The Life and Annuities (L&A) insurance industry is at a technological crossroads. For decades, insurers have relied on legacy core systems for managing policies, claims, and customer interactions.
While these systems have provided stability, they are becoming a liability in today’s digital landscape. Unlike the Property and Casualty (P&C) insurance sector, which has adopted modern Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based solutions from Guidewire, Duck Creek, and Insurity, L&A insurers lack a comparable, cost-effective alternative.
Without a viable cloud-native SaaS platform, L&A insurers remain tied to outdated technology, limiting operational efficiency and preventing the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) at scale.
This blog explores the barriers to modernization and whether the recently announced DXC’s Assure Life+ SaaS product can bridge this gap.
Reach out to discuss this topic in depth.
The SaaS gap: Why L&A insurance lacks a guidewire equivalent
P&C insurance has witnessed a technology transformation over the past decade, driven by robust SaaS offerings from insurance software vendors. Platforms such as Guidewire, Duck Creek, and Insurity provide comprehensive, cloud-native solutions that integrate policy administration, billing, claims management, and customer engagement.
These platforms have enabled P&C insurers to move away from monolithic on-premise systems to agile, scalable cloud ecosystems.
However, L&A insurers face a different reality. The industry’s reliance on legacy core systems, often developed decades ago, remains strong due to:
- Complexity of products – Unlike P&C insurance, where policies are typically short-term and straightforward, L&A insurance deals with long-term, complex financial products. Policy structures, actuarial calculations, and regulatory requirements are deeply embedded in these systems, making migration challenging. These policies must be managed and supported for decades even when the product is not actively sold
- Customization and interdependencies – Many L&A insurers have spent years customizing their core systems to meet unique underwriting, risk assessment, and policy servicing needs. These customizations make it difficult to find an off-the-shelf SaaS solution that meets their requirements without significant modifications
- Regulatory and Compliance Challenges – L&A insurers operate under stringent regulatory environments, requiring extensive reporting and compliance mechanisms. Many of these regulatory workflows are deeply integrated into legacy systems, making it risky to shift to a new platform without disrupting compliance
- Cost and risk aversion – The perceived high costs and risks of migrating decades of data and policies to a new system deter insurers from moving away from their established technology stack
The lack of a credible, cloud-native SaaS solution tailored for L&A insurers has forced companies to continue investing in their legacy systems rather than modernizing them.
The AI conundrum: Why legacy systems struggle with AI adoption
In today’s insurance landscape, AI has the potential to drive efficiency, improve underwriting accuracy, enhance customer experiences, and optimize processes. However, legacy core systems in L&A insurance pose significant barriers to AI integration.
1. Limited data capabilities
Legacy systems, built decades ago, were not designed to accommodate modern data processing needs. Many L&A insurers still rely on mainframe-based systems, where data is fragmented across silos, making it difficult to extract, analyze, and utilize for AI-driven insights.
2. Lack of real-time processing
Most legacy platforms operate on batch processing models rather than real-time data streams. This restricts insurers from deploying AI models that require real-time decision-making, such as instant underwriting, fraud detection, or dynamic customer engagement.
3. High costs of AI integration
Retrofitting AI capabilities into legacy systems often requires extensive middleware solutions, data lakes, and cloud-based extensions. These efforts are not only expensive but also complex, leading many insurers to deprioritize AI investments in favor of maintaining existing operations.
4. Absence of Agentic AI at scale
Agentic AI, allows AI-driven systems to operate autonomously with minimal human intervention. However, without modern, cloud-based architectures, L&A insurers struggle to deploy AI agents capable of proactive policy management, automated claims processing, and dynamic customer interactions. The lack of flexible Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), cloud-native microservices, and AI-optimized infrastructure further exacerbates the problem.
The need for a next-generation L&A SaaS platform with modern data architecture
For L&A insurers to break free from their technological constraints, the industry needs a purpose-built, cloud-native SaaS platform that offers:
- Modular and configurable core systems – Unlike rigid legacy systems, a modern SaaS solution should allow insurers to customize workflows and product offerings while maintaining core standardization
- Seamless data integration and AI readiness – A cloud-native solution should provide real-time data capabilities, allowing insurers to leverage AI-driven insights for underwriting, claims automation, and personalized policy servicing
- Regulatory compliance automation – The platform should embed compliance monitoring and automated reporting to ensure adherence to evolving regulatory requirements without disrupting operations
- Low-risk migration pathways – Instead of a big-bang migration, a modern SaaS system should enable phased transitions, ensuring insurers can gradually shift their legacy processes without operational disruptions
The emergence of DXC’s Assure Life+: A credible alternative?
DXC Technology has long been a dominant player in the insurance technology space, with one of the largest install bases in the industry. However, its legacy systems have struggled to keep up with evolving market demands. In response, DXC has embarked on a transformation journey, culminating in the launch of Assure Life+, which was announced at their Insurance Connect Executive Forum 2025 in Charlestin, SC.
Assure Life+ aims to provide a modern SaaS-based core insurance system, leveraging partnerships with AWS and ServiceNow to offer cloud-native capabilities, modern Business Process Management (BPM) solution, and AI-driven accelerators. DXC’s offering promises to address key modernization challenges through AI-enabled cloud migration, automated policy conversion, and process analytics.
However, there are still concerns. While DXC’s domain expertise and deep insurance process knowledge gives it an edge, the lack of clear Return on Investment (ROI) articulation on their SaaS platform, talent shortages in system integration, and limited visibility into release schedules remain challenges.
Moreover, the company must strengthen its data and analytics capabilities and expand its ecosystem of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to facilitate seamless integrations.
DXC will need a few anchor customers across products and regions that take the plunge to adopt Assure Life+ or some components of the product suite. This will give confidence to other L&A insurance enterprises, who have been on an elusive search for a modern life insurance platform that is ready for the industry’s scale and complexity.
So, the key question remains—can Assure Life+ truly serve as the Guidewire equivalent for L&A insurers? Will it provide a cost-effective, low-risk migration path that allows insurers to finally modernize their technology estates?
The answer will depend on how effectively DXC executes its roadmap and whether insurers perceive it as a viable alternative to their decades-old systems.
Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions or need help in running a technology landscape assessment for your use case.
Please see below for a link to our latest tech launch perspective report that analyzes the Assure Life+ launch announcement…
https://www2.everestgrp.com/reportaction/EGR-2025-41-R-7033/Toc
Link to Leading 50™ Life & Annuities (L&A) Insurance Technology Providers 2024 and Leading 50™ Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance Technology Providers 2024
