Aioi R&D Lab – Oxford wins prestigious UK-Japan Award

Joint initiative with Mind Foundry recognised in British Business Award 2023 UK-Japan Partnership Award.

The Aioi R&D Lab – Oxford launched at the end of 2022 by Aioi Nissay Dowa Europe and Mind Foundry has won recognition in the British Business Awards 2023. Organised by the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan, the Awards recognise the best of UK-Japan relations, as well as British excellence, innovation, diversity, entrepreneurship and responsible business contributions in Japan.

Award winners are chosen by a panel of six independent judges from the worlds of business, art, tech and government. Driven by the theme of “Challenge the ordinary, achieve the extraordinary”, this year’s British Business Awards highlighted some of the most impressive and innovative contributions made by UK-Japan-related organisations and individuals over the past twelve months.

The start of an innovative approach to insurance solutions

Aioi R&D Lab – Oxford secured the British Business Award 2023 UK-Japan Partnership award for its innovative approach to creating insurance solutions that will tackle big societal challenges including sustainability and autonomous mobility. In the last 12 months, combining the resources and expertise of Aioi Nissay Dowa and Mind Foundry, the Lab has developed multiple AI solutions to reduce OpEx and risk, lower premiums and promote safer driving. From detecting more fraud, saving 2-4% on capped indemnity spend, to identifying the 5% of drivers that contribute to 50% of large loss.

The creation of the Lab was driven by a desire to capitalise on the world-class insurance capability of AND-E and the cutting-edge AI capabilities of the Mind Foundry researchers based in Oxford. We are on a mission to leverage AI’s potential for pioneering insurance solutions that address pressing global challenges and create shared value for society and this Award win is significant recognition of that ambition.

Junichi Ikegami,

CEO of the Aioi R&D Lab

Strengthening the UK-Japan collaboration

The Award win follows other key initiatives undertaken by Aioi Nissay Dowa in 2023 to strengthen the UK-Japan collaboration. These include attendance at the UK-Japanese Partnership Forum jointly organised with the British Embassy in Tokyo in October, being the only Asian company to participate in London Tech Week’s Reverse Pitch Event in London in June and participating in the British Embassy organised ‘UK AI Showcase’ at CEATEC 2023 in October in Tokyo.

“As one team the Aioi R&D Lab – Oxford has already achieved a number of step-changes in the delivery of protected mobility, extending far beyond the boundaries of the United Kingdom and Japan to embrace a global perspective”, added Junichi Ikegami. “Now our objective is to build on these activities to forge new pathways for value creation within the insurance sector by combining the cutting-edge expertise and technology hailing from the United Kingdom with the robust foundations of Japanese business acumen.”

Brian Mullins, CEO of Mind Foundry added “We are honoured to receive this award recognising the success of our collaboration with Aioi Nissay Dowa and the potential for Japan and the United Kingdom to work together. The power of AI is transformative and plays a big role in helping organisations to better quantify risk, optimise our use of resources, and create solutions that promote and support human flourishing. We are excited to continue this partnership, and our work of bringing humans and AI together to solve key social and community issues in Japan, the UK, and globally.”