(Mutual of Omaha headquarters. Source: Mutual of Omaha.)
Brian Poppe’s 15-year journey at Mutual of Omaha (Omaha, Neb.) is a study in breadth. Since joining the company in 2009 from Lincoln Financial Group, he has worked across product development, risk management, business leadership, IT, and data strategy. Today, as head of the Income and Wealth Planning business unit, he oversees all individually sold annuities, most life insurance products and most individually sold health products—excluding Medicare supplement, which sits elsewhere in the company.
It’s the kind of career arc that gives a leader a panoramic view of how a mutual carrier works, from pricing a long-term care policy to modernizing core systems. “I haven’t been quite everywhere at Mutual of Omaha,” Poppe says, “but I’ve covered a lot of the bases.”
Shaping the Next Phase of Innovation
That breadth matters because insurance innovation is no longer an isolated function. In Poppe’s view, it’s intertwined with product strategy, technology, distribution, and customer experience. And right now, it’s impossible to talk about innovation without talking about artificial intelligence.
Brian Poppe, SVP, Income and Wealth Planning Solutions, Mutual of Omaha.
Poppe frames AI adoption in four stages, drawing a parallel to how businesses adopted the internet. Phase one is basic awareness—like logging onto AOL or Yahoo in the early days. Phase two is using the technology to help do your job, the equivalent of printing out MapQuest directions. Phase three is designing processes around the technology, as with real-time GPS navigation. Phase four, still fuzzy, is when processes built around AI connect with other AI-driven processes—like a car’s display integrating with your phone’s mapping app.
Mutual of Omaha is operating in phases two and three, with foundational work in phase one. “The tricky part is designing cross-functional processes as if AI exists,” Poppe says. “That takes a lot of work, and you need to unlock data that’s been locked away in single systems so AI can process information like a human does.”
For now, all AI use at Mutual of Omaha is internal-facing and keeps a human in the loop for decision-making. Microsoft Copilot is being rolled out across the enterprise, and some employees have access to more advanced features that convert Excel data to PowerPoint decks, draft Word documents, and summarize meetings. Developers are using AI coding tools that can cut multi-week tasks to days. The company is also piloting an AI-powered internal knowledge base that lets sales support staff quickly retrieve accurate policy details for distribution partners.
Poppe acknowledges that external-facing AI is coming—eventually. “At some point there will be enough consumer demand and familiarity that you’ll be expected to create some sort of external-facing experience that includes AI,” he says. But regulatory compliance and reliability come first.
The Enduring Challenge of Data
One of the most persistent challenges in insurance technology–an in Poppe’s own career—is the challenge of siloed systems and data. “It’s the same problem,” he says. “As customer requests become more complex, it becomes harder to pull from those legacy systems into a unified tool.” Mutual of Omaha is committed to tackling that bottleneck. “It’s the thing restricting us from building the types of experiences our customers demand—and we expect them to demand—as we get to phase three and phase four of AI adoption.”
Some of that work can start before all the data connections are in place. Poppe likens it to getting a flywheel moving: give employees or customers a taste of the new experience, let them ask for more, and use that momentum to justify and guide further integration.
Product Strategy: Simplicity and Transparency
If AI is reshaping processes, Mutual of Omaha’s product philosophy is firmly rooted in clarity. “Customers appreciate simplicity,” Poppe says. “They appreciate when things work the way they expect them to work.” That applies to both the buying experience and the product mechanics—whether it’s a life policy, an annuity or a health product.
Poppe is wary of financial complexity that serves mainly to increase margin. “Our stance is to do the right thing for the customer and you’ll hit the profit margins you’re after,” he says. Being a mutual company, owned by policyholders, supports that long-term view.
He sees transparency as the natural partner to simplicity, sharing that Mutual of Omaha is exploring ways to make customer communications more digestible, including summarizing legal policy documents in plain language that customers can share with family members.
Toward Greater Personalization
Looking ahead, Poppe expects the industry to offer more personalization without losing simplicity. Today, term life policies typically come in fixed durations of 10, 20 or 30 years, with coverage amounts rounded to the nearest $50,000. Poppe envisions more flexibility—products tailored to pay off a mortgage with a specific remaining term, to cover college costs that decline over time, or to provide retirement income for a surviving spouse.
“You can get closer to precise if that’s the goal,” he says. “And you can do it in a way that’s just as easy as today.” He sees AI and planning tools, used by advisors and customers alike, playing a role in building these personalized solutions.
Digital Transformation for Associates
Digital transformation at Mutual of Omaha is as much about associates as customers. AI tools are improving the internal environment, from speeding up development cycles to equipping support teams with instant policy information. The goal is to remove friction for the people serving customers and distribution partners.
“It’s absurd to expect the most efficient and satisfactory customer experience if you don’t have the most efficient and satisfactory tools in the hands of the people who are serving them,” Poppe says.
AI as the New Baseline
Poppe believes AI will soon be as fundamental to business as the internet. “If you ask a company now, ‘What’s your internet strategy?’ they’d look at you like you’re crazy,” he says. “It’s going to be the same thing with AI.” In his mind, there will soon be no excuse for poor customer service—once data challenges are overcome—because the tools to deliver speed, accuracy, and personalization will be too good to ignore.
For a leader who has worked across so many parts of the organization, that’s both a challenge and an opportunity. Poppe’s remit now includes building the products, processes, and infrastructure that will make those tools work—not just for Mutual of Omaha’s customers, but for the employees serving them.
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