In this “Age of the Consumer,” financial services and insurance providers have had to learn to pick up the pace from a shuffle to a sprint. They have to provide the tools that allow customer to make their own decisions — now — rather than rely on salespeople to pitch information. That’s a radical turn in how these companies do business.

Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., a financial services provider that focuses on insurance, faced this and other external pressures as it modernized its infrastructure. “There’s enormous regulatory pressure coming in,” said Richard Wiedenbeck, SVP and CIO of Ameritas Life Insurance. “That’s coupled with continued low interest rates and the fact that we’re in the later stages of coming around to the consumer age.” Wiedenbeck discussed Ameritas’ forward shift with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and John Furrier (@furrier), co-hosts of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during IBM World of Watson 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

To facilitate the shift, Ameritas updated its “disparate set of technologies” so that it could gain insights about its customers. “We took a step back and realized we needed to invest in a strategic platform end to end,” Wiedenbeck explained.

As early adopters of IBM Watson, Ameritas opted for a blend of IBM and its existing services. It also works in both the cloud and on-prem. So far, its hybrid approach works. “We’re taking the philosophy of learning as you go,” Wiedenbeck said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM World of Watson 2016.

*Disclosure: IBM and other companies sponsor some IBM World of Watson segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither IBM nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.

Photo by SiliconANGLE