In December, teams across Aflac Northern Ireland came together for an immersive Innovation Week — an energising opportunity to explore innovation at scale and harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve real business challenges.
With executive leaders joining us from Aflac headquarters in Columbus, GA, the week provided a powerful platform to showcase what’s possible when creativity, collaboration and emerging technology come together.
Why Innovation Week?
Innovation Week was designed with clear goals in mind:
Explore AI adoption to address real-world business challenges
Rapidly test the feasibility, viability and desirability of new ideas
Reduce time-to-value for high-impact use cases
Enable teams to learn, experiment and innovate with AI
Create a collaborative, engaging and enjoyable experience
The week kicked off with a Culture of Innovation session hosted by our partners, AWS Pictured David Carson; Senior Enterprise Account Manager, AWS, Jonny Bradley, Director of Innovation, Aflac NI & Peter Trimble, Head of Technology NI, AWS Rather than a technical deep dive, this session focused on how Amazon approaches innovation at scale — helping our teams think bigger and adopt an innovation-first mindset.
AWS shared best practices that have underpinned Amazon’s long-term approach to innovation, centred on one key principle: starting with the customer and working backwards. Their approach was explored through four interconnected elements that enable organisations to innovate quickly, consistently and at scale:
Culture – Building a highly distributable culture supported by strong mental models, high-quality decision-making and a “Day 1” mindset that encourages constant experimentation and iteration.
Mechanisms – Customer-centric processes that turn good intentions into action, democratise innovation, challenge assumptions and sharpen ideas.
Architecture – A journey towards microservices that enabled rapid growth, reduced dependencies and empowered builders with greater access to technology.
Organisation – Small, autonomous teams with clear ownership, the right resources, and a single-threaded focus on delivering end-to-end customer value.
At the end of the session, AWS used Generative AI to capture insights and produce artefacts, which were later shared as briefing documents with our visiting US stakeholders.
Measuring success
Innovation Week delivered strong outcomes, and we measured success across the following areas:
Participation: Over 100 colleagues engaged directly with Executive Leadership
Learning: Hands-on AI experience aligned to real business needs
Prototypes: More than 10 solutions mapped to strategic priorities
Business impact: At least two shortlisted solutions identified for scaling, with clear ROI potential
Speed: Working demos delivered in just three days
Key principles guided the week throughout:
Learn fast
Deliver value
Collaborate openly
Have fun!
From ideas to prototypes
More than 100 employees were divided into cross-functional innovation pods, bringing together a mix of technical and non-technical roles — often people who wouldn’t normally work together. Each pod was given a problem statement and encouraged to explore solutions using Generative AI and proven innovation methodologies.
The energy and enthusiasm were clear from the outset, with teams rapidly ideating, experimenting and building tangible solutions.
At the end of Day 2, each team pitched their proof of concept to a “Dragons’ Den”-style executive panel featuring our US visitors and members of Aflac NI leadership team. Following feedback and Q&A, teams refined their ideas on Day 3 before pitching again. From 19 proof-of-concepts, executives selected six finalists.
On Day 4, the shortlisted teams delivered their final presentations to both Executive Leadership and the wider organisation, before a winning solution was announced.
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A glimpse of what’s possible
Reflecting on the week, Mark McCormack, CTO of Aflac and MD of Aflac Northern Ireland shared:
“I was genuinely blown away by Innovation Week. The calibre of ideas, the energy in the room, and the way people challenged assumptions showed just how innovative this organisation really is. It was a great reminder of the capability we have when we give people the space to think differently and it gives me real confidence in what we can deliver going forward.”
Innovation Week at Aflac Northern Ireland was more than an event — it was a powerful demonstration of what can be achieved when people are empowered, technology is accessible, and innovation is part of the culture.
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