In an interview with ETCIO, Soumya Ghosh, CTO of Tata AIA Life Insurance, discussed the company’s digital transformation journey and how it is leveraging technology to drive innovation and customer-centricity. Ghosh emphasized that innovation is a company-wide effort and not just a matter of relying on inspiration or luck. He highlighted the challenges of managing legacy systems while enabling innovation, but noted that Tata AIA Life Insurance has made significant progress in this area.
The company has adopted a Technology, Digital, and Analytics framework to drive its evolution, with a focus on placing data at the heart of its operations and decision-making. Ghosh explained that digital is how the company listens to and serves customers, and data is how it understands them. The company has streamlined its entire insurance value chain, from customer onboarding to claims processing, using digital technologies such as APIs, middleware, and cloud-first architecture.
Ghosh also discussed the importance of customer trust and how the company ensures that its technology platforms are resilient, secure, and scalable. He noted that the company follows a layered security model, with a “zero trust architecture” that verifies every access point. The company’s active-active cloud setup supports continuous uptime, and regular red teaming and vulnerability tests help it stay ahead of threats.
In terms of redefining simplicity and speed in insurance buying, Ghosh emphasized the need for fundamental transformation at the core. The company has redefined its technology frameworks to make insurance more accessible, efficient, and personalized. For example, its 3-click purchase journey required reimagining the entire backend, using design thinking to identify friction points and rebuild systems using OCR, e-KYC, and other instant validation tools.
Ghosh also discussed the company’s approach to integrating automation without compromising on personalization. He noted that technology should be used to enable, not replace, the human touch. The company’s tools, such as video-based medical checks and smart app trackers, are designed to feel personal while ensuring speed and transparency.
In terms of preparing its cloud architecture to integrate AI, analytics, and emerging technologies, Ghosh noted that the company has adopted a hybrid multi-cloud approach backed by microservices. This gives the company flexibility without locking into one vendor. The company is also working towards creating a centralized data lake, which will serve as the core to all its systems.
Finally, Ghosh discussed the company’s broader strategy for GenAI adoption, which goes beyond customer servicing to transforming internal workflows, underwriting, and claims with smart summarization and document analysis. The company is also looking at GenAI for employee productivity, training, and decision support, with a focus on building responsible AI that is secure, explainable, and human-centric. Overall, Ghosh emphasized the importance of customer-centricity and the need for technology to be designed with the customer in mind.