AmFam appoints first digital transformation officer

American Family Insurance has named Todd Fancher as the company’s first digital transformation officer.

Fancher, former president of American Family Life Insurance Company, will now lead the carrier’s strategic investment in artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics in his new role. Rich Steffen will take over as Fancher’s successor, vacating his current position as vice president of sales.

“Digital transformation is about unlocking growth by doing things differently, and using data to help us truly know what customers want so we can proactively deliver it to them,” Fancher said, in a statement.

Fancher’s appointment follows AmFam’s purchases of Networked Insights, a marketing analytics company, and home inspection software vendor HomeGauge this month. The acquisitions, coupled with Fancher’s promotion, are said to help AmFam more quickly build out digital capabilities and better serve customers, it says.

Also see: How American Family developed innovation infrastructure

The insurer has already invested in AI and related technologies through its Data Science and Analytics Lab, Strategic Data Analytics Division, innovation team and collaborative data-science projects with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.