Sanlam Gives AI a Seat at the Top Table With New Executive Appointment Sanlam Moves AI From the Lab to the Boardroom With New C-Suite Role Sanlam Appoints its First Chief AI Officer as Insurance Industry Hits an Inflection Point
Sanlam has elevated artificial intelligence to the centre of its executive structure, appointing Theo Mabaso as Group Chief AI Officer — a move that makes the Cape Town-based financial services group one of the first major companies in South Africa to create a dedicated AI leadership role at C-suite level. Mabaso, who has been with Sanlam since 2016 and retains his existing position as Group Chief Technology and Information Officer, will now also govern the group’s overall AI strategy, reporting directly to Group CEO Paul Hanratty. The appointment signals a formal shift from what the group acknowledges has been an experimentation phase into full-scale execution across its insurance, investment, and advisory businesses.
The new role introduces a more structured governance layer around AI investment, with revised capital allocation and dedicated oversight mechanisms. Mabaso’s remit spans underwriting, claims processing, financial advice, and client engagement — the four pillars of Sanlam’s core insurance and savings business. Mabaso has been a member of Sanlam’s Group Executive Committee since January 2022 and chairs the Sanlam Group Technology Council, a subcommittee of the Sanlam Board. His prior career spans executive technology roles at Barclays Africa, Absa, Standard Bank, IBM Global Services, MultiChoice, and the IQ Business Group. In 2025, he contributed to the B20 South Africa Digital Transformation Task Force, which examined the role of technology in driving inclusive economic growth.
The appointment came a day after HSBC announced that David Rice — previously the chief operating officer for HSBC’s Corporate and Institutional Banking business — had been named the UK bank’s first chief AI officer, as the bank targets a return on tangible equity above 17% for 2026 to 2028 through AI-driven cost reduction and process automation. The near-simultaneous appointments at two major financial institutions on different continents illustrate the speed at which AI governance is being institutionalised across the global financial services industry. Sanlam expects AI to have a significant impact on underwriting, claims, product development, revenue generation, and client engagement as the cost of running AI models continues to fall and the tools for deploying them at scale continue to mature.
Hanratty framed the appointment as a response to an industry inflection point, stating that AI has moved beyond experimentation and is now central to how financial services companies compete, innovate, and serve clients. He indicated that the group’s ambition is to use AI to expand access to financial tools and advice, make financial products more affordable, and strengthen Sanlam’s position as a digitally enabled insurance leader both in Africa and in fast-growing Asian markets. Mabaso, in turn, has framed the strategic risk in structural terms — warning that the danger for financial institutions is no longer moving too quickly on AI, but rather structural drift as competitors compound capability while others wait.
Sanlam has articulated its AI governance framework around what it calls an “office of AI,” an “AI control tower,” and a series of “nerve centres” designed to ensure the technology is scaled in a disciplined way with clear priorities and strong oversight. The group has stated that AI will strengthen rather than replace its adviser network, with Mabaso noting that the foundation of financial advice requires human judgement. As detailed on Sanlam’s leadership page, the broader 2030 strategy positions AI as a defining factor for competitive differentiation — not as a standalone technology initiative but as an embedded capability across every business unit in the group.