streamlined user journeys and straight-through digital applications. Increasingly enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI), these platforms are built to reduce friction, improve clarity, and support higher online conversion — while maintaining a fully digital, end-to-end customer experience. In particular, FWD’s business units in Thailand have demonstrated the potential of a modern, customer-centric digital insurance channel, delivering outstanding performance and setting a new standard for digital insurance distribution in the industry.
Winning attention in the AI-powered search era
As consumer behaviour shifts towards AI-powered search through platforms such as Google AI Overview, ChatGPT and Copilot, FWD has adapted its customer acquisition strategy to keep pace with this change. In Thailand, FWD has achieved first-page visibility on Google for key insurance-related search terms and secured visibility in Google AI Overview. This has enabled FWD to reach more customers with strong purchase intent from the early stages of their insurance consideration journey.
High-quality content and blogs that are customer-led perform well in AI-powered search results and have become an important driver in generating organic website traffic, as well as effectively helping generate non-paid sales conversions. As of December 31, 2025, FWD Thailand’s blogs had a 35% share of visibility in Google AI Overview, underscoring the importance of AI-powered search systems in influencing the success of online insurance channels (DTC).
AI-driven performance marketing for smarter growth
Beyond organic discovery, FWD has adopted AI-powered performance marketing to move beyond traditional keyword bidding and towards more accurate, predictive customer targeting based on customer needs.
In 2025, FWD Thailand adopted Google AI Max for Search, using AI to expand keyword reach, automatically optimise advertising creatives and intelligently select the most relevant landing pages. This approach reflects FWD’s belief that modern search is no longer just about keywords, but about understanding conversational intent and delivering highly relevant experiences.
The results were tangible. In Thailand, AI-driven search campaigns delivered an uplift in quote generation during the peak tax-saving period from November to December 2025, demonstrating how AI can drive both efficiency and quality traffic at scale.
Personalised digital journeys that build confidence
In a fully digital environment, every on-page interaction plays a critical role in shaping customer confidence. FWD has invested in personalised nudges and social proof to guide customers through the quote-and-buy journey with greater clarity and reassurance.
For more complex health insurance products in Thailand, personalised social proof helped customers navigate choices and reduce decision fatigue, resulting in a 155% increase in recommended outpatient plan selection.
FWD has also piloted Emotions AI, an advanced personalisation approach that predicts users’ emotional needs and addresses unmet motivations. These experiments delivered higher completion rates across key journey steps, reinforcing the value of emotionally intelligent digital experiences.
Conversational AI and seamless recovery journeys
To further reduce friction, FWD has introduced AI-powered conversational tools at critical moments of the customer journey. In Thailand, an AI digital sales assistant chatbot provides real-time, human-like guidance to help customers understand benefits, compare plans, and resolve questions, driving stronger engagement and higher quote generation.
Industry recognition and market leadership
FWD’s digital leadership has been recognised through multiple industry awards in 2025. In Thailand, FWD’s e-Save endowment plan has been the number one best-selling online savings insurance product for six consecutive years from FY 2019 to 2024 (measured by digital-channel premium receipts from January to December 2019–2024, based on the Thai Life Assurance Association’s life insurance premium reports by channel, new format, for December 2019–2024). The achievement reflects sustained customer trust and excellence in digital business operations.
Raising the bar for digital insurance
Through customer-led design, AI-powered execution, and a relentless focus on simplicity, FWD Group continues to raise the bar for digital insurance in Asia. Its DTC success in Thailand demonstrates how innovation, when grounded in real customer needs, can deliver meaningful growth and lasting industry impact.
