Supporting Sompo Group’s Global Expansion

Company overview

Sompo Holdings, Inc. (SOMPO HD) has a diverse business portfolio spanning domestic P&C insurance, overseas insurance, and wellbeing services, including domestic life insurance and nursing care, across more than 20 group companies. With the globalization of business, bilingual documentation in Japanese and English became the norm.

In the current Mid-Term Management Plan (FY2024-2026), SOMPO HD established “Increase Resilience” and “Connect and Be Connected” as key pillars and positioned integration of services and customer bases of the Group as a new driver of growth.

Rapid expansion of the overseas insurance business drove up translation demand

Bilingual documentation became essential across the organization, including executive management meetings.

At SOMPO HD, the holding company of the SOMPO Group, the overseas insurance business has continued to grow. A key turning point came in 2017, when Sompo International joined the Group. With the addition of a company engaged primarily in the U.S. P&C insurance business, the overseas insurance business expanded rapidly and became a key driver of the Group’s revenue and profit.

However, major problems emerged that could not be overlooked. The growth also increased the burden of translation in cross-border communication. Shunsuke Shibao, Manager of the Productive Solution Unit at SOMPO HD, explains:

“As our overseas insurance business expanded and foreign executives began participating in various meetings, the need to prepare materials in both Japanese and English—particularly for board and executive meetings—increased significantly.

At the time, I was a member of the Office of Group CEO and served as the secretariat for executive meetings. We were using a third-party translation tool that had been introduced only for some departments, but it often produced translation errors and unnatural phrases. I had to repeatedly ask my English-proficient supervisor to review and revise the materials, resulting in a very inefficient process.”

🔼 Shunsuke Shibao, Manager, Productive Solution Unit, Planning Group, IT Strategy Planning Department Sompo Holdings, Inc.

The problem was not limited to the Office of Group CEO. There were many other departments, such as IT Strategy Planning, Risk Management, and Office of Group CFO, that used English in communicating with foreign group companies. Over time, problems such as the time-consuming translation work and limitations of existing tools became apparent. Also, the costs of translation outsourcing which were often contracted individually by group companies or departments became a large burden.

Ensuring efficient, accurate communication with foreign group companies became a high priority for management. SOMPO HD began evaluating a translation solution that could meet the Group’s high quality requirements.

Meeting high security standards for financial services, DeepL earned strong internal support

SOMPO HD’s evaluation was driven by both the limitations of existing tools and prior experience of using DeepL’s solutions. Members of the former Global Business Department which was responsible for the Group’s global strategy was already using DeepL Pro and rated the translation quality highly.

After hearing this, Shunsuke Shibao conducted a proof of concept (PoC). DeepL delivered an information session, and approximately 70 internal participants evaluated translation accuracy and overall performance. As a result, DeepL received overwhelming support from the participants with one reason being that translation accuracy was significantly higher than the translation tools already in use within the company.

However, translation quality was not the sole decisive factor. Kenji Horigome, Senior Deputy Manager at the IT Strategy Planning Department, explains that DeepL’s high level of security was also a decisive factor:

“As a Group comprised of many financial institutions, including Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. and Sompo Himawari Life Insurance Inc., we place particular emphasis on the security of IT tools. When introducing new solutions, we evaluate them against more than 50 criteria, including ISO 27001 certification status.

DeepL products met these requirements by a large margin, enabling us to proceed with confidence in terms of security. In particular, the fact that input data is not used to train AI models was a critical factor in our decision.”

🔼 Kenji Horigome, CISA, Senior Deputy Manager Productive Solution Unit, Planning Group, IT Strategy Planning Department , Sompo Holdings, Inc.

Since stringent security requirements for financial institutions form the foundation of all IT decision-making at SOMPO HD, strong safeguards in AI tools are a baseline requirement.

During the PoC, SOMPO HD also evaluated DeepL Write, an AI-powered English writing and proofreading support tool. While DeepL’s translation accuracy was consistently rated highly, feedback on DeepL Write varied depending on how frequently participants wrote in English in their day-to-day work. Among those who had fewer opportunities to draft long English documents, some commented that the immediate use cases for proofreading functions were limited.

However, English communication was already increasing across SOMPO HD, and demand was expected to continue growing. Drafting and proofreading English documents would no longer be limited to a small group of employees but rather become necessary skills for more employees. Anticipating this shift, SOMPO HD decided to introduce DeepL Write as a foundational tool to support employees in improving English proficiency.

In preparation for internal approval, the Office of Group CEO conducted a thorough cost-benefit analysis. When drafting the proposal, the team reviewed market rates of third-party translation services and estimated usage, and identified cases where DeepL’s file translation function, etc. could replace outsourced work to estimate the cost reduction. The outcome implied that costs can be reduced by several million yen annually from the estimated costs of existing contracts, which was a key factor in decision-making.

The decision was also driven by an exhaustive evaluation which accounted for the time employees spent on translation as a “hidden cost”, not just the cost of outsourcing translation. Following this evaluation, SOMPO HD formally decided to introduce both DeepL Pro for translation and DeepL Write for English writing and proofreading support.

After implementation, the Office of Group CEO led promotion across the organization. For example, a dedicated DeepL channel was created within the company’s internal communication platform to share product updates and recommended translation examples to encourage regular use of DeepL. This effort was led by a member of the Office of Group CEO responsible for translating various documents. The strong endorsement by an experienced translator within the Group helped build trust and promote the adoption.

Through these efforts, SOMPO HD expanded the use of DeepL products across the organization and moved on to solve translation challenges more broadly across the Group.

From executive leadership to workplace chats

DeepL supports accurate and natural communication across the organization.

DeepL products are currently used by many departments at SOMPO HD, including the Office of Group CEO, Office of Group CFO, and Sustainable Management Office. As a result, communication became smoother throughout the organization—from executive management meetings to day-to-day interactions on internal communication platforms.

Adoption by executive leadership has also been a clear signal. Many executives use DeepL Pro and DeepL Write to draft and translate documents by themselves. As the SOMPO Group’s overseas insurance business continues to expand, communication with foreign colleagues has become a daily routine for executives. In these situations, DeepL Pro and DeepL Write are used to generate accurate and natural English text.

This has also reduced the workload previously carried by executive assistants and department members who supported the executives with translation. As a result, SOMPO HD succeeded in reducing hidden personnel costs while improving overall efficiency.

DeepL has also been valuable for the Sustainable Management Office which advances sustainability initiatives across the SOMPO Group and frequently communicates in English with foreign subsidiaries and stakeholders, including external organizations. According to Risa Ishida, Senior Deputy Manager at the Sustainable Management Office, DeepL products play a critical role in these communications:

“We particularly appreciate the convenience when translating highly specialized documents, such as internal meeting materials related to sustainability and reports received from foreign organizations. Previously, we had to spend considerable time carefully reviewing and revising the output of general translation tools to ensure that internal terminology and sustainability-specific technical expressions were accurately reflected.

But now, we can translate these documents quickly and naturally using DeepL Pro, making it much easier to communicate in a timely and appropriate manner both internally and externally. We also use DeepL Write to efficiently refine English documents by adjusting subtle nuances and replacing with more sophisticated expressions. Both time and costs were significantly reduced by using these two tools, and the overall speed of our operations has clearly improved.”

🔼 Risa Ishida, Senior Deputy Manager, Sustainable Management Office, Sompo Holdings, Inc.

Beyond departmental use, SOMPO HD has also integrated DeepL with its internal communication platform, enabling instant translation of chat messages into English. By embedding translation seamlessly into daily workflows, the company reduced the perception of translation as a “special task” supporting broader adoption.

This has been particularly beneficial for the IT division where the proportion of foreign employees is relatively high. With daily communication across borders, the ability to instantly convert Japanese text into English improves both speed and quality of communication.

Through these initiatives, SOMPO HD continues to increase the speed of organizational decision-making and information-sharing across the Group.

DeepL supports the advancement of “Connect and Be Connected”

A key initiative in SOMPO HD’s Mid-Term Management Plan.

Reduction of language barriers in cross-border communication with DeepL has also supported the Group’s broader business strategy. Shunsuke Shibao explains the relevance to the key initiative under the Group's Mid-Term Management Plan:

“Within the SOMPO Group, we are pursuing closer collaboration between our domestic P&C and overseas insurance businesses, as well as between our domestic life insurance and nursing care businesses, under the key initiative of “Connect and Be Connected”. By effectively combining the expertise, customer bases, and services across the Group, we aim to deliver even better health, wellbeing, and financial protection to our customers.

To further advance this strategy, it is essential to enable timelier and quicker communication between our domestic P&C and overseas insurance operations, where language barriers still exist. DeepL products will play a large role in reducing language barriers in communication.

Recently, word of positive results achieved at SOMPO HD has spread and requests for introduction are also coming in from other group companies.”

🔼 Shunsuke Shibao, Manager, Productive Solution Unit, Planning Group, IT Strategy Planning Department, Sompo Holdings, Inc.

Shunsuke Shibao also hopes that expanding access to DeepL will help more SOMPO Group employees to access information originating outside the country.

In the past, access to insights such as advanced initiatives by foreign insurance companies or content published by foreign media was limited to employees who were proficient in English. However, since DeepL was introduced, many employees can now easily access foreign media and online information. Shunsuke Shibao believes this will increase awareness of global trends and perspectives, helping teams improve the value of the products and services offered across the Group.

Initially used for translating critical documents, including executive meeting materials, DeepL products are now used across a wide range of areas, from day-to-day business communication to implementation of business strategies. Reduction of language barriers in cross-border communication will strengthen collaboration across the Group and serve as a crucial foundation for future business growth.