IndiaFirst Life Insurance is embedding autonomous AI agents across sales coaching, underwriting, claims processing, email automation and recruitment in partnership with Salesforce, in a bet that the payoff will materialize after years rather than quarters, said managing director and chief executive Rushabh Gandhi.
“Very difficult to say what is going to give us the biggest bang for the buck,” he said, adding that “the meaningful long-term benefits will probably kick in on the sales side” while “the immediate short-term benefits, which are quick and easy, will happen on the customer service side,” Gandhi told reporters at the sidelines of the event held to announce the partnership.
The groundwork is already showing up in operating numbers. A two-year Salesforce migration has lifted straight-through processing by 10% and month-zero conversion by 15%, while cutting product rollout turnaround time by 40%, Gandhi said.
Around 5% of the company’s operating expenditure is currently allocated to technology investments, with the bulk allocated incrementally to AI initiatives and cybersecurity.
The move comes even as IndiaFirst Life navigates an ownership change, with promoter Warburg Pincus seeking regulatory approval to sell its 26% stake to BNP Paribas Cardif—a deal that could clear the way for the delayed initial public offering (IPO).
“Amongst all the agentic models that we're launching, three are with Salesforce, and two are with relatively small fintechs on a largely variable model. So that's kind of doing it in-house,” Gandhi said.
The insurer is one of the first insurance companies to adopt agentic AI at this scale, he said, adding that the company is also pushing back-end adoption and working to set up a ‘centre of excellence’ in Jaipur.
Gandhi said the company is building a team there that will eventually have 300 members.
The in-house hub will support technology maintenance, renewal calling, and new business processing previously handled by vendors. Gandhi said the driver is tax rather than AI, since ‘in-sourcing’—hiring operations staff directly—avoids the goods and services tax (GST) charged on vendor invoices. The centre is expected to formally launch around September or October.
“IndiaFirst Life is demonstrating how organisations can build an agentic enterprise on a strong digital foundation. By extending Agentforce across an already connected Salesforce environment, the company can extend trusted AI across critical workflows while keeping people at the centre of decisions that require judgment and empathy," said Arundhati Bhattacharya, president and chief executive officer, Salesforce – South Asia, adding that the collaboration will help reimagine insurance delivery through enterprise-grade AI.
“The organisation needs to be ready for AI before we actually implement AI, culturally,” Gandhi said, adding that the management committee is going through a two-day training programme. In addition, agents and bank partners will need upskilling, funded from the existing training budget. He said the AI rollout will not reduce headcount in either the company’s employees—80% of whom are in distribution—or the insurer’s agent network.
“(We) don't expect any dramatic changes to reduce (workforce) in this year. But yes, that’s where the ROI (return on investment) questions actually kick in. So, in the medium term, obviously we will either redeploy them into something different, or we will figure out what we need to do with them,” he said.
The company has about 17,000 agents as of date and is adding around 2,000-2,500 agents every quarter. Currently, the agency channels account for around 15-20% of the total distribution, and the plan is to increase its share to around 25% of the business.
Despite the focus on growing the agency channel, Gandhi said IndiaFirst will remain a “banker-led multi-distribution channel organisation” and that the agency channel will grow in parallel.
The private-sector insurer is in the midst of an ownership change, with promoter Warburg Pincus looking to sell its 26% stake to BNP Paribas Cardif, which is set to re-enter the Indian insurance market it exited after ending a partnership with State Bank of India in 2019. The deal is awaiting regulatory and other approvals.
