The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has constituted a seven-member Working Group on AI (WG-AI) to guide regulated entities in the insurance sector on the adoption, governance, and oversight of artificial intelligence technologies. The group is chaired by Prof. Sandeep K Shukla, Director of the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, while Deepak Gaikwad, General Manager and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at IRDAI, serves as the member-convener. The WG-AI has been tasked with submitting its recommendations within three months, covering governance frameworks, best practices, and safeguards to ensure responsible AI deployment while protecting policyholder interests.
What Is IRDAI?
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is a statutory body established under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999. It operates under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, and is headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. IRDAI is responsible for regulating, promoting, and ensuring the orderly growth of the insurance and reinsurance industries in India, while protecting the interests of policyholders.
The authority comprises a 10-member body including a chairperson, five full-time members, and four part-time members, all appointed by the Government of India. As of 2026, IRDAI is chaired by Ajay Seth, an IAS officer.
What Is the Working Group on AI?
The Working Group on AI (WG-AI) is a seven-member expert panel constituted by IRDAI through an office order dated 17 June 2026. Its primary purpose is to study the impact of AI on the insurance ecosystem and recommend a comprehensive governance framework for its responsible adoption by regulated entities.
The WG-AI reflects a growing recognition among financial sector regulators in India that AI technologies, while offering significant benefits in efficiency and customer service, also introduce new dimensions of ethical, operational, and cybersecurity risks that require regulatory oversight. The group has been given a three-month deadline to submit its recommendations to the Member (Finance and Investment) of IRDAI.
Composition of the WG-AI
The seven-member working group brings together expertise from academia, cybersecurity, technology, and the insurance industry. The full composition is as follows:
| Role | Name | Designation |
|---|---|---|
| Chairperson | Prof. Sandeep K Shukla | Director, IIIT Hyderabad |
| Member-Convener | Deepak Gaikwad | General Manager and CISO, IRDAI |
| Member | Nandakumar Saravade | Former CEO, ReBIT (Reserve Bank Information Technology) |
| Member | Ashutosh Bahuguna | Scientist, CERT-In |
| Member | Manoj Nayak | CISO, SBI Life Insurance |
| Member | Shivanath Somanathan | CISO, Star Health and Allied Insurance |
| Member | Steve D’Souza | Chief Risk Officer, ICICI Lombard General Insurance |
Chairperson: Prof. Sandeep K Shukla
Prof. Sandeep K Shukla is a distinguished academic and researcher in cybersecurity and embedded systems. He holds a PhD from the State University of New York at Albany and has previously served as a faculty member at Virginia Tech, USA, and as a professor at IIT Kanpur, where he founded the National Interdisciplinary Centre for Cyber Security and Cyber Defense of Critical Infrastructures (C3i Centre). He joined IIIT Hyderabad as Director in August 2025. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the President of the United States.
Member-Convener: Deepak Gaikwad
Deepak Gaikwad serves as the General Manager and Chief Information Security Officer at IRDAI. As member-convener, he is responsible for coordinating the working group’s activities and ensuring effective collaboration among members.
Mandate and Scope of the WG-AI
The working group has a broad and detailed mandate covering multiple dimensions of AI adoption in the insurance sector. Its key responsibilities include:
Assessing AI Adoption and Maturity
The WG-AI will evaluate the current state of AI deployment across insurance companies, including the types of AI systems in use, the maturity of their implementation, and the existing level of AI governance within regulated entities. This baseline assessment is critical for understanding where the sector stands before any framework is designed.
Developing an AI Governance Framework
The group will propose a comprehensive governance framework for the ethical, transparent, and explainable adoption of AI tools and models. This framework will specifically address AI applications in claims processing and fraud prevention, two areas where automated decision-making carries the highest regulatory and reputational exposure for insurers.
Reviewing Global Regulatory Approaches
The WG-AI will study how financial regulators and insurance authorities in other jurisdictions have approached AI oversight. This international benchmarking will help India adopt global best practices while tailoring them to the domestic insurance landscape.
Suggesting an AI Audit Framework
A critical deliverable is the design of an audit framework covering both pre-deployment and post-deployment requirements for AI systems. This means insurers will need to demonstrate that an AI tool has been vetted before going live and will continue to be monitored for performance, fairness, and compliance after deployment.
Examining Frontier AI Threats
The group will assess the impact of cutting-edge AI tools, including frontier AI models capable of autonomous vulnerability discovery. It will also examine the need for sector-wide stress testing to measure the insurance industry’s resilience against AI-driven cyber threats.
Identifying Skill Gaps and Capacity Building
The WG-AI will identify skill shortages and capacity-building needs across the insurance sector, ensuring that the workforce is prepared to handle AI-related challenges effectively.
Bigger Picture: IRDAI’s Proactive Regulatory Approach
The constitution of the WG-AI is the latest in a series of proactive regulatory measures by IRDAI aimed at modernising India’s insurance sector while safeguarding consumer interests.
Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act, 2025
In December 2025, Parliament passed the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025, which amended the Insurance Act, 1938, the LIC Act, 1956, and the IRDA Act, 1999. The landmark legislation allowed up to 100% FDI in Indian insurance companies under the automatic route, up from 74%, and established the Policyholders’ Education and Protection Fund to promote insurance literacy. It also mandated policyholder data protection in alignment with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. The WG-AI’s focus on data protection and ethical AI use directly complements this legislative framework.
Revised Cybersecurity Guidelines, April 2026
In April 2026, IRDAI issued significantly revised Information and Cybersecurity Guidelines, marking a shift from compliance-based checklists to continuous cyber resilience. Key changes included the requirement for the CISO to report independently outside IT hierarchies, quarterly board-level cybersecurity reporting, and mandatory grey-white box penetration testing by CERT-In empaneled auditors.
Growing AI Adoption in Insurance
The timing of the WG-AI is significant. Indian insurers are rapidly adopting AI across multiple functions. Chatbots handle customer queries, machine learning models assess risk and price premiums, computer vision processes claim images, and natural language processing extracts data from documents. The global insurance AI market is projected to grow substantially, and Indian insurers do not want to be left behind. However, without proper governance, automated systems can produce biased outcomes, make errors in claims decisions, or expose sensitive customer data, creating accountability gaps that the WG-AI is being asked to address.
Way Forward
The WG-AI has until mid-September 2026 to submit its recommendations. Based on these recommendations, IRDAI is expected to issue formal guidelines or regulations governing AI use in the insurance sector. The audit framework, in particular, is likely to become a mandatory compliance requirement for all insurers and intermediaries.
The working group’s recommendations could reshape how insurers develop, procure, and deploy AI systems in India. Areas likely to see significant regulatory attention include algorithmic transparency requirements, mandatory bias testing for underwriting and claims models, data localisation and privacy safeguards aligned with the DPDP Act, 2023, and disclosure norms for AI-driven customer interactions.
For policyholders, the expected outcome is greater protection against unfair outcomes from automated decisions and stronger data privacy safeguards. For the insurance industry, the WG-AI’s work will provide much-needed regulatory clarity, enabling responsible innovation within a structured framework.
Key Takeaways
- The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) constituted a seven-member Working Group on AI (WG-AI) on 17 June 2026 to guide AI adoption, governance, and oversight in the insurance sector.
- The WG-AI is chaired by Prof. Sandeep K Shukla, Director of IIIT Hyderabad, with Deepak Gaikwad, GM and CISO of IRDAI, serving as member-convener.
- The group will develop governance frameworks, an AI audit framework covering pre-deployment and post-deployment requirements, and assess frontier AI threats and sector-wide stress testing needs.
- IRDAI is a statutory body established under the IRDA Act, 1999, operating under the Ministry of Finance, with headquarters in Hyderabad, Telangana.
- The WG-AI’s formation follows IRDAI’s revised Information and Cybersecurity Guidelines (April 2026) and the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act, 2025, which allowed 100% FDI in insurance and mandated policyholder data protection under the DPDP Act, 2023.
- The group must submit its recommendations within three months to the Member (Finance and Investment) of IRDAI.
