From digital transformation to generative AI: APRIL's innovation strategy for brokers

APRIL has been investing heavily in digital tools for several years. What role does technology play today in your strategy to support brokers?

At APRIL, we firmly believe that technology should above all be useful, simple and create direct value for our broker partners. Over the past few years, we have made significant investments in a robust technology platform designed to help brokers save time, streamline their sales processes and grow their business more efficiently.

This ambition is embodied in APRIL ON, our digital platform, which is designed to be much more than a traditional broker portal. Today, it brings together all the tools our partners need to manage and develop their business, including pricing, policy subscription, contract management, dashboards, automated quote follow-up and marketing automation.

Our objective is clear: to deliver an increasingly seamless and intuitive experience that combines the best of technology with the value of human support and expertise. This ability to simplify our partners’ day-to-day operations is what truly sets us apart.

In practical terms, how do these tools enhance the experience of APRIL’s broker partners?

We continuously focus on addressing a very concrete challenge for brokers: helping them become faster, more autonomous and more effective in their sales activities.

Through APRIL ON, our partners can manage their business in near real time, monitor quotes and policies, automate certain commercial actions and access ready-to-use marketing campaigns. For example, we have developed automated follow-up features that significantly improve quote conversion rates.

We are also investing heavily in the simplification of subscription journeys, with fully digital processes available across all our markets. This helps reduce processing times and makes the experience easier for both brokers and their clients.

This commitment to continuous improvement is essential. We regularly co-design our tools with broker partners to ensure they genuinely address their needs and reflect the realities of their day-to-day business.

APRIL is now deploying NOA across new business lines. What is the ambition behind this generative AI-powered assistant?

NOA represents a new milestone in our innovation journey and is already used by nearly 6,000 brokers.

With this virtual assistant powered by generative AI, our ambition is to make access to information even faster and easier for broker partners.

Through a simple conversational interface, NOA enables brokers to obtain reliable answers within seconds regarding products, coverage, underwriting requirements and insurable risks. Since its launch, tens of thousands of questions have been submitted through the platform. The volume of questions has doubled since the beginning of the year, demonstrating strong adoption among our broker community.

Following an initial rollout in Borrower Insurance and Health Insurance, we are now extending NOA to additional strategic business lines, including Construction Insurance, Professional Protection Insurance and Savings & Wealth Management. By the end of the year, NOA will support business lines representing 90% of the quotes generated by our brokers.

Our ambition is twofold: to save valuable time for our partners and enable them to focus more on advice, expertise and customer relationships. We are convinced that generative AI will play a major role in the evolution of the brokerage profession, provided it is designed as a practical, reliable tool that is fully integrated into the day-to-day workflows of insurance professionals.