Star Health Insurance sees bigger role for AI in claim settlement, to invest more on tech

Star Health and Allied Insurance Company expects the number of cashless claims settled using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to increase from the existing about 20% to upto 50% in the next two years.

Towards this the standalone health insurer is ramping up investments on technology covering different aspects of the business, from customer acquisition, claim settlement to cyber security. “Future is digital, tech, AI and we are investing heavily,” Whole-time Director Himanshu Walia said, estimating the investment on technology to increase from around ₹120 crore this fiscal to ₹200 in FY27.

Apart from helping reduce manual intervention and improve the turnaround time further, AI/ML deployment becomes important in terms of detecting fraud, he said in an interaction here on Friday (March 13, 2026). Star Health has developed AI models with data of last 20 years, ranging from specifics relating to particular markets, average length of stay in a particular hospital to cost of the disease.

Barring complicated cases requiring human intervention, most of the claims can be solved through AI, he said, adding “today 20% of our claims are being settled through AI.

To queries, he said for the health insurance industry the number of fraud claims is around 7-8% of the total.

The company said it handles over 5,800 claims every day, with 96% of cashless claims processed within three hours. In FY25, Star Health’s Gross Written Premium stood at ₹17,553 crore.

Speaking on the Star Health Insurance business in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Mr. Walia said the company covers over 24 lakh lives in the two States. The Gross Written Premium in the two States till February this fiscal was ₹1,990 crore and the region recorded 19% business growth over the same period last year.