HDFC ERGO partners with Google to launch generative AI CoE

Private sector general insurance company HDFC ERGO has announced a centre of excellence for generative artificial intelligence (AI). Towards this, Google Cloud will help HDFC Ergo in identifying and developing use cases, along with training employees on generative AI.

“At HDFC ERGO, we believe that Generative AI has the potential to unlock significant untapped opportunities in the insurance sector, which can aid in realising the regulator's vision of 'Insurance for All by 2047'. Our partnership with Google Cloud further reinstates our commitment to offer enhanced customer experience by adopting new technologies,” said Sriram Naganathan, chief technology officer, HDFC ERGO General Insurance. He also added that generative AI will help the company in hyper personalisation and thus play an important role in foraying into new customer segments.

With the CoE’s capabilities, HDFC Ergo will develop new products and services, along with enhancing the efficiency of existing processes and optimising cost.

“We are delighted to partner with HDFC ERGO to offer innovative and tech-enabled solutions. We will bring the power of Google Cloud generative AI to HDFC ERGO so they can deliver superior services to their customer base and help accelerate the adoption of AI technologies to deliver better outcomes,” said Bikram Singh Bedi, managing director, Google Cloud India.

Several companies are tapping into generative AI capabilities through such specialised CoEs. CK Birla group-owned Birlasoft also launched a similar facility in collaboration with Microsoft this week. HCL Technologies on the other hand has collaborated with both Google and Microsoft for building two separate generative AI CoEs.

Companies are also investing in training their staff in generative AI skills. Infosys and TCS, which announced their earnings last week said that they are training 40,000 and 25,000 engineers in this domain respectively. Similarly, Wipro said that it will train all 250,000 employees on AI fundamentals and responsible use of AI over the next 12 months.