Modernizing Legacy Systems with AI with Sheila Anderson of Aflac

CIO Classified

In this episode, Sheila Anderson, CIO at Aflac, discusses how the company is using AI to modernize while handling legacy systems. Sheila highlights key initiatives such as digital claims processing, establishing an AI center of excellence, and transforming internal operations. She also emphasizes the importance of aligning business goals, maintaining ethical AI practices, and developing the workforce as Aflac integrates new technologies.

About Shelia:

Shelia Anderson is an information technology executive with extensive Fortune 100 CIO, services, and consulting experience, particularly in Financial Services and Insurance. Partnering with C-level stakeholders, she drives business change and digitally enables organizations through multi-million dollar technology strategies, agile development, and support initiatives for applications and infrastructure. She is well-versed in a range of technologies, from legacy systems to cloud, AI, and LLMs, focusing on maturing organizations through cloud migration, agile transformation, and digital enablement. With a significant passion and proven results in mentoring and developing talent in STEM, supporting women in technology, and building exceptional teams, Shelia has demonstrated organizational leadership over 2000+ employees across multiple global locations and managed budgets exceeding $600 million.

Shelia has received multiple honors and recognitions for her leadership and contributions to the IT field, including the 2023 and 2024 Top 100 Women in FinTech, the 2021 Boston CIO of the Year SuperGlobal Orbie Award, the 2018 Elite Women in Insurance recognition, and the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award.

Guest Quote:

“[When it comes to AI] start with your business. Simple, really. Understand your business, your business challenges, and your business opportunities. Always start with ‘why’ and anything that you deliver from there, the closer you can tie the work that you're doing to the business value, the more successful both you and your company will be at the end of the day.”

Timestamps:

*(01:40) - Aflac’s AI Journey

*(03:55) - AI at Scale: Transforming Aflac

*(09:00) - Building Automation and Innovation into Culture

*(26:15) - Leadership Insights and Advice

*(31:15) - Future Trends and Strategies

Links:

• Connect with Ian Faison and Shelia Anderson on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Aflac's services
• Check out the My Special Aflac Duck® mentioned in this episode
• Catch up on past episodes featuring conversations between leading CIOs

Can't get enough AI and automation content? Listen to The New Automation Mindset podcast presented by Workato.

Our Sponsor:
Workato® makes the creation and implementation of automations 10X faster than traditional platforms. As the leader in AI-powered enterprise automation, Workato enables enterprises to automate their business processes across the organization by integrating their applications, data, and experiences. Designed with best-in-class security and governance, scalability, performance, and availability, our low-code, no-code platform makes it easy for IT and business teams to integrate their applications and automate their processes, drawing from thousands of automation “recipes” built by the Workato community.

With Workato's democratized approach to automation and integration, business technologists are empowered to fuel their organization’s digital transformation. Workato® is trusted by over 17,000 of the world's top brands, including Broadcom, Intuit, and Box.