How does Allianz Trade use gen AI?
Our AI journey began over a decade ago, with AI tools to support risk grading, credit underwriting and fraud detection, and accelerated thanks to the advent of large language models (LLMs) around 2022. Today Generative AI supports a growing number of solutions across our core business and internal operations. These are mostly focused on our core products, such as trade credit insurance (TCI), but also on internal processes and tools to automate time-consuming tasks. However, harnessing AI isn't about being able to roll out a shiny, new tool. We’re focused on whether and how we can scale it in 50 countries and across workstreams, and whether people will be able to use it. In other words, is the tool useful in our colleagues’ day-to-day work?
We use gen AI to help our analysts and underwriters make better‑informed decisions, streamline document‑heavy processes, and speed up routine research. This tool sorts through the wealth of data we have on companies around the world, and compiles it into decision-oriented briefing documents for our credit analysts. Another key application is extracting and sorting information with optical character recognition (OCR) in multiple languages to support our global processes. For everyday tasks like summarizing, drafting, or exploring publicly available information, we use secure, internal chat assistants designed to protect our data.
A key step forward will be moving from prompting AI to get an answer, to asking it to call tools, retrieve knowledge and take certain actions, with human oversight. We’ve started working with agentic AI internally, and are looking at applications for more complex tasks. Still, adoption among employees remains central to our approach. AI clearly holds many benefits not just for our employees, but also for our clients. With the numerous applications for AI in our business, it’s crucial that all our teams have the opportunity to learn how to use it to their advantage.
Building AI literacy throughout the organization
We launched our Gen AI Ready campaign at the end of 2025 to give our teams the skills, guardrails and tools to use AI effectively and responsibly in their daily work. Because AI evolves so quickly, this is not about using conventional training methods to teach people to use specific tools. It’s is about giving them the confidence and competence to use AI tools relevant to their roles as they become available.
Gen AI Ready centers on hands-on workshops, with one and a half hour sessions for small groups available to everyone at Allianz Trade.
Attendees work directly with our data scientists exploring available tools and how they apply to their roles, whatever their level of experience. Participants can then create and share their own custom AI assistants through our Gen AI Lab, our internal marketplace where AI-forward teams can access AI knowledge and tools. The goal of the Gen AI Lab is both to make these tools available to everyone, but also to showcase what’s possible and inspire employees to use these tools and create their own.
This campaign builds on Allianz Trade’s broader innovation culture and our commitment to championing new ideas from the ground up. In recent years, we’ve held Data Science Days – small workshops worldwide teaching data literacy – and launched Sustainability Days for innovation around transformation. Our Shape It Up innovation contest also encourages bottom-up idea generation, and two winning concepts are now being implemented as AI-powered tools across our business.
The future of AI at Allianz Trade
AI is evolving at breakneck speed. Everybody wants to use it, and there’s no question that it will bring efficiencies and endless possibilities for further innovation. At Allianz Trade, we want to make sure our people can use the technology to benefit their careers and our business.
Our campaign makes AI useful, safe and scalable for everyone – through hands on learning and structured governance, and by ensuring there’s a clear path from idea to implementation.
