Keeping justice accessible in a changing world

When he became CEO of DAS Holding in September 2025, Jeroen Zohlandt first focused on getting to know the organisation properly—by listening, hearing people’s experiences, and being visible. He also had a clear mandate to make DAS future-ready. Central to that mandate was strengthening the organisation’s societal role of ensuring access to justice for everyone who needs it.

To address this challenge, DAS sought a single strategic partner for the years ahead—one that could both help shape the direction and support implementation. 'A key moment in the selection process was a leadership session in our Reinvention Lab in Amsterdam,' says PwC’s Pieter Koene. 'Working in multidisciplinary teams, we explored future scenarios and gave DAS the space to develop a future vision that aligned with its mission.'

Zohlandt adds: 'What appealed to us about PwC’s approach was that we, the executive team, remained firmly in the driving seat. PwC facilitated the process and brought an external perspective—not by providing the answers, but by helping us set our own course.'  

For Zohlandt, 2026 began not with executing the strategy, but with refining the fundamentals: the mission, core values, and culture.

'DAS’s mission needed to be refined. Our new mission is: ‘Keeping legal assistance accessible to everyone.’ That is our societal responsibility, and at a time when more and more people are falling through the cracks, it is more relevant than ever. Many people don’t qualify for publicly funded legal aid, while the legal expenses insurance market has seen little growth for years and is failing to keep pace with the increasing demand for legal support. That is precisely why I want to explore new ways of keeping legal assistance accessible and affordable.' Koene adds: 'DAS and PwC share this societal ambition.'  

Technology and AI play an important role in Zohlandt’s future vision: 'We see AI as an opportunity to enhance the human touch. AI takes over tasks involving language, analysis, and reasoning, freeing up more time for personal contact. It helps us automate repetitive tasks, allowing us to spend more time supporting customers at crucial moments.'

'As well as helping DAS use AI strategically,' says Koene, 'we are embedding it responsibly across the organisation. Together, we are developing the AI strategy, establishing governance and risk frameworks, and driving AI adoption. We are also working on specific applications, such as an AI-first solution for handling traffic claims.'

DAS has already created the foundation for further innovation through a new IT ecosystem with integrated AI capabilities. Zohlandt says: 'We also have 60 years of legal data and broad legal expertise. PwC helps us translate this potential into strategic choices by combining our knowledge and data with developments in agentic AI—artificial intelligence that not only generates information, but can also independently execute tasks and processes to achieve a predefined objective.'

Koene adds: 'Together, we are exploring how agentic AI can further automate legal processes and make services faster, more scalable, and future-ready. AI offers great opportunities to work more quickly and efficiently, but it must always be explainable, reliable, and used responsibly. That is why we continue to help DAS determine where AI adds real value and where human judgement remains essential.'  

Technology is a key driver of the transformation, but PwC saw that its impact would only be fully realised if DAS also moved towards operating as one integrated organisation. 'We saw that DAS was working in silos,' explains Koene.

Zohlandt agrees that this was an important insight: 'The strategic analysis showed that we needed to move from separate business units towards one DAS, with process and customer management across the entire chain. That insight has played a significant role in guiding the choices we’re making now.'

'Working with experts from our legal, workforce, and consulting practices,' continues Koene, 'we subsequently facilitated sessions in which employees from different parts of the organisation could share their perspectives. Our legal expertise helped ensure that strategic choices and innovations were well aligned with DAS’s legal practice. This created a shared understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and areas for improvement within the organisation.'  

PwC will continue to support DAS as its strategic partner in the coming years as the organisation continues its transformation, bringing together strategy, technology, AI, processes, and organisational development.

'We are on this journey shoulder to shoulder,' says Zohlandt. 'PwC helps us turn the strategy into practical actions. This enables us to prepare for the next phase of our organisation in a focused way.'

The collaboration has helped DAS move towards greater innovation. With a clear strategy, greater alignment between business and technology, and stronger shared ownership, DAS is continuing to build on its societal ambition to keep justice accessible—now and in the future.