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When a customer receives a cashless hospital approval in seven minutes—or a motor repair approval in less than ten—it signals more than just operational efficiency. It represents a structural shift in how insurance companies are rebuilding trust. Go Digit General Insurance’s 13th Transparency Report for H1FY26, titled “The Invisible Architecture: Making Good Experience in Insurance Possible – Speed & Empathy,” lifts the lid on a system where artificial intelligence, cloud-native engineering, and human-centric workflows converge to transform claims handling at scale.
This bi-annual report, a rarity in India’s insurance sector, reflects Digit’s commitment to openness. The company does far more than disclose mandatory regulatory numbers: it shares metrics customers actually care about—how fast claims are approved, how efficiently reimbursements are settled, and how well issues are resolved across channels.
“Customers ultimately care about how frictionless the process feels,” says Vishal Shah, Head – Data Science, Go Digit General Insurance. “Technology or AI-led innovation means nothing if they don’t translate into a great experience.” The H1FY26 numbers point to a system engineered around that philosophy.
A System Built for Speed — But Designed for Empathy
At the heart of Digit’s operational philosophy is a dual mandate of speed and empathy, supported by what Shah calls “an invisible architecture”—a deeply integrated technical backbone that blends automation with human judgment.
Digit has been fully cloud-native since its inception. This foundation allows it to plug in advanced capabilities—from AI-ML-based underwriting to computer vision for damage assessment—without the constraints of legacy systems.
“Our tech backbone blends AI, ML, NLP, computer vision and analytics to deliver speed without losing empathy,” explains Shah. “Automation handles scale, while human-in-the-loop interventions ensure care where it matters.”
This balance is most visible in sensitive cases. Digit complements automated workflows with human outreach, often deploying teams to affected regions during NATCAT events. Such decisions underline a structural commitment: even the most sophisticated algorithms must not overshadow the need for compassion.
Health Insurance: Breaking the One-Hour Barrier
Digit’s performance in health insurance approvals offers a benchmark for what digitally driven insurers can achieve. Cashless pre-authorization averaged 26.9 minutes in H1FY26—well below the IRDAI mandate of one hour—with the fastest approval issued in just seven minutes. Discharge approvals showed similar acceleration, averaging 52.5 minutes, again beating the three-hour regulatory requirement by a wide margin.
At the core of this acceleration is a tightly orchestrated data engine.
Digit uses image recognition technology to convert scanned hospital documents into structured data fields. These are fed into AI-driven document classification systems, which extract hospital details, billing metadata, expense categories, and more—all in real time.
“AI-driven extraction prevents duplicate claims and accelerates the administrative phase,” says Shah. “Real-time pipelines ensure teams get clean, structured data instantly, enabling fast and accurate approvals.”
Reimbursement claims—which generally require the most documentation—were settled in an average of 2.4 days, with the quickest processed in 4.4 hours, compared to a 14-day IRDAI mandate.
Motor Claims: AI That Sees Damage in Seconds
If there is one category where advanced computer vision is redefining the claims experience, it is motor insurance.
Digit reported a sharp improvement in motor work approval time, reducing average TAT from 15 hours 36 minutes to 14 hours 44 minutes. For two-wheelers, turnaround time fell by over one hour, demonstrating a clear impact of automation at scale.
Behind these gains are AI tools that visually analyze vehicle damage.
Digit’s AI-enabled Vehicle Damage Detection system processes multiple image angles, assesses whether a car panel is damaged or intact, and determines the severity—all in seconds. Its Vehicle Parts Repair Recommendation engine then suggests whether a part should be repaired or replaced.
“Our AI tool analyzes up to eight poses for precise detection,” Shah explains. “This reduces inspection time and helps deliver decisions faster.”
The environmental benefits are an unexpected bonus. By promoting repairs over replacements, Digit reduces the demand for new parts, lowering the carbon footprint associated with vehicle maintenance.
A Customer Engagement Architecture Built on Conversational AI
Even as Digit accelerates back-end claims management, it has simultaneously redesigned its customer engagement layer to reduce friction.
In H1FY26, first level response time on social media dropped from 20 minutes 7 seconds to 6 minutes 15 seconds. Social media query closures improved by 37%, falling to 20.5 hours. Claim settlement ratio climbed to 97.2%, with the fire insurance category posting an exceptional 98.9%.
Call volumes dropped by 197,200—a direct result of AI-enabled self-service via WhatsApp and the Digit App.
“We redesigned our digital self-service model so customers get updates instantly,” Shah notes. “From policy corrections to claim status checks, WhatsApp now handles what earlier required call-center support.”
Customers can update KYC, renew policies, download e-cards, or request ownership changes—all via conversational interfaces.
This shift has reduced operational load while delivering near-instant responses—aligning customer expectations with modern digital experiences.
Inside the Cloud: Security and Scale Without Compromise
With high-speed approvals comes the challenge of managing large volumes of sensitive health and motor data securely.
Digit’s cloud-native architecture enables continuous scaling without manual intervention. The company relies on API gateways to authenticate every data exchange with hospitals, TPAs, garages, and partner systems, ensuring airtight access control.
“As one of the first insurers to be 100% on cloud, security and scalability are baked into our architecture,” says Shah. “Every rapid data flow is governed by API-level verification.”
This ensures the system can absorb surges—such as during floods or regional disasters—without compromising decision accuracy or data privacy.
Transparency as a Cultural Operating System
What makes Digit’s Transparency Report so unusual for the insurance sector is not just the data it publishes but the intent behind it. The company’s bi-annual report provides metrics that the typical policyholder rarely gets to see, such as minute-level TATs for approvals or customer service performance trends.
These disclosures are more than compliance—they function as a trust-building mechanism in a sector historically viewed with skepticism.
“There are areas of distrust customers typically have with insurance,” Shah says. “We wanted to address those with data and clarity.”
By revealing how fast it approves hospital requests or issues repair orders for vehicles, Digit signals an operational culture where performance is measured not by internal KPIs but by customer experience outcomes.
The Road Ahead: Insurance as a Real-Time Service
Digit’s data paints a future where insurance behaves less like a post-incident financial product and more like a real-time service layer—anticipatory, responsive, and deeply personalized.
Its invisible architecture—an interplay of cloud infrastructure, AI models, real-time pipelines, and human empathy—offers a blueprint for the next era of insurance modernization.
The numbers from H1FY26 aren’t just proof of efficiency; they are indicators of a structural transformation underway in India’s insurance industry. With AI-powered decisioning, conversational engagement platforms, and transparent reporting practices, Digit is shaping a new norm: an insurance experience where speed is expected, and empathy is engineered into every interaction.
Credit: Srikanth RP
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