Watch: How ICICI Lombard fast-tracked the insurance process with emerging technologies

Over the last couple of years, ICICI Lombard has undertaken several initiatives that have seen the Mumbai-based general insurer implement emerging technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning), IOT (internet of things), analytics and even RPA (robotic process automation).

These technologies have helped the nearly two decades old firm to reduce the time taken to approve insurance claims, made it easier for its customers to buy policies, and even reduce insurance claims. Till the end of the last financial year, it had issued over 26.5 million policies and settled over 1.6 million claims.

In a recent interview with TechCircle, the company's CTO, Girish Nayak, spoke at length about how all of these technologies have added value to the firm. Nayak, who is also responsible for managing customer services and operations, has been with the ICICI Group for around 25 years, of which 19 years were with ICICI Bank. In February 2001, he moved to head the technology management group, whose mandate was to oversee the technology strategy for the ICICI Group and leverage emerging technologies for new business opportunities. He moved to the insurance arm in 2013. 

Even as the financial sector is seeing an innovation revolution in the country, Nayak, an IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, wants ICICI Lombard to be at the forefront of implementing the latest technologies that ease customer experience. 

Unlike a lot of financial services companies that work with large information technology companies, ICICI Lombard has developed most of its solutions in-house with a team of 15 deep-tech engineers. The firm also has built-in safeguards so that it does not get carried away with the success of the technologies. The insurance firm deploys these technologies only after hitting more than 90% accuracy in most cases and even has a provision for manual override in case of claim rejection by the AI engine.