Building AI capability across the organization
As one of the Netherlands’ largest cooperative insurers, Univé(opens in a new window) serves millions of members across insurance, mortgages, financial services, and risk prevention. Its mission has always been to help people prevent problems before they happen—and as AI began reshaping knowledge work, the organization saw an opportunity to rethink how employees could better deliver on that mission.
Rather than approaching AI as another technology deployment, Univé viewed it as a major organizational transformation. The objective wasn’t simply to introduce new tools, but to build AI capability across the workforce so every employee could use AI safely, responsibly, and effectively. OpenAI became a key part of that strategy, with ChatGPT Enterprise providing a secure platform that employees could adopt quickly within Univé’s governance framework.
Leadership creates direction
Univé’s transformation began with leadership.
Instead of treating AI as an IT initiative, the company brought its entire management community together for dedicated AI leadership sessions.
Rather than focusing on product demonstrations, these sessions challenged leaders to rethink how work itself would change and what role they would play in enabling that transformation. Managers moved beyond approving AI initiatives to creating the conditions for responsible innovation across their teams.
“Most organisations try to scale AI by building more solutions. We chose to scale AI by creating more builders.”
—Yous van Halder, Director Data & AI, Univé
Governance creates confidence
Univé also recognized that adoption at scale would only happen if employees trusted the platform they were using. Governance wasn’t something added after deployment—it was designed into the rollout from day one.
Enterprise authentication, connector permission inheritance, privacy assessments, governance processes, security reviews, responsible AI principles, continuous monitoring, and clear human accountability created the confidence employees needed to experiment responsibly. Permissions always follow the underlying enterprise systems, to prevent AI from getting access beyond what employees are already authorised to see.
By establishing strong guardrails early, Univé was able to encourage experimentation with explicit safeguards for security, privacy, and accountability. Governance became an accelerator for innovation, not a barrier to it.
Employees create momentum
With leadership providing direction and governance providing confidence, employees became the driving force behind adoption.
Rather than requiring detailed business cases for every new idea, Univé gave employees permission, structure, and dedicated time to rethink their own work. Across the organization, employees collectively spend hundreds of hours every week redesigning work with ChatGPT Enterprise, building custom GPTs, experimenting with Workspace Agents, and sharing successful approaches with colleagues.
Today, ChatGPT Enterprise supports knowledge work across virtually every business function—from claims and underwriting to finance, HR, legal, IT, customer service, and management. Approximately 1,500 custom GPTs have been created to solve internal challenges, reflecting a culture where employees increasingly improve the organization themselves instead of waiting for centralized development projects.
“Our competitive advantage is not that we use AI. It is that thousands of employees are learning how to reinvent their own work every single week.”
—Yous van Halder, Director Data & AI, Univé
AI at Univé today
One of the clearest examples of AI in action is pet insurance claims. A Workspace Agent can assemble the claim file, review veterinary invoices, check policy conditions, identify missing information, highlight anomalies, and prepare a traceable recommendation before the claims handler begins their assessment.
Work that previously took hours to prepare can now be ready for decision in minutes. Rather than spending time gathering, reading, and structuring evidence, claims professionals begin with a well-prepared case and can focus on applying their expertise. Importantly, the trained claims professional remains fully accountable for every final decision. AI prepares the work; people make the decision.
Underwriting is another high-value application. Before an underwriter starts the day, a Workspace Agent reviews the incoming work queue, combines information from approved enterprise sources, identifies missing documentation, flags risk indicators, and highlights cases requiring priority attention.
When the underwriter logs in, the work queue is already structured. Each case includes the relevant context, the evidence behind recommendations, and the specific areas where professional judgement is needed. Instead of spending valuable time searching for information and assembling files, underwriters can focus on making better, faster decisions.
Initiatives being explored
While today’s use cases focus primarily on supporting employees during individual tasks, Univé is actively exploring the next phase of enterprise AI through Workspace Agents.
These agentic workflows are designed to proactively prepare recurring work across approved enterprise systems—bringing together information, surfacing relevant context, and creating evidence-based starting points before employees begin their day. As these capabilities evolve, every new application continues to be evaluated within the company’s governance framework to ensure security, accountability, and responsible AI remain central to adoption.
Results at a glance
- 97% of ChatGPT Enterprise licences activated, demonstrating broad adoption across the organisation.
- 85% of licensed users are active every week, reflecting sustained engagement across the workforce.
- Employees average 40 prompts per active user each week, showing AI has become part of everyday work.
- Employees have created approximately 1,500 custom GPTs tailored to internal workflows.
- Pet insurance claims that previously took hours to prepare can now be ready for decision in minutes, while claims professionals retain full accountability for every final decision.
- AI adoption now spans virtually every knowledge-based function across the organization.
- Underwriters begin their day with prepared work queues, allowing them to spend less time gathering information and more time making high-quality decisions.
- Employees increasingly solve operational challenges themselves instead of relying on lengthy software projects or scarce specialist resources.
- Internal conversations have shifted from “Should we use AI?” to “What should we build next?”
Leadership lessons
- Treat AI as an organizational capability—not another IT implementation.
- Treat governance as an accelerator, not a gatekeeper. Strong guardrails allow innovation to scale responsibly.
- Invest in leaders as much as technology. Leadership creates the conditions for transformation.
- Give employees permission, time, and structure to redesign their own work.
Tips
- Design governance into the rollout from day one to give employees the confidence to experiment responsibly.
- Give employees time to experiment, not just access to the technology.
- Measure success by sustained adoption and employee capability—not simply productivity.
What’s next
Univé believes today’s prompting will evolve into agentic workflows, where AI proactively prepares recurring work, collaborates across approved enterprise systems, and continuously supports employees throughout the day.
The organization’s ambition is not simply broader AI adoption, but a new operating model in which AI becomes an integral part of how work gets done. By enabling employees to use and build with AI responsibly, Univé aims to strengthen the quality and accessibility of its services, create more value for its members, improve prevention and give professionals more space to apply their expertise where human judgement and personal attention matter most. Any competitive advantage will follow from delivering on that cooperative purpose.
“AI will not replace your employees. But employees who learn to build with AI will redefine what your organisation is capable of.”
—Yous van Halder, Director Data & AI, Univé
Instagram Engineering
Shopify Engineering