American Family Insurance – Leading Remote Teams, Driving Innovation, and Leveraging AI for Transformation

When I joined the American Family Insurance digital experience team, we were a fully remote group spread across multiple locations. The team had strong individual talent, but work happened in silos, and direct access to customers wasn’t possible. Complex products were difficult to explain — both internally and to prospects — leading to inconsistent experiences and slower progress toward business goals.

Challenge

A fully remote, multi-location team with strong individual talent was working in silos. The UX team lacked direct customer access, and complex products were difficult to explain internally and to prospects—resulting in inconsistent experiences and slower progress toward business goals.

Vision

• Unite a distributed team through virtual collaboration and a shared innovation mindset.
• Harness AI and modern frameworks to accelerate discovery, streamline workflows, and simplify complex offerings.

Approach

• Introduced design thinking frameworks adapted for remote environments, running collaborative workshops in virtual tools (e.g., Miro, MURAL, Figma) so cross-functional teams could ideate and align in real time.
• Leveraged AI-assisted discovery to synthesize insights from existing data, market research, and behavioral analytics, enabling informed decisions without traditional user interviews.
• Developed AI-driven “northstar” chat prototypes—conceptual conversational experiences to help customers navigate complex insurance options. While not implemented, these served as visionary artifacts shaping future strategy.

Transformation

• Remote silos gave way to active, engaged participation across disciplines and locations.
• AI tools automated routine tasks, freeing time for strategic problem-solving.
• Visionary prototypes sparked alignment on how AI could bring clarity to complex offerings.

Outcomes

• Stronger team alignment despite working fully remotely.
• Consistent, cohesive product experiences across the portfolio.
• A repeatable, remote-friendly innovation framework combining design thinking and AI.

Takeaway

Distance is no barrier to innovation. By blending human collaboration with AI-powered insights, the team delivered better digital experiences and became more unified, adaptable, and future-ready.

For executives and business leaders: combining the right tools, leadership, and vision enables remote teams to achieve breakthroughs comparable to—and often greater than—co-located teams.