Bajaj Life’s Technology Spends in Line With Transformation Agenda: CIO Goutam Datta

Please take us through FY 24-25 and the first two months of FY 25-26. How was it in terms of IT transformation initiatives and IT budget spends?

Over the past year, our focus has been on building stronger tech foundations that support speed, scale, and a consistent experience, both for customers and for our distribution partners. FY 24–25 was about making delivery more predictable, improving service reliability, and ensuring our tech worked seamlessly across channels.

One of our big steps forward was bringing together multiple pre-sales and sales platforms into a single unified system. Earlier, different channels like Agency and Partner Sales had separate systems — now, with everything on one platform, we can roll out features faster and offer a smoother, more unified experience across the board. We also made progress in simplifying our frontend and connecting services across different policy systems to improve efficiency.

From a budgeting standpoint, we’ve stayed disciplined. Our tech spends have grown in line with the company’s broader transformation agenda.

We drove our core transformation program with absolute focus and it was the first full year of business booking on this new platform. While there have been many learnings, our coordinated drive to scale up businesses on the new platform has been successful.

The first two months of FY 25–26 have continued in the same direction. We’re now fine-tuning our delivery processes, and staying sharply focused on operational stability, as we build towards a tech ecosystem that’s future-ready and customer-first. We have made significant progress in transforming one of our crown jewel digital platforms for sales teams and our data transformation. We wish to conclude and put to use both the transformed platforms.

What strategy did you adopt for attaining success?

Our technology strategy at Bajaj Allianz Life has been about keeping things practical, outcome-driven, and built for scale. We track a wide range of performance metrics across delivery, system stability, and customer impact—and use that, along with on-ground feedback, to stay sharp and focused.

A big part of our approach is balancing frugality with innovation. We've gradually shifted to open-source technologies to stay agile and cost-effective. At the same time, we’re constantly looking for small changes that create outsized impact, like deploying microservices that simplify a customer journey, or automations that cut down manual effort across teams.

What ties it all together is our focus on building modular, configurable, adaptable systems that serve the business well, both today and in the long run. Staying close to the numbers and the field realities has helped us stay grounded while pushing transformation forward.

How have the various IT initiatives undertaken by BALIC enhanced the agents in terms of app enablement and other tech-based programs?

At Bajaj Allianz Life, we’ve looked at technology not just as a tool for efficiency, but as a way to truly empower our agents or Insurance Consultants (ICs), Specified Person (SP), employees (Sales Managers), to run their business independently, with confidence and speed. 

Over the past year, our efforts have focused on digitizing the entire agent/partner/SM journey, right from onboarding and training to performance tracking, rewards, and day-to-day servicing. The goal has been simple: reduce friction, improve access to information, and enable self-service at every step.

A few standout initiatives have helped us move the needle. Our IC-Digital Office, for example, allows ICs to create personalised microsites for their customers, bringing in professionalism and personalisation in equal measure. Our WhatsApp BOT has evolved into a one-stop digital assistant, giving agents quick access to everything from brochures and lead updates to policy documents, all on demand.

Given the diverse profile of our agent and partner network which is spread across geographies and varying in digital comfort, we’ve taken a phased, inclusive approach to rolling out these tools. This has ensured strong adoption while keeping user experience at the core.

Today, nearly 70% of all IC-servicing is straight-through, and every service request can be initiated digitally. This shift hasn’t just improved agent productivity, it has also enhanced the customer journey by reducing response times and making every interaction smoother.

As we move forward, we’ll continue to build solutions that put more power in the hands of our ICs, helping them grow their business and deliver greater value to their customers.

With rapid digitization, the requirement of a strong IT backbone becomes all the more important. How have you transformed your cloud strategy and other major measures for seamless connectivity backed with ease of use for the end-users, while also making the transactions secure?

As life insurance becomes increasingly digital-first, a strong and secure IT backbone is no longer good-to-have, it’s central to how we serve customers, agents, and partners every day.

At Bajaj Allianz Life, we’ve significantly upgraded our tech architecture to meet this new reality. Our shift to a hybrid cloud model has allowed us to host mission-critical systems in secure, containerised environments, combining speed with stability. This flexibility ensures we’re always ready to scale, innovate, or integrate, without compromising on reliability.

To make connectivity seamless, we’ve deployed predictive monitoring and self-healing systems through our Next-Gen Network Operations Center (NNOC). These tools help us detect and fix issues before they impact users, creating a smoother, always-on experience.

We’ve also strengthened our ability to respond quickly to evolving needs. With integrated API gateways and middleware layers, we can roll out new features, partner integrations, or customer-facing improvements faster, and with minimal disruption.

Of course, all of this is underpinned by a deep commitment to security. We’ve implemented a zero-trust architecture, advanced access controls, and AI/ML-led anomaly detection, all designed to protect our ecosystem while keeping the user journey simple and intuitive.

Ultimately, our approach has been to make powerful tech feel invisible to the end user — secure, seamless, and always working in the background to make every interaction better.

What is the future roadmap?

The next 12–18 months will be pivotal as we continue to simplify and strengthen how our tech supports every stakeholder. A key focus is building a unified platform for all prospecting and pre-sales activities, designed to eliminate fragmentation and bring intelligence into every interaction for our field force.

We’re also investing in advanced tools like speech analytics, document digitisation, and geotagging to power more contextual, timely engagement. This will help us deliver smarter nudges, faster decisions, and stronger customer connect throughout the lifecycle.

AI and GenAI will play a deeper role, from boosting productivity and personalization to enhancing fraud analytics and customer service through conversational interfaces. We’re also exploring integrations with India Stack to enable more seamless, tailored offerings.

At the heart of this roadmap is one objective: to make every digital experience more intuitive, more meaningful, and aligned with our promise of helping customers achieve their life goals with confidence.