Initially, the lockdown posed a challenge for new business premium growth and offline distribution channels for BFSI Industry. However, the digital platforms helped businesses to adapt to the changing business dynamics rapidly. The investments in technology and agile IT infrastructure has helped them to mitigate the risks posed due to the lockdown.

“A testimony to our technology readiness during the pandemic was the freedom offered to the customers to choose the digital enablers of their choice to fulfil service requests as well as to lodge claims; a distributor can engage seamlessly with customers and employees could successfully transition to a Work from Home model without any disruption. This reaffirms our already existing confidence in the fact that innovation and technology will continue to take the front row seat,” said Ganessan Soundiram, Chief Technology Officer, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

The distribution network of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has been equipped with virtual collaboration tools that enabled them to conduct virtual meets with customers, access the digital platform from any handheld device to perform a need analysis and onboard customers. The Insurance company has activated over 40 service request options on its digital platform.

“During this quarter of Q1FY21, about 400,000 transactions took place via WhatsApp, and about 92,000 customers downloaded the mobile app. Adoption of digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation solutions have enabled us to deliver uninterrupted service to our customers by replacing the physical handshake with a virtual one,” mentioned Soundiram.

Claims are the most important aspect in the life insurance industry. The use of Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation and other digital solutions implemented have facilitated the quick settlement of genuine claims. For FY2020, the average time taken by ICICI Prudential to settle a claim was less than 1.6 days, which they believe is one of the best in the industry.

“Our processes have been geared to ensure that claim proceeds are credited to the bank accounts of claimants, ensuring the family has the funds at their disposal. The ‘Claim for Sure’ service initiative, which promises to settle all eligible death claims in one day after receipt of all documents has been possible only because of digital solutions implemented,” he explained.

The need of the hour is to embrace contactless interactions. In response, the company has developed a bouquet of digital enablers to address every requirement of the policy lifecycle and to meet all onboarding and servicing needs of the customers. It leveraged its existing digital capabilities and integrated all its onboarding digital enablers together on a single collaborative platform, bridging the physical and digital divide completely.

“For instance, customer verification is done digitally via OTP without the requirement of the customer to sign on a physical customer declaration form. The same is inbuilt in the online application form. We have integrated it with DigiLocker, and customers can view or download their welcome kit from DigiLocker app,” he explained.

Nowadays, customers expect organisations to identify them from their previous interactions. They want the business to know them, enable them and value them at every step of their communication with the service providers. In response, ICICI Prudential has started making use of nudge engines to provide relevant, customised messages and alerts about the pre-approved sum assured offerings without need of income documents or medical requirements and present them with best-suited products based on the social media persona.

“While the cloud journey has started, in addition to the digital reach and mobile-first, we also intend to adopt the cloud-first route. Investment in partnering with suitable startups, and in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotics and Analytics will be the key areas we would focus on in 2020,” he concluded.