New Delhi, July 30 -- At a time when insurers are under pressure to improve profitability without compromising customer experience, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence, automation and digital platforms to streamline operations and lower the cost of doing business.
The insurer said sustained investments in technology and process automation have helped reduce its cost-to-premium ratio for the savings business to 13.6% in the first quarter of FY27, a decline of 50 basis points from a year earlier, even as the company continues to expand its business. The improvement highlights how digital transformation is becoming a lever not only for customer experience but also for operational efficiency and profitability in the life insurance sector.
"At ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, our investments in strengthening the company's digital infrastructure have not only empowered customers but also enabled us to deliver a better experience across the policy lifecycle," said Ganessan Soundiram, Chief Technology Officer, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
The insurer has been deploying AI, analytics and proprietary digital platforms such as ICICI Pru Partner Stack and IPRU Edge to improve customer acquisition, distributor productivity, servicing and operational efficiency.
According to Soundiram, the objective has been to eliminate friction across the insurance value chain rather than automate processes for their own sake.
"When we built our technology stack, the goal was never automation for its own sake. It was about removing the friction and cost associated with manual processes so that savings could be passed on more efficiently while customers received a faster and simpler experience," he said. A significant part of the transformation has centred on digitising policy issuance., said Soundiram.
During the June quarter, around 58% of policies were issued using digital KYC, while 54% of savings policies were issued on the same day, reducing turnaround times and simplifying onboarding for customers.
The company has also digitised claims management through end-to-end online claim registration supported by Ask Khushmani, its AI-powered chatbot, WhatsApp integration and AI-driven pre-claim assessment.
AI is increasingly being embedded into core insurance processes beyond customer service. The insurer uses AI-based underwriting models to support risk assessment, predict policy persistency and assist claims evaluation. These capabilities contributed to an individual claim settlement ratio of 99.3% during the quarter, while the average turnaround time for non-investigated individual claims stood at one day.
Customer servicing has also become increasingly automated, said Soundiram. According to him,a large share of routine customer interactions is now handled through Ask Khushmani, while multilingual AI-powered voice assistants deliver renewal reminders to as many as 50,000 customers every hour, reducing dependence on manual outbound communication. Technology investments have also extended to the company's distribution network.
The IPRU Edge mobile application enables insurance advisors to issue policies, manage customer interactions and complete operational workflows digitally, improving productivity while enabling faster policy issuance.
Soundiram believes, for ICICI Prudential Life, the focus is now shifting from digitising individual processes to creating an integrated technology platform capable of supporting future AI-led innovation across underwriting, claims, servicing and distribution. As the insurer marks 25 years of operations, the company believes that combining cloud infrastructure, AI and analytics will continue to improve both customer outcomes and operating efficiency.
The company's technology-led gains come amid a broader shift across India's insurance sector, where AI is rapidly moving from pilot projects to core business operations. Insurers including ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Life, LIC and ICICI Lombard are embedding AI across underwriting, claims, customer servicing and fraud detection to improve efficiency and customer experience, while industry analysts increasingly view 2026 as the year insurers begin scaling AI to deliver measurable business outcomes rather than isolated digital initiatives.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from TechCircle.