Manulife Selects Adaptive ML as Reinforcement Learning Engine to Scale Enterprise AI

Rhea-AI Summary

Manulife (NYSE:MFC) announced on Dec 22, 2025 a multi-year agreement with Adaptive ML to use its reinforcement-learning engine to fine-tune, evaluate and deploy open-source small language models for Manulife's enterprise AI platform.

The partnership targets real-time model optimization for use cases such as automating underwriting quotes, executing complex processes and advising sales professionals. Manulife cited Responsible AI principles and potential energy efficiency gains from using tuned SLMs, and noted it was named #1 life insurance company for AI maturity in the Evident AI Index for Insurance.

Key Figures

AI investment start 2016 Manulife has been investing in and scaling AI capabilities since 2016

Market Reality Check

$36.53 Last Close

Volume Volume 1,362,283 vs 20-day average 2,574,672 (relative volume 0.53) ahead of this AI announcement. low

Technical Shares at 36.16, trading above 200-day MA of 31.56 and within 1% of 52-week high 36.505.

Peers on Argus

Peers showed mixed, small moves: MET -0.07%, AFL +0.06%, PRU -0.01%, UNM -0.26%, GL +1.02%, suggesting this AI partnership is stock-specific rather than a sector-wide driver.

Historical Context

Date	Event	Sentiment	Move	Catalyst
Dec 12	Rating affirmation	Positive	-0.5%	AM Best affirmed key financial strength and issuer credit ratings.
Dec 02	Debt offering	Neutral	+0.5%	Priced US$1B 4.986% senior notes due 2035 for general purposes.
Nov 21	Conference appearance	Neutral	+2.0%	CFO fireside chat at Desjardins Toronto Conference with webcast access.
Nov 13	CEO fireside chat	Neutral	-0.2%	CEO discussion on business performance and refreshed enterprise strategy.
Nov 12	Board appointment	Neutral	+0.0%	Appointment of Hai Ling to board and key committees effective Jan 1, 2026.

Pattern Detected

Recent news often saw muted or mixed reactions, with several positive or neutral items followed by small price moves or mild divergences.

Recent Company History

Over the last few months, Manulife has reported rating affirmations, capital markets activity, investor outreach and governance changes. On Dec 12, 2025, AM Best affirmed financial strength at A+ and issuer ratings at aa- and a-. On Dec 2, 2025, it priced US$1,000,000,000 of 4.986% senior notes due 2035. Management also participated in multiple conferences, and a new director joins the board effective Jan 1, 2026. Today’s AI-focused agreement fits the ongoing strategy and execution narrative.

Market Pulse Summary

This announcement deepens Manulife’s AI strategy by adding a reinforcement-learning engine to fine-tune specialized language models for underwriting, process automation, and sales support. It builds on years of AI investment since 2016 and prior recognition for AI maturity and Responsible AI principles. Investors may watch how quickly concrete use cases scale, regulatory developments affecting AI tools, and management’s future disclosures on realized efficiency or customer-experience gains.

Key Terms

reinforcement learning technical

"The Adaptive Engine uses reinforcement learning (RL) to fine-tune models"

A type of artificial intelligence that learns by trial and error, receiving feedback from its actions to favor choices that lead to better outcomes. Think of it like a salesperson learning which pitches close deals by trying different approaches and keeping the ones that work. For investors, reinforcement learning matters because it can power smarter trading systems, optimize business operations, or improve products—potentially boosting efficiency and profits while also introducing model and execution risks.

large language models technical

"In addition to using large language models (LLMs) for certain use cases"

Large language models are advanced AI systems trained on vast amounts of text to understand and generate human-like writing, like a very fast reader and writer that learns patterns in words and sentences. They matter to investors because they can change how companies operate—automating customer service, speeding analysis, cutting costs, creating new products—and they introduce risks around accuracy, security and regulation that can affect a firm’s revenue and reputation.

small language models technical

"deploy open‑source small language models (SLMs) for enterprise applications"

Small language models are compact AI programs that understand and generate written text while using far less computing power and memory than large models. For investors they matter because they reduce hosting and development costs, enable faster or on-device features, and make AI-powered products easier to scale or sell, though they often trade off some accuracy and capability compared with larger systems—like choosing a pocketknife instead of a full toolbox.

responsible AI technical

"reinforces its commitment to Responsible AI and sustainability"

Responsible AI means designing, testing and running automated decision systems so they are safe, fair, explainable and follow laws and privacy rules. For investors it matters because responsible AI reduces the chances of costly errors, regulatory fines, data breaches or reputational damage, and helps ensure products perform reliably over time—think of it as safety checks and clear instructions you put on a new machine before letting it operate at scale.

underwriting financial

"applications such as automating underwriting quotes, executing complex processes"

Underwriting is the process where a financial institution agrees to buy and then resell new stocks or bonds to investors. It matters because it helps companies raise money quickly and smoothly, while the bank takes on the risk of selling those securities at the agreed price. Think of it like a booker guaranteeing to sell all tickets for a concert before opening the doors.

AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.

Partnership accelerates progress on Manulife's proprietary AI platform with real-time model optimization

TORONTO and NEW YORK, Dec. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife announced today that it has chosen Adaptive ML to provide model fine-tuning technology as part of its enterprise AI platform. Adaptive ML, a New York-based private AI software company, provides a reinforcement‑learning‑powered engine to fine‑tune, evaluate, and deploy open‑source small language models (SLMs) for enterprise applications.

These capabilities will enable Manulife to adjust and deliver AI solutions that will ultimately drive value and improve customer experience. The Adaptive ML system continuously learns and adjusts AI models in real-time from new data and user feedback. The Adaptive Engine uses reinforcement learning (RL) to fine-tune models for specific business goals, making them more accurate and efficient over time.

"We continue to accelerate progress on our AI platform and Adaptive ML's capabilities position us to deliver breakthrough solutions that enhance speed, accuracy, and innovation. In addition to using large language models (LLMs) for certain use cases, the targeted use of specialist language models tuned on this platform will seek to provide both accuracy and cost efficiency benefits," said Jodie Wallis, Global Chief AI Officer at Manulife. "Manulife is proud to be a leader in AI, and this partnership allows us to maintain a competitive edge in what is a rapidly changing AI landscape. A key pillar of Manulife's enterprise strategy is to become an AI-powered organization—integrating solutions that deliver value, fuel growth, and enhance the customer experience."

The multi-year agreement with Adaptive ML will continue to explore new practical applications such as automating underwriting quotes, executing complex processes, and advising sales professionals. These initial use cases will be the first to be brought on to the platform, enabling broader scale and speed to deployment.

"Manulife continues to demonstrate leadership in deploying enterprise AI at scale, and this partnership is a blueprint for how regulated industries should adopt AI," said Julien Launay, CEO of Adaptive ML. "Generalist LLMs are not built for scalable enterprise production. Manulife is strategically taking ownership by deploying its own specialized agents using Adaptive Engine as the strategic reinforcement learning operations layer, thereby gaining superior reliability and the ability to deliver cost efficiencies throughout their private environments worldwide."

Manulife's partnership with Adaptive ML reinforces its commitment to Responsible AI and sustainability as outlined in its publicly available Responsible AI Principles. By using a model fine-tuning engine together with SLMs, we can reduce energy use over time while maintaining performance.

"Manulife is embedding AI in nearly every part of our business," said Shamus Weiland, Chief Information Officer at Manulife. "We're proud to be leveraging the power of the Adaptive ML, which will help us move faster while removing friction for our customers by leveraging reinforcement learning. We're committed to giving our teams progressive, innovative tools that help them deliver solutions that scale reliably and responsibly while generating value."

Manulife was recently named the #1 life insurance company for AI maturity in the inaugural Evident AI Index for Insurance, reinforcing the company's commitment to innovation and customer-centric solutions. Manulife has been actively investing in and scaling AI capabilities since 2016.

To learn more about Manulife's AI progress, visit AI @ Manulife.

Caution regarding forward-looking statements

This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbour" provisions of Canadian provincial securities laws and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to Manulife's use of its digital capabilities and the expected benefits it expects to realize from AI. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include but are not limited to general business and economic conditions; changes in laws and regulations with respect to the use of AI-enabled tools; our ability to execute our digital plans and to deploy future digital use cases; our ability to adapt products and services to the changing market; our ability to attract and retain key employees and our ability to protect our intellectual property and exposure to claims of infringement from others. Additional information about material risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations may be found in our most recent annual and interim reports and elsewhere in our filings with Canadian and U.S. securities regulators.

The forward-looking statements in this document are, unless otherwise indicated, stated as of the date hereof. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping our customers make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, providing financial advice and insurance for individuals, groups and businesses. Through Manulife Wealth & Asset Management, we offer global investment, financial advice, and retirement plan services to individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. At the end of 2024, we had more than 37,000 employees, over 109,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 36 million customers. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges, and under '945' in Hong Kong.

Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulife.com.

About Adaptive ML

Adaptive ML is a New York-headquartered Reinforcement Learning (RL) company and the provider of Adaptive Engine, an end-to-end Reinforcement Learning Operations (RLOps) platform to tune, evaluate, and serve enterprise-specialized language models.

We consider Reinforcement Learning (RL) the foundation for Enterprise Super Intelligence. We help large organizations build, own, and deploy intelligent agents to move AI from the lab into robust production, ensuring demonstrable business value and highly intuitive customer experiences at scale.

The company is led by a founding ML team that previously built some of the world's most popular open LLMs. Backed by Index Ventures and ICONIQ Capital, Adaptive ML works with global enterprise customers across financial services, healthcare, education, professional services, telcos and travel. The company has offices in New York City, Toronto, and Paris.

Media contact

Manulife:

Gina Simonis
gsimonis@manulife.com
617-840-4794

Adaptive:
Marine Boulot
marine@adaptive-ml.com

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SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation

FAQ

What did Manulife (MFC) announce on December 22, 2025 about Adaptive ML?

Manulife announced a multi-year agreement with Adaptive ML to use its reinforcement-learning engine to fine-tune and deploy small language models for enterprise AI.

How will the Adaptive ML partnership affect Manulife's AI use cases for MFC?

The partnership will target real-time optimization for use cases including automating underwriting quotes, complex process execution, and sales advisory tools.

Does Manulife (MFC) say the Adaptive ML technology supports Responsible AI or sustainability?

Manulife said the fine-tuning approach aligns with its Responsible AI principles and may reduce energy use over time while maintaining performance.

Will the Adaptive ML agreement change how Manulife (MFC) uses LLMs versus specialist models?

Manulife indicated it will continue using LLMs for certain cases while deploying specialist tuned SLMs for accuracy and cost efficiency.

Is the Adaptive ML deal intended to scale Manulife's enterprise AI globally for MFC?

The company described the Adaptive Engine as a strategic layer to deploy specialized agents across private environments worldwide to support scale and reliability.

What credibility does Manulife (MFC) cite for its AI program in the announcement?

Manulife noted it was named #1 life insurance company for AI maturity in the Evident AI Index for Insurance and has been scaling AI capabilities since 2016.