The Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers, active in almost 70 countries and serving around 97 million private and corporate customers*. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 764 billion euros** on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage about 2.0 trillion euros** of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we are among the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2025, over 156,000 employees achieved total business volume of 186.9 billion euros and an operating profit of 17.4 billion euros for the Group.
When the storm clears, so should the claim queue
At a glance:
- Revolution in Claims Processing: Allianz’s Project Nemo uses agentic AI to automate simple claims, reducing processing times from days to hours while maintaining human oversight.
- Seven Specialized AI Agents: The system employs seven task-specific AI agents to handle everything from coverage checks to fraud detection, with a human making the final payout decision—ensuring both efficiency and trust.
- Human-in-the-Loop Principle: Automation accelerates routine steps, but experienced professionals always review and confirm outcomes, keeping fairness and empathy central to every decision.
- Blueprint for the Future: Launched in under 100 days, Nemo’s scalable, modular approach sets the stage for broader AI adoption across Allianz, freeing staff to focus on complex cases and enhancing customer service.
Australians know that theirs is a rugged land where drought, fire and flooding rains can all strike—sometimes simultaneously—across parts of its vast interior. These natural catastrophes (NatCat) often result in tragedy, but they can also disrupt daily life in simple, frustrating ways.
One common example? Power outages caused by severe weather events leave homeowners returning to find their refrigerators full of spoiled food. These claims—with a threshold of $AUD500—are typically covered under standard home contents insurance.
While these losses may seem minor compared to structural damage or business interruption, they occur frequently and surge during NatCat events.
“From a customer’s perspective, it’s a simple claim,” says Thomas Baach, Managing Director, Core Insurance Platforms at Allianz Technology. “But it could take four days or more to process as the focus of the claims teams was on more complex claims happening during the NatCat event. Now we can improve the experience for all customers with project Nemo.”
Rethinking scale: from minor claims to major transformation
That has all changed thanks to Project Nemo, an agentic AI solution designed specifically to streamline food spoilage claims. Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems composed of specialized, task-oriented agents that can independently plan, decide, and collaborate to complete multi-step workflows rather than just answering prompts.
Launched in Australia in July 2025, Nemo uses AI agents to automate low-complexity, repetitive tasks, significantly reducing processing times. By focusing on speed, accuracy and customer satisfaction, Project Nemo demonstrates how agentic AI can transform how insurers respond to everyday losses—especially during times of crisis.
“With 'Project Nemo' as our first integrated agentic AI solution, we're achieving an impressive 80% reduction in claim processing and settlement time. This does not only boost productivity in our claims departments but also significantly enhances insurance customer satisfaction,” says Maria Janssen, Chief Transformation Officer at Allianz Services.
Nemo works like this
Let’s assume that a storm has caused a 20-hour power outage in Laura’s home in Adelaide—$AUD250 worth of food has gone bad. Laura files this claim online at Allianz.
Now the seven agents of Nemo come in: The planner agent starts the workflow, overseen by the cyber agent to ensure data security. The coverage agent verifies Laura’s coverage for food spoilage in severe weather events, and the weather agent confirms if there was a weather event that matches the claim. The fraud agent checks for signs of fraud. The payout agent determinates the payout amount and reports it to the planner.
Finally, the audit agent reviews the process, writes up the summary of all the AI agents’ decisions and passes it to a human agent to make the payment decision. Overall, this process takes less than five minutes from the minute Laura filed the claim until the final human review.
“We’ve seen a dramatic improvement in response times,” says Baach. “For food spoilage claims under AUD$500, processing time has been slashed from several days to one day—or even just hours. That makes a real difference for customers who have already been through the stress of a natural disaster. It is a splendid example of how agentic AI can deliver meaningful impact where it matters most.”
A new standard for trust in automation
As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of NatCats across Australia and other vulnerable regions, the insurance industry will have to handle larger claim volumes with greater speed and precision. Projects like Nemo help Allianz manage claims during high-stress periods efficiently, while ensuring that no claim—no matter how small—is left behind.
Customers get faster, more convenient service—and can be confident a human is involved in the decision. Allianz uses a human-in-the-loop approach: AI speeds up the routine steps, while experienced professionals review and confirm outcomes.
“Human-in-the-loop is a core principle across all our AI applications,” says Janssen. “With Project Nemo, AI agents support our teams by making recommendations, but the ultimate responsibility always rests with a claims professional. By design, payout decisions are never automated. This is not only sound governance—it is also a commitment to trust and to keeping fairness, empathy and human judgment at the heart of every decision.”
Setting the foundation for future innovation
What makes Project Nemo more than a solution for a specific, low-value claim is its scalability—and the broader shift it signals across the insurance industry. During major NatCat events, Allianz staff face overwhelming spikes in claim volumes. Nemo enables the automatic ‘back-office’ processing of thousands of simple claims.
“By automating the small stuff, you free up capacity to focus on the big stuff,” explains Baach. “That’s where the real value of agentic AI lies—not just in cost savings, but in enabling better service across the board.”
Nemo enhances the role of human agents. Claims processors can spend less time on routine checks and more time engaging with complex or emotionally sensitive cases. By putting technology in service of people—both customers and staff—Nemo strengthens the social contract at the heart of insurance: to be there when it matters.
A global first—delivered in 100 days
Janssen emphasizes that with the successful deployment of Nemo in Australia, Allianz has created a blueprint for broader applications. “This initiative not only demonstrates the power of hyper-automation but also sets the foundation for integrating AI across Allianz's operations—enhancing both efficiency and decision-making processes.”
Agentic AI is now being explored for other low-complexity, high-frequency use cases—such as travel delays, simple auto claims, or property damage assessments. The modular architecture of Nemo’s agents allows for adaptation across product lines, geographies and regulatory environments.
“Going live with Project Nemo in under 100 days is truly exceptional,” comments Janssen. “We scoped it intentionally to be focused but impactful and aligned all teams to deliver. It was the first agentic AI use case of its kind at Allianz—and a major achievement, both technically and organizationally, and a true testament to the power of collaboration, agile execution, and our ability to turn ideas into scalable impact.”
This was echoed by Brendan Dunne, Chief Customer & Operations Officer at Allianz Australia: “This innovation is the result of fantastic collaboration across the Allianz network—underscoring our global commitment to building smarter systems, not just better ones, and freeing up our teams to focus on delivering exceptional care to our customers.”
The long-term vision is clear: a global ecosystem of specialized AI agents working alongside human experts to deliver insurance that is faster, fairer, and more responsive—without sacrificing accuracy or trust.
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* Customer count reflects Allianz customers in consolidated entities that are part of the customer reporting scope only.
** As of December 31, 2025.