Our tech investment will grow 40% YoY for at least a few years: ICICI Pru CTO

CTO Ganessan Soundiram talks about the role tech is playing in easing operational costs, acquiring new customers and improving distribution channels, along with the upcoming technologies he is bullish on and what the company aims to spend on them.

Life insurance penetration in India stood at a mere 4.2 per cent in 2021, according to the Economic Survey 2022-23, showing next to nil growth from the previous year. Even then, the market is poised for significant growth due to increased incomes, the introduction of new players and the technology they are leveraging. In an interview with DH’s Anjali Jain, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance’s Chief Technology Officer Ganessan Soundiram talked about the role tech is playing in easing operational costs, acquiring new customers and improving distribution channels, along with the upcoming technologies he is bullish on and what the company aims to spend on them.

Edited excerpts.

What are the emerging technologies you are bullish about?

Cloud is the technology which will really proliferate further than what it currently is. Apart from safety, Cloud offers so much flexibility, scalability as well as better time to market. That's one area we'll continue to invest and leverage. Cloud is offered by three or four prominent players, and all of them offer something significant in terms of their native products.

Data is also another thing that we’re looking at. Though our motive is to acquire new customers, we still do a significant amount of business with the existing customers through all the new products, and lifestyle changes, which data helps us with. We will continue to invest in data technology, analytics and insights, that can be either on premise or on the cloud model. Another area where we are seeing a transformation happening, is in terms of how we handle large data.

We were the first ones to move into a fully digitised ecosystem. Now we are looking at how we reimagine the kind of evolving ecosystem and also the digital footprint. While it may look like it has been going on for years, this kind of thing requires constant reimagination and evolution and these are the areas we will continue to invest in.

How has automation and tech integration helped with reducing costs?

Earlier, customer transactions were heavily skewed towards branch call centres. Now, over 92 per cent of transactions or services are happening through technology. So from an overall perspective, definitely, there is a cost reduction as what was earlier done by servicing teams, majority of that is now through self servicing technologies like Whatsapp or other chatbots. But we are also offering separate services and additional channels now, which means technology spend will continue to grow.

What does the company’s technology investment plan look like?

When it comes to investments, there has never been any kind of constraints if it is the right thing. Earlier over the past few years, our tech spend used to grow 20-30 per cent year-on-year, but now it is growing at around 40 per cent, mainly because of exploring new technologies like Cloud. We will continue to grow our tech budget at this pace for a few more years, as it will take time for systems to build out.

What is the role of Insurtech companies in the current insurance ecosystem?

In the life insurance space, the majority of the Insurtech companies are focusing on the distribution side. As a manufacturer, it's a great thing for us to collaborate with Insurtech companies and leverage their capabilities as a distributor platform and reaching out to customers which is an additional struggle.

What trends in the financial space are you excited about in the coming year?

A few years back, mutual funds were not known to everybody, but now it's a household topic. This is because of the increasing awareness of different financial products. People are now looking beyond real estate or other typical assets. In the insurance sector too, awareness is increasing and with the right campaigning, it can become a sunshine sector in the next few years.