Manulife Launches NLP Academy Following Vector Institute Collaboration
In early 2020, Manulife held its first Natural Language Processing (NLP) Academy, a four-day intensive program for global data scientists focusing on topic modeling and document classification. This initiative stems from Manulife’s Advanced Analytics function, established in 2016 to drive business transformation through Centers of Excellence. The specific NLP Center of Excellence was formed after Manulife’s strategic sponsorship with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Through the Vector-hosted NLP Project, Manulife scientists collaborated with researchers to reproduce BioBERT, an advanced language model tailored for medical contexts. This partnership allowed Manulife to filter cutting-edge research, apply BERT models to customer service data, and identify client pain points. Additionally, the collaboration facilitated talent acquisition, leading to the hiring of Vector researcher Faiza Khattak. Executives at Manulife view the Vector sponsorship as a crucial strategic investment that accelerates their ambition to become a leader in applying advanced analytics within the insurance industry, effectively bridging the gap between academic AI research and practical business applications.
Wire timeline
Manulife Launches NLP Academy Following Vector Institute Collaboration
In early 2020, Manulife held its first Natural Language Processing (NLP) Academy, a four-day intensive program for global data scientists focusing on topic modeling and document classification. This initiative stems from Manulife’s Advanced Analytics function, established in 2016 to drive business transformation through Centers of Excellence. The specific NLP Center of Excellence was formed after Manulife’s strategic sponsorship with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Through the Vector-hosted NLP Project, Manulife scientists collaborated with researchers to reproduce BioBERT, an advanced language model tailored for medical contexts. This partnership allowed Manulife to filter cutting-edge research, apply BERT models to customer service data, and identify client pain points. Additionally, the collaboration facilitated talent acquisition, leading to the hiring of Vector researcher Faiza Khattak. Executives at Manulife view the Vector sponsorship as a crucial strategic investment that accelerates their ambition to become a leader in applying advanced analytics within the insurance industry, effectively bridging the gap between academic AI research and practical business applications.
Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence