Case Study: AXA Insurance achieves global innovation scale and rapid prototyping — 22,000 participants, 815 ideas, 4 prototypes — with Brightidea

How the World’s Largest Insurance Company is Transforming Itself for the 21st Century

AXA, a global insurance leader serving more than 103 million customers in 59 countries, faced the growing threat of disruptive innovation to its traditional business model. A prior program that recycled ideas from other countries failed to engage employees, so Laurent Benichou, Director of Innovation & Foresight, set out to create a more agile, spark-driven approach to surface fresh, scalable ideas.

AXA implemented Brightidea’s “Start‑in” platform to run two structured innovation cycles a year—five weeks of idea-gathering and voting followed by a four-month selection and prototyping process. The program scaled rapidly (11,000 participants in 2014 to 22,000 in 2015 across 45 countries), produced 815 ideas with 60 shortlisted and multiple prototypes (including the “ARE YOU OK?” app, AXA Drones and Assistandroid), and now leverages external accelerators to bring winners to market within a year.

AXA Insurance

Laurent Benichou

Director of Innovation & Foresight