Suncorp says a $560 million “digital insurer” platform modernisation program and the use of artificial intelligence to improve operations will drive the next phase of its growth plans.

The platform modernisation funds will be mostly spent through to the end of fiscal 2027 as portfolios are migrated, the company said today at an investor briefing.

Group CEO Steve Johnston said the strategy aims to improve delivery of contemporary and affordable products to keep pace with evolving customer expectations.

“Modern, intelligent, cloud-based core systems that allow agility and innovation in product design will be the rule rather than the exception,” he said.

“Claims processes will become frictionless but with enhanced safety nets to manage complexity and vulnerability. Alongside this, process and operational efficiency will reduce the burden on pricing when input costs rise.”

Mr Johnston said the investment will allow Suncorp to better leverage its scale benefits, with the market featuring competition among established large-scale insurers using older technology and emerging smaller players with “greenfield” technology.

“If you’ve got scale and you’ve got modern systems, and you leverage that scale well, then you will be able to create the growth in the portfolio by being able to price better than your competitors.”

Chief information officer Adam Bennett said the company has simplified its systems, enhanced its digitalisation and automation, delivered an AI-enabled pricing engine and made a series of other changes in the past couple of years.

“Having completed a lot of this important foundational work, our platform modernisation agenda is now accelerating at pace,” he said.

Suncorp flagged at its annual results in August that, following the bank sale, it was well placed to look at additional innovative reinsurance arrangements.

CFO Jeremy Robson said today the company will “do a full market scan” of opportunities, with criteria including that any changes are sustainable and available for renewal.

“While we are absolutely mindful of the benefit of reduced volatility, it’s important that our reinsurance arrangements create long-term shareholder value,” he said. “They need to work and they need to make sense, and should this not be the case, we remain comfortable with our capability as an insurer of risk.”

The company is exploring opportunities and expects to update the market along with its fiscal 2026 program renewal, he said.

Mr Robson said reinsurance market pricing appears to be easing from recent peaks but will be influenced by events over the remainder of the year.

“The recent hurricanes we’ve seen in the US and flooding in Spain, while large and real human tragedies, are not expected to have a material impact on price,” he said.

Suncorp confirmed its full-year guidance for an underlying insurance trading ratio towards the top of a 10%-12% range and said the cost of strategic investments is included in its outlook.

Mr Robson said the company is also on track for gross written premium growth of “mid to high single digits”, with “a little bit more price” than might have been expected in personal injury, while rate has come off in some parts of the commercial portfolio.