Exclusive Interview with Vishal Shah, Head of Data Science at Digit Insurance

The Indian insurance industry has rapidly evolved in the last 5-10 years. New-age insurance companies and InsurTechs through tech-enabled solutions have managed to disrupt the industry in a short span of time. Insurers today through AI-based models and the use of IoT and Big Data are able to underwrite risks with greater precision, process claims faster, and predicts customer trends. Many processes that took several days can now be executed within a few minutes or hours. Through AI assistance and modern analytics, many insurers can offer self-servicing features and serve their customers more efficiently. The industry in the coming years is also likely to see greater adoption of telematics and wearable devices, which will further aid in revolutionizing the industry in the coming years.

Share some details about how Big Data Analytics/ML/AI/IoT is being used at Digit? How has it been progressing?

Technology is the backbone of Digit and ever since our inception in 2017, we have developed multiple tech-enabled solutions that have accelerated our growth in a short span of time. The use of Big Data for business intelligence and data analytics has helped us close the gap between data, insights, and actionable solutions. This has also helped us in being more cost-efficient. We believe in a hybrid model of AI, analytics and human assessment to constantly improve the processes for our customers and partners.

We have built 'smartphone-enabled inspections' for instant motor insurance pre-inspection using AI and ML. This has eliminated the need for inspection by physical surveyors and has made the process efficient by bringing down the turnaround time from a few days to a matter of 5-10 minutes. Our team is working constantly to make these solutions active for the entire userbase. We also have a system that helps us in detecting frauds through the use of image analytics, AI, and ML. Our integrated API solutions on the cloud help in triggering automatic claim notifications for travel insurance customers if their flight gets delayed beyond 90 minutes. Our tech solutions have also been built for our partner ecosystem to help serve the customers better. The reception of tech integrated solutions has been phenomenal and has helped Digit gain an edge over other players in a short span of time.

If robots completely replace the need for manual processing. What will happen to the future of the workforce?

Human interactions will always be a part of any future workforce and I believe that this is irreplaceable. While we are starting to see AI-enabled bot services or automated solutions being accepted by customers, they still expect exceptional human-assisted communication to be available. Our aim is to use tech to empower the employee and partner ecosystem and not replace them.

Insurance in India is still largely a business that requires personal interaction and assistance. So, while we will see wider usage of data analytics, predictive modelling, and artificial intelligence in the future, these solutions will continue to aid humans and help create and design reformed job roles.

Do you also feel that the right kind of talent is a challenge in the industry?

Digit has been able to hire the best talent across verticals due to our high standards of hiring. However, like the rest of the industry, hiring the right tech talent has been a challenge, especially due to the competition we face with the tech giants. Apart from offering one of the most competitive salaries in the industry, we have also put in place an attractive ESOP programme and offer multiple wellness benefits to our employees. However, given the fact that we are a rapidly growing start-up that is building innovative tech solutions, we are able to attract bright talent.

The technology team at Digit Insurance has also started a programme called the Undergraduate Training Programme (UGT) where we hire 12th-grade students from government schools with the help of NGOs. This has helped us identify and pick fresh talent at a young age.

Can you throw light on the latest employment trends and challenges in talent acquisition?

Talent acquisition norms have evolved in India over the years to be at par with global standards. Apart from offering competitive salaries, companies are now focusing more on fostering a positive work environment for their employees. Emphasis is now more on providing wellness and health benefits and prioritising their mental health. At Digit, we constantly work on employees' overall development, encouraging them to move across verticals. This ensures that we are able to retain that talent who would have otherwise quit to explore newer opportunities. However, tech talent is scarce in the industry and companies are seeing a higher attrition rate among tech employees. But, given that we are a start-up, we are able to provide unique opportunities to our tech team as they get to be a part of the tech revolution the insurance industry is witnessing. This focused goal has helped us retain good talent to a large extent.

What are the skill sets that you specifically look for while hiring?

At Digit, we aim to hire talent that can contribute to the company's overall growth. Being a specialised industry, we also look for potential employees' functional knowledge and acumen. Our Hiring Strategy is focused on hiring strong candidates who show qualities such as high learnability and agility. We try to identify leaders from an early stage and focus on giving them the right opportunities to grow and have a successful and fulfilling career. We have structured career development and leadership development program in place, which provides a stimulating learning environment to talented employees and progress towards bigger leadership roles.

What is the size of the analytics/tech team at Digit?

Since April 2018, Digit's employee base has gone up manifold. From just 296 simplifiers in March 2018, the company had over 2,000 employees at the end of FY21. Today, nearly 500 employees are part of Digit's analytics and tech team, and this number is constantly growing.