Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) is a sector with numerous potentials for automation and improved customer service. Insurance companies are investing in high-tech advances today, thanks to an active vendor environment. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is one such company that is proud of its digital transformation.
“We are certain that we are a technological business that sells insurance. We have a staff committed to new-age technology, radical digital transformation projects, and innovation. We also continue to invest in products and solutions from Indian start-ups and established partners,” says Ganessan Soundiram, chief technology officer of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.
AI is being utilized by ICIC Prudential for underwriting, claims assessment, the likelihood for sale/renewal, and personalization via pre-approved offers. In addition, the firm has an AI-powered humanoid that calls clients and reminds them to pay their renewal payments.
Customer experience, process simplification such as the onboarding trip, bulk policy issuance, and rapid call patch for medicals are some of the topics that ICICI Prudential is presently focusing on.
ICICI Prudential’s digital journey began in 2011-12. “This has provided us with a strategic competitive advantage. Insurance firms used to follow complicated processes and handle paper-based policies. This outdated paradigm has been rendered obsolete by the digital transformation,” says Soundiram. “Since then, we have seen tremendous traction for our digital transformation initiatives.”
The insurance firm offers a digital onboarding platform that is incorporated with pre-approved sum assured, allowing for frictionless and rapid issuance. In terms of customer service, it employs technology to implement what it refers to as the “3Vs” or “pillars of personalization” – video, voice, and vernacular.
The return on investment has been positive for the company. “In FY2021, we received more than 95 percent of our new business applications digitally, self-service is already at 91.5 percent, and more than 75 percent of our clients are completing video-based verification. Similarly, our collaboration platform is used for over 1.7 lakh meetings, and 99 percent of robotic issuance is done with a robotic arm, with a cover note generated in five minutes,” adds Soundiram.
The robotic issuance solution aided in the issuance of 65 lakh policies in just three days, which would have taken approximately 130 days if done manually. To top it all off, Soundiram states that in FY2021, ICICI Prudential’s claim settlement ratio and turnaround time for claims settlement were 97.9 percent and 1.4 days, respectively, which he considers being the greatest in the business and would not have been possible without technology.
Every digital transformation project has its own set of obstacles. “To name a few, there may be reasonable resistance to change, a gap between technological promise and real execution of the project, and insufficient marketing of the value that the product or solution offers,” Soundiram adds. At the insurance company, the emphasis has thus moved to technological options that have a clear relationship with commercial value. “We keep clutter and confusion at bay by applying design thinking principles,” he says.
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