Photo Credit: www.ergo.com
German insurer ERGO Group AG has announced an investment of more than €130 million over the next five years to expand its generative AI (GenAI) infrastructure worldwide. With its technology hub in Mumbai, Indian joint venture HDFC ERGO, and a new partnership with Bengaluru’s CamCom Technologies, India is emerging as a centerpiece in ERGO’s global digital strategy.
Building Scalable AI Capabilities
According to Mark Klein, Chief Digital Officer and Member of the Board of Management at ERGO Group, the funding will focus entirely on technology infrastructure.
“This is purely a technology investment—building the infrastructure for GenAI. It does not include operating costs or manpower,” Klein said.
He stressed that ERGO has already deployed more than 110 AI algorithms across different markets but is now entering a phase of scaling. “The time for pilots is over. These systems now have to deliver measurable business value,” he added.
Klein noted that scale is essential to sustainability: “AI doesn’t come cheap. If you don’t reuse assets and deploy solutions across markets, you will never arrive at a sustainable business case.”
India as a Global Capability Hub
ERGO’s technology services center in Mumbai, with over 600 employees, acts as a global capability hub. Klein said India offers both scale and speed in digital implementation:
“We are coming more into a global delivery model, and India offers a clear opportunity. The infrastructure here, including the Indian Stack, enables us to implement digital innovations faster than in Europe.”
HDFC ERGO, the group’s Indian joint venture with HDFC Bank, has been central to innovation. “In 2016, India was the first to implement a robot in our group. I took that back and by 2017 we had deployed robots across our operations. Today, we run over 500 bots globally,” Klein said, adding that India consistently ranks among the top two in ERGO’s internal digital performance benchmarks.
HDFC ERGO’s AI in Action
Parthanil Ghosh, Director at HDFC ERGO, highlighted how the Indian insurer is not only adopting but also shaping global best practices. “We have completely overhauled our core systems using Duck Creek, a low-code, modular platform. It allows us to launch new products faster and meet regulatory requirements more efficiently,” he explained.
HDFC ERGO has put generative AI into live production for underwriting and SME quote generation. “We built a platform called HEIQ, which takes unstructured data from brokers and generates quotes in under three minutes. This is a live solution, not a proof-of-concept,” Ghosh said.
To safeguard data, the company has partnered with IIT Bombay to develop secure small language models (SLMs). “We can’t risk exposing our customer data to public models. So we built proprietary SLMs over foundational models like ChatGPT or Gemini in a fully secure environment,” he added.
Klein acknowledged India’s leadership role within the group: “HDFC ERGO’s implementation of core system upgrades and GenAI is being tracked across the group. What they are doing is not just best practice for India—it’s becoming best practice for ERGO globally.”
Partnership with Bengaluru’s CamCom
In parallel, on August 2, 2025, ERGO Group announced a strategic partnership with CamCom Technologies, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech company specializing in computer vision.
Under the partnership, CamCom becomes ERGO’s primary technology partner for an AI-powered visual inspection solution already deployed in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, with phased rollouts planned across more European markets.
CamCom’s Large Vision Model (LVM)—trained on over 450 million validated images—allows customers to capture and upload images of vehicles or properties via smartphone, enabling precise and auditable pre-inspections and damage assessments.
“We are proud to be ERGO’s trusted technology partner,” said Geetha Sham, Director and President – Europe at CamCom. “This partnership marks a milestone in our global journey and reinforces our commitment to scalable, high-performance AI tailored to insurance.”
Klein echoed this view: “Good technology is not just innovative—it must be practical, customer-friendly and scalable. CamCom’s AI solution meets all these criteria, and we’re excited to expand this collaboration beyond India and into Europe.”
HDFC ERGO has already used CamCom’s technology in India. “Our long-standing partnership with CamCom has brought measurable improvements to our automotive claims and underwriting operations,” Ghosh said.
CamCom’s CEO Ajith Nayar added: “With the onboarding of an esteemed brand like ERGO Group AG, we are expanding our global footprint and reaffirming our commitment to AI innovation that drives real-world impact from India.”
Indo–German Innovation at the Core
The twin announcements—ERGO Group AG’s €130 million GenAI investment and its strategic partnership with Bengaluru-based CamCom—underscore how Indo–German collaboration is shaping the future of insurance technology. While Germany provides the scale, regulatory depth, and market demand, India contributes cutting-edge innovation, digital talent, and rapid deployment capabilities. Through its joint venture HDFC ERGO and partnerships with Indian deep-tech firms, ERGO is building a cross-border model of cooperation that highlights how Indo–German ties can accelerate digital transformation in critical sectors like insurance.
