Sun Life is putting more AI into advisors’ hands to cut down on admin work. Notes Assistant just won a 2026 CIO Award Canada, and the company’s new advisor concierge has already handled more than 11,000 Client conversations in its first month.
Notes Assistant summarises Client meetings, compiles action items and drafts follow-up emails. Advisors save 15-30 minutes per session, according to Sun Life.
The advisor concierge does something similar on the information side. It gives advisors fast answers on products, policies and processes, so less time goes into searching and more goes into talking to Clients.
“Strong financial advice starts with understanding what matters most to each Client. The best advisor relationships are built through conversations, trust and a deep understanding of a Client’s goals, not paperwork,” said Jessica Tan, EVP & President, Sun Life Canada. “By helping advisors spend less time on administrative work, we’re enabling them to focus on the relationships that matter most.”
Laura Money, EVP and Chief Information and Technology Innovation Officer at Sun Life, framed the effort as part of a broader push. “At Sun Life, we see AI as an opportunity to make our people more effective, strengthening the experiences we deliver, while keeping trust, accountability and human judgment at the centre,” she said. “Notes Assistant is one example of that approach, and as we continue to scale AI across Sun Life, we’re doing so responsibly, with strong governance, privacy and security built in from the beginning.”
This marks Sun Life’s third straight CIO Award Canada win, presented by IDC Canada. The company also points to its founding membership in the AI Consortium and a proprietary agentic AI platform for technology architecture decisions.
Sun Life held $1.70 trillion in total assets under management as of June 30, 2026, with operations spanning Canada, the US, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and India. Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto, New York and Philippine exchanges under the ticker SLF.
Herald View
Eleven thousand Client conversations through one AI tool in a single month means Sun Life has moved past testing and into daily reliance. The company calls it advisor support, but at that volume, it’s infrastructure. Award wins and consortium memberships do double duty here, building comfort with generative AI among Clients and regulators alike. Check: whether Sun Life reports concierge usage or adoption numbers again next quarter.