IndiaFirst Life Insurance has significantly deepened its partnership with Salesforce to deploy AI agents across underwriting, customer service, and claims processing. According to the latest announcement from Salesforce, the Bank of Baroda subsidiary will embed Salesforce's Agentforce platform into three core business areas. For new business underwriting, AI agents will review KYC, financial and medical documents, flag discrepancies, assess risk, and recommend decisions. In customer service, agents will classify cases, assess sentiment, and generate compliant responses. For micro-insurance and PMJJBY claims, agents will verify documents, identify missing information, and route exceptions for human review. As per Salesforce, this marks the next phase of IndiaFirst Life's collaboration with Salesforce and reinforces its ambition to build a more intelligent, customer-centric life insurance experience. Managing Director and CEO Rushabh Gandhi stated that the company is one of the first insurance companies to adopt agentic AI at this scale, with the groundwork already showing up in operating numbers.
The company shared early operational metrics from its existing Salesforce rollout, as reported by The Hindu BusinessLine. Straight-through processing rates rose 10 per cent, M0 conversion improved 15 per cent, supervisor productivity grew 15 per cent, product rollout time fell 40 per cent, and login-to-issuance turnaround dropped 50 per cent. Managing Director and CEO Rushabh Gandhi stated that NPS is at an all-time high. The move builds on a Salesforce deployment already covering sales, CRM, business process management, and claims, all implemented within 24 months. Around 5% of the company's operating expenditure is currently allocated to technology investments, with the bulk allocated incrementally to AI initiatives and cybersecurity.
Building on its unified Salesforce foundation, IndiaFirst Life is bringing AI agents into critical workflows to improve speed, consistency, and customer experience at scale. The Agentforce deployment builds on a Salesforce-powered technology ecosystem already embedded across IndiaFirst Life's operations. Agentforce Financial Services serves as the life insurer's core engagement layer, providing sales teams, distributors, and service representatives with a unified customer view. Business Process Management capabilities standardise workflows across new business, underwriting, servicing, and claims. MuleSoft connects UNIFY, IndiaFirst Life's proprietary sales Super App, with Salesforce in real time, enabling seamless information flow and operational visibility. Combined with analytics and operational dashboards, this ecosystem enables data-driven decision-making and operational visibility. Among all agentic models launched, three are with Salesforce and two are with relatively small fintechs on a largely variable model.
Gandhi described 2026 as the company's 'year of the agentic' and emphasized that technology is a strategic differentiator rather than a support function. According to reports from The Hindu BusinessLine, he stated that the increased investment in agentic AI would be cross-subsidised from other businesses and would not push overall cost ratios higher. The company, which serves customers across more than 90 per cent of India's pin codes, has no plans to scale back its human agent network despite the expanded AI deployment. As per Salesforce, this expanded collaboration will help IndiaFirst Life enhance operational agility, strengthen customer outcomes and support continued innovation as it scales AI across the insurance lifecycle. The company currently has about 17,000 agents and is adding around 2,000-2,500 agents every quarter. Currently, the agency channels account for around 15-20% of the total distribution, with plans to increase its share to around 25% of the business.
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. Following the transaction, BNP Paribas will become the second-largest shareholder in the company after Bank of Baroda, which holds a 65% stake, with Union Bank of India holding the remaining 9% share. The deal is awaiting regulatory and other approvals, with Gandhi stating that approvals are expected within 2-3 months of filing, or a maximum of 4 months. The promoter change is expected to pave the way for the insurer's IPO, which was deferred due to Warburg Pincus' plans to exit the company. IndiaFirst Life had filed draft papers with Sebi for an IPO in October 2022 and received the regulator's nod in March 2023, but the plans did not proceed citing macroeconomic uncertainties and shifting regulatory landscapes for life insurers.
