The Hartford centers agility with a startup mentality

Deepa Soni, the executive vice president and CIO at The Hartford, describes the company as a 213-year-old startup. Soni gave the keynote address at the DIGIN conference on June 5 in San Francisco. 

“Generative AI is a great example of technology that’s going to have an exponential impact on communities, societies and companies,” Soni said. “There are many more examples like blockchain and the metaverse. I think these are some of the technologies that have huge potential to create a future that’s going to be very different from the past.”

The Hartford, which developed an enterprise agility business model, is focused on customer experience.

“We strongly believe that data and AI will create a separation of digital haves and have-nots,” Soni said. “We have a very aggressive technology and data agenda over the next few years, which is all embedded in business habits at the end of the day. For companies like us, The Hartford, the sole purpose of the technology is driving the business outcomes.”

As part of that aggressive agenda, The Hartford will look to bring products to the market the fastest, Soni said. “That requires not just modern technology. But it also requires different ways of thinking, different mindsets, and different operating models to be able to bring capabilities to the end consumer faster.”

The company now operates within 35 customer-centric value streams. A move that had the company’s HR department leading the development and refinement of roles and responsibilities as well as job descriptions to better align with the new business processes. 

“To be a digital leader, we have to be strategists, great executors, collaborating across the company with speed,” Soni added. “We have to transform, modernize and innovate. All at the same time, while developing a great talent ecosystem, it is a multi-dimensional play.”

Soni joined The Hartford in September 2019. She previously worked for about 25 years in technology and business within the banking industry. She was educated in engineering and spent the first part of her career in software development. In July 2021, her role was expanded to lead technology across the company when Bill Bloom, head of claims, operations, technology, data and analytics retired. 

She says: “We’ve been working on simplifying and modernizing technology. That is the future for us in a lot of ways, as I think about our ability to broaden the spectrum of what we can offer our customers. … We have been taking a very contentious effort to modernize our technology, to move our applications and data assets to the cloud and leverage the power of the cloud.”