The vast amount of data combined with the power of emerging technologies, such as Generative AI, has enabled insurers to design and offer more customised products and solutions, according to insurance industry experts.
Ravi Vishwanath, CEO of Narayana One Health and Director at Narayana Health Insurance, highlighted that health insurance in India is still largely transactional, often purchased to cover expenses in the event of hospitalisation. “With our healthcare expertise and by leveraging consumer data, we can now create the right nudges to keep people healthy and reduce hospital visits,” he said.
“Hyper-personalisation in terms of product offerings and pricing is possible, even in motor insurance,” said Vishal Gupta, CEO of PhonePe Insurance Broking Services. Gupta explained that, for example, women drivers are generally considered safer compared to their male counterparts. “Today, data allows us to design policies with different pricing for women, or for drivers in cities versus those driving on highways, which tend to be riskier.”
In another session, Avinash Naik, president & chief information officer at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, said that the insurance industry has accumulated vast amounts of unstructured data over the decades. Technologies like GenAI, he said, can help insurers summarise this data in meaningful ways to improve underwriting, product pricing, and even fraud detection.
“Insurers are learning how to structure unstructured data and are redesigning algorithms to extract the necessary insights,” said Anand Sanghi, chief of retail and government at ICICI Lombard General Insurance. He also noted that insurers are now able to curate products and solutions using data from social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
In another panel discussion, life and general insurers discussed the impact of economic challenges on the insurance industry. Commenting on interest rate fluctuations, Jitendra Attra, CFO of SBI General Insurance, explained that many general insurers rely on investment income. “A prolonged period of low-interest rates can impact their profitability,” he said.
Attra added that while the industry is currently comfortable with loss ratios exceeding 100% in some segments, if investment income falls, underwriting practices will need to be tightened.
“Interest rate risk is best managed by banks, while we are better positioned to handle mortality risks,” said Dhiren Salian, CFO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
He explained that, unlike general insurance, which is renewed annually, life insurance is a long-term contract. The premiums received are invested in instruments that can hedge against immediate interest rate fluctuations.