Ping An's 2026 interim results have spotlighted several key metrics: participating policies now account for over 90% of new life insurance business as product transition accelerates amid low interest rates. On the AI front, daily token consumption surged from 30 billion in December 2025 to 120 billion by June 2026, reflecting the rapid implementation of the "AI in ALL" strategy. In the auto insurance segment, new energy vehicle premiums grew 21.5%, covering 6.78 million vehicles, with roughly one in four new energy vehicles insured by Ping An.

Following the earnings release, Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (ASX: 601318) General Manager and Co-CEO Xie Yonglin sat down for an exclusive interview. He addressed pressing topics including the evolution of participating product structures, the impact of lowered illustrative rates, the practical returns on billions in technology investment, and the competitive landscape of new energy vehicle insurance. He stressed that participating insurance represents a key direction for industry transformation, yet Ping An will not simply chase the proportion of any single product category. Regarding the AI strategy, Xie observed that the financial sector has entered an era of homogeneous, stock-market competition, and Ping An is leveraging AI to build a core competitive edge through differentiated services. The company's multi-billion-yuan technology spending and trillion-scale token consumption have generated a flywheel effect spanning "factor supply, business reinvention, and closed-loop feedback."

To enrich floating-benefit product offerings and address diverse client needs in a low-rate environment, Ping An Life has been advancing its participating product transition, with new business participating policies exceeding 90% in the first half of 2026. Xie explained that developing participating products is an important direction for the industry amid low interest rates, but Ping An will maintain a balanced approach between protection and savings, scale and value, and product and investment coordination, rather than simply optimizing for any single product's share.

NBD: The cap on illustrative rates for participating products has been lowered from 3.9% to 3.5%. What is the actual impact on sales?

Xie: Adjustments will naturally have an effect, but it is not necessarily a "shock." In the short term, certain products may face some sales adjustments, yet over the long run this benefits the industry's healthy development. As illustrative rates decline, clients will form more rational expectations about returns, and products primarily marketed on attractive illustrations may face pressure. Over time, however, this helps reduce sales misconduct and irrational competition, narrows the gap between actual dividends and client expectations, and fosters a more sustainable business model across the sector.

NBD: With participating products already exceeding 90% of new business, will Ping An Life continue to increase this weighting?

Xie: From a product standpoint, protection and investment functions must be fully balanced. Participating products serve clients' long-term savings and wealth management needs well, while protection-type products remain the bedrock of long-term value and risk coverage in life insurance. Ping An will not simply chase the scale or share of any single product line. Instead, we will dynamically optimize our product mix based on client demand, market conditions, and asset-liability matching capabilities. Looking ahead, life insurance products will increasingly feature a sound combination of "guaranteed plus floating" and "protection plus savings." The industry's shift from "high illustrations" to "achievable and sustainable" returns represents a return to the fundamental nature of insurance. Regulators have also explicitly required that actual dividend levels align with asset-liability positions, investment returns, and actuarial and financial constraints.

NBD: What will be the key focus for life insurance going forward? Which product formats will be prioritized?

Xie: We will continue to center on client needs, integrating protection with wealth management scenarios. From the company's perspective, we aim to balance the structure of new business and the sources of threefold margins. From the client's perspective, different product combinations can deliver more complete protection and wealth management solutions. In August, we will launch a new critical illness combination using a participating whole life policy with accelerated critical illness rider, enabling "paid-up additions from dividends" to enhance coverage. Participating critical illness products will be developed and introduced as soon as regulatory guidelines are finalized.

Ping An's interim report disclosed token consumption figures for the first time: daily usage climbed from 30 billion in December 2025 to over 120 billion by June 2026, a threefold surge in six months. Behind these numbers lies the accelerated execution of the "AI in ALL" strategy. Xie noted that Ping An's AI investment remains value-driven, with rigorous target and process management and continuous review. Project proposals are quantified and evaluated across dimensions such as revenue growth, cost reduction, loss mitigation, and service enhancement, ensuring that resources are allocated to initiatives with the strongest return profiles and clear value logic.

NBD: How do you assess the real impact of billions in technology spending and trillion-scale token consumption?

Xie: For any company seeking sustained competitiveness, increased AI investment is essential at this stage. Given that the financial industry has entered homogeneous, stock-market competition, Ping An plans to use AI to build a differentiated service advantage. With over ten billion yuan in cumulative technology investment, we have established a flywheel effect of "factor supply, business reinvention, and closed-loop feedback." Building on this, we are advancing along the path of "frontier exploration, scenario breakthroughs, and service innovation." Group daily token consumption jumped from 30 billion in December 2025 to over 120 billion in June 2026, and the latest figures show daily consumption reaching 210 billion in August 2026. Through extreme inference optimization, full-stack computing scheduling, and reasoning optimization technologies, the unit cost of intelligent computing has dropped by 75%.

NBD: With daily token consumption at 210 billion, has this truly translated into internal efficiency gains?

Xie: First, artificial intelligence has not yet crossed the "singularity." Currently, we are focused on AI enablement through three major AI engineering initiatives. The first is AI coding, embodying an "AI-native work methodology." Our self-developed coding tool, "Ping An Aima," has raised the AI-generated code ratio to 77%, and the OPC (One Person Company) model has validated "one person as a team" automated delivery. The second is AI operations, where we are reshaping end-to-end processes across seven benchmark roles within the group and five business units, moving from "tool digitalization" to "organizational intelligence" so that AI truly becomes corporate productivity rather than merely a production tool. The third is AI office enablement, empowering over 260,000 employees across the group, shifting from "people doing work" to "AI doing work," covering 80% of common needs and embedding intelligence into the capillary ends of the organization.

NBD: What supporting measures are in place for AI talent incentives and assessments?

Xie: We are currently undergoing a comprehensive transition toward an "AI Native" organization, primarily leveraging market-based mechanisms to attract top AI talent. In July, we officially launched the Nova Supernova Technology Talent Program, targeting graduates from leading global universities to build a high-quality AI talent pipeline. For industry-leading experts, we offer market-competitive incentive structures through innovative compensation design. Internally, we drive organizational intelligence advancement through the three major enterprise AI projects.

Interim results show that in the first half of 2026, Ping An underwrote 6.78 million new energy vehicles, up 27.8% year-on-year on a comparable basis. New energy vehicle insurance generated original premium income of 26.415 billion yuan, a 21.5% increase, outpacing the market. Ping An's market share in new energy vehicle insurance reached 28%, meaning approximately one in four new energy vehicles is insured with Ping An. Xie noted that traditional fuel vehicle insurance has entered a stock competition phase, making new energy vehicle insurance the primary growth engine. Compared with automaker-affiliated insurers, large established insurers like Ping An bring years of auto insurance expertise, with advantages in complex risk pricing and large-scale operations.

NBD: How do you view the competition between traditional leading insurers and automaker-affiliated insurers in the new energy vehicle insurance space?

Xie: Essentially, these two routes represent business models formed under different capability endowments, so there is no simple superiority or inferiority. Automaker-affiliated insurers' core strengths lie in being "close to scenarios, close to data, and close to customers." Automakers can access extensive data on vehicle configurations, driving behavior, maintenance, and software upgrades, and can directly reach customers during purchase, usage, and servicing, thereby reducing certain distribution costs inherent in traditional insurance models. On the other hand, insurers' advantages lie in having a "large risk pool, long data history, deep experience, and broad network." Large insurers have operated auto insurance for decades, accumulating vast historical data across different vehicle models, regions, drivers, and accident types, along with long-established underwriting data, actuarial capabilities, claims networks, and risk management expertise. This clearly provides advantages in complex risk pricing and large-scale operations.

NBD: Ping An's new energy vehicle insurance has entered a stable profitability range. What measures will further consolidate this leadership?

Xie: With approximately 28% market share in new energy vehicle insurance, we will continue to strengthen competitiveness through technology, operational capabilities, and integrated financial advantages. First, we will enhance granular pricing capabilities through AI enablement. By continuously accumulating data on new energy vehicle models, driving behavior, accident losses, and parts pricing, and by applying AI and actuarial models, we are refining risk identification precision to achieve "per-vehicle pricing, per-person pricing, and per-scenario pricing." Second, we will lower the combined operating ratio (COR) through operational optimization. AI-based loss assessment, intelligent claims handling, parts price management, repair network management, and anti-fraud systems will reduce per-claim costs and claims operation expenses. Third, we will increase customer value through integrated financial synergies. By treating new energy vehicle insurance as a "traffic entry point," we extend offerings to home insurance, accident insurance, healthcare, and financial planning services, enhancing customer stickiness and per-customer value. Additionally, we will strengthen ecosystem building to achieve complementary advantages across both paths. Through partnerships with automakers, repair shops, parts suppliers, and charging/swapping platforms, we will jointly build an ecosystem, continuously enrich our databases, and transform data into verifiable, iteratively improved risk models.