To align with India’s vision of “Insurance for All” by 2047, Aviva India is reimagining product design, distribution, and technology to make insurance more accessible and affordable, particularly in underserved regions, shared Gyanendra Singh, Chief Technology Officer, AVIVA Life Insurance India, in an exclusive interaction with Srajan Agarwal of Elets News Network (ENN).
How is Aviva India utilising AI-driven predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs and market trends, and can you provide examples of how this has influenced product development or customer engagement strategies?
At Aviva India, we leverage AI-driven predictive analytics to analyse both internal and external anonymised data from our partner ecosystem. This helps us answer key questions such as, “What is the most suitable proposition for a specific customer cohort?” By gaining these insights, we can either offer our existing products or gain inspiration for creating new, tailored solutions that benefit both our customers and our partner network.
Our commitment to promoting healthier lifestyles and overall wellbeing is central to our strategy. We analyse data from wearables and health technology to identify emerging trends, enabling us to match the right products to the right customers. Currently, we are exploring two innovative products. The first is designed specifically for diabetic patients and offers cashback rewards to encourage healthy living habits. The second rewards customers for maintaining an active lifestyle and ensuring proper sleep. Both products are still in the concept phase, but we are excited to launch them in the near future, as part of our ongoing efforts to drive customer engagement and well-being.
Aviva India achieved over 98% claim settlement ratio for FY 2024. What technological advancements have contributed to this high ratio, and what steps are being taken to enhance claim processing efficiency further?
At Aviva India, empathy is at the core of our claim settlement process, ensuring that we provide a compassionate and customer-centric experience. In addition to this, we have implemented a highly efficient claims settlement process that leverages advanced technologies, including fraud detection systems and the Insurance Information Bureau (IIB) fraud scoring for enhanced data accuracy and security.
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We are not only proud of our high claim settlement ratio, but also of our Express Claim Settlement service, which enables us to settle claims within 30 minutes—a remarkable achievement in the industry. Moving forward, we are continuously enhancing our claim processing efficiency by incorporating further advancements in AI and automation to streamline operations, reduce processing time, and provide an even more seamless experience for our customers.
What role do partnerships with insurtech startups play in AVIVA’s innovation strategy, and can you share any recent success stories?
We not only collaborate with insurtech startups but also with health tech and other forward-thinking startups. Innovation is at the heart of Aviva, and we consistently engage with new, dynamic players to partner and brainstorm solutions that address evolving customer needs.
One of the key challenges that startups often face is ensuring sustainable income for their ground workforce. To address this, we collaborate with these startups to create opportunities for their field teams to generate augmented income by taking on roles as Wellness Advisors. This initiative helps provide additional value while also aligning with our commitment to promoting healthier lifestyles.
Through these partnerships, we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible and drive customer- centric innovation across the insurance and health sectors.
What steps is AVIVA taking to integrate an omnichannel approach for policyholders, ensuring seamless interaction across platforms?
We already have a robust and seamless omnichannel servicing platform in place, and we are continuously enhancing it to provide an even better experience for our policyholders. Customers can interact with us through a variety of channels, including phone, WhatsApp, automated chatbots, email, and My Aviva website, ensuring that they have easy access to support whenever and wherever they need it. By integrating these platforms, we aim to create a truly unified and frictionless experience, allowing policyholders to engage with us seamlessly across all touchpoints.
What emerging technologies do you believe will significantly impact the life insurance industry over the next decade?
I believe that advanced analytics and predictive modeling will be key drivers in transforming the life insurance industry over the next decade. These technologies will empower insurers to create more contextual, personalised products and price them more accurately. Today, the industry often relies on a heuristic approach that generalises risk across large populations. With improved analytics, we will be able to design tailored products for smaller customer cohorts, ensuring a precise and relevant value proposition for each group.
Additionally, technologies that simplify and expedite the insurance-buying process will have a significant impact. For example, our Bharat Parivar Vikas Yojna is a fully digital product that can be issued in just two minutes, with no documentation required. It utilises AI-based medical underwriting and auto UPI-based payments, providing a fast, seamless, and user-friendly experience for customers.
Another emerging technology with great potential is Generative AI (Gen AI), which can transform sales, customer engagement and service. Imagine a voice-
based bot that can instantly answer all customer queries about their policy, making the customer experience more interactive and accessible, Or a sales companion explaining and comparing performance of a ULIP product.
Aligned with India’s vision of “Insurance for All” by 2047, what technological innovations is Aviva India implementing to make insurance more accessible and affordable, particularly in underserved regions, and what are the key performance indicators to track progress toward this goal?
To align with India’s vision of “Insurance for All” by 2047, Aviva India is reimagining product design, distribution, and technology to make insurance more accessible and affordable, particularly in underserved regions. We are fully supportive of initiatives like IRDAI’s Bima Trinity, which aims to drive financial inclusion, and we are taking similar steps.
Aviva has redefined all three pillars—product, distribution, and technology—to effectively penetrate rural and underserved segments. For instance, we launched Bharat Parivar Vikas Yojna, a bite-sized savings and insurance product that can be purchased for as low as `1,000 per month. This was made possible by our innovative digital platform, which not only makes the product affordable but also ensures ease of access. The entire process takes just two minutes, with zero documentation required.
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Additionally, we’ve created a distribution model focused on rural areas, with an emphasis on empowering women and other groups new to the insurance sector. This combination of a powerful digital platform and a rural-focused distribution network ensures that our products remain affordable and widely accessible.
To track our progress toward this goal, key performance indicators (KPIs) would include the number of policies sold in underserved areas, the growth of rural penetration, the number of women and new-to-insurance agents onboarded, and the reduction in the cost of acquiring and servicing customers in these regions.
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