Mutual of Omaha has named Chetan D. Kandhari as chief information officer, chairman and CEO James Blackledge announced. Kandhari brings more than 25 years of technology leadership experience to the role, arriving from Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., where he served as chief AI and digital transformation officer.
Kandhari has said publicly that Nationwide invested $5 billion in technology modernisation since 2015, with a further $1.5 billion commitment to AI and digital work through 2028, more than a fifth of it earmarked specifically for AI. He also co-sponsored Nationwide's Executive Steering Committee for AI alongside the company's chief risk officer.
Mutual of Omaha serves more than 5.6 million individual customers and 54,000 employer groups, making it a significant carrier in the group life, disability, dental and supplemental health markets that group benefits brokers work with daily. The question Kandhari's appointment raises for those brokers is a practical one: where does AI investment show up first, and how quickly does it reach the touchpoints that matter at the broker and plan administrator level.
The areas where AI capability most directly affects a group benefits broker's experience are enrollment processing accuracy, billing reconciliation, claims adjudication speed, and the quality of eligibility and reporting data. Carriers that have invested heavily in AI tend to reduce manual handling errors and turnaround times in these functions before the technology reaches client-facing portals or underwriting. Whether Kandhari's priorities at Mutual of Omaha will follow that pattern - or focus first on underwriting and actuarial modelling - is not yet clear.
Research from Datos Insights published in April found nearly 80% of large insurers have rolled out AI-assisted or autonomous processing workflows, with about half running AI across more than one business function. Midsize carriers report similar autonomous processing initiatives at a lower rate, around 67%, and few have extended those programmes across multiple functions. Mutual of Omaha sits in a space where the gap between its own AI maturity and that of the largest group benefits carriers is real and measurable - and where a hire of Kandhari's background signals a deliberate attempt to close it.
This is not Mutual of Omaha's first move in this direction. Late last year the company named Stacy Scholtz, with the firm since 1991, as chief operating officer, with business transformation and AI enablement built directly into her remit alongside retail solutions and corporate operations. Two senior appointments carrying an AI brief within the same year points to a company working to close that gap on two fronts simultaneously - technology infrastructure and operational execution - rather than relying on one executive to drive both.
The hire also lands just after a significant capital and governance shift. Mutual of Omaha completed its conversion into a mutual holding company on April 1, making it the second-largest US life mutual insurance holding company by gross premium volume, behind only Pacific Mutual Holding Co., according to S&P Global data. Policyholders backed the move overwhelmingly, and the new structure gives the company access to cheaper capital and greater financial flexibility without altering its mutual ownership model.
For group benefits brokers recommending carriers to employer clients on the basis of long-term financial strength and stability, that structural context belongs alongside the technology story. A company investing in AI capability while simultaneously strengthening its capital position is a different proposition from one doing either in isolation.
None of this sits outside regulation. As of early 2026, 23 states and Washington, D.C. had adopted the NAIC's model bulletin on AI use in insurance, with a national AI evaluation tool piloting across 12 states. Any underwriting or claims decision Mutual of Omaha's systems produce will need to hold up under that framework - and group benefits brokers placing business there may increasingly need to explain data-driven eligibility or claims decisions to plan administrators and members, not just a rate.
Blackledge called Kandhari "a respected technology and transformation executive who has led large-scale modernisation, digital innovation and enterprise technology strategy." Kandhari joined Nationwide in 2005 and held roles including SVP and CIO for Enterprise Applications and CIO for Personal Lines and Direct Distribution, after earlier consulting work at Ernst & Young and Diamond Technology Partners.
