National, April 6, 2026: Hansa Research has released the 6th edition of the Life Insurance Customer Experience Score (CuES) 2026 report, highlighting an important shift in the life insurance industry. While overall advocacy and experience ratings remain stable, brand connect is weakening and customer delight is declining. A combination of factors, including rising customer expectations, diminishing brand differentiation, and a lack of distinctive experiences is limiting customers’ willingness to rate experiences as exceptional and reducing the intensity of customer endorsement.

The report, based on feedback from over 3,500 customers across 12 life insurance brands, tracks customer experience, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviour, while ranking life insurers in India. The findings provide actionable insights for insurers to better align their strategies and investments in the year ahead.

 ‘Delight Dilution’: The Emerging Industry Challenge

The 2026 findings point to a clear trend of ‘Delight Dilution’ in the sector. While experience delivery across touchpoints remains consistent, insurers are struggling to convert satisfaction into strong advocacy. Notably, nearly 30% of customers fall into the ‘passive’ category and represent a latent risk, as they are satisfied but unlikely to actively recommend their insurer.

This trend is driven by:

• Limited differentiation in core brand values
• Experience satisfaction plateauing, with fewer “delight” moments 
• Channel-driven gaps, particularly within the agency model 
• Customer expectations now shaped by best-in-class experiences across industries 
• Digital capabilities are no longer serving as a differentiator, but a hygiene requirement

Sharing insights from Hansa Research’s Life Insurance CuES 2026 report, Praveen Nijhara, CEO, Hansa Research said, “Most life insurance companies have made significant strides in improving operational performance over the past few years, but experience delivery has now stabilized, with limited headroom for further driving ‘customer delight’. The industry is maintaining consistency but not elevating quality of experience, giving way to mere satisfaction with the brand. In this environment, brands are beginning to blend, reducing their ability to stand out and therefore driving convergence in customer perceptions. Loyalty will now increasingly depend on building more relevant and personal connections with customers through physical & digital platforms and customized service initiatives”.

 Piyali Chatterjee, Executive Vice President, CX, Hansa Research said, “With customer experience gaps becoming increasingly structural in the sector, segmented strategies based on an understanding of underlying drivers are becoming more critical. We now see the advent of Gen Z into the life insurance space, and they are emerging as the most critical and most demanding segment, with expectations that outpace both Millennials and older cohorts. Their preferences are shifting toward more seamless, transparent, and self-directed experiences. At the same time, we see some commonalities in this younger cohort as well. Both Gen Z and Millennials display lower advocacy, especially those acquired via the agency channel. The agency channel, in particular, is emerging as a ‘passive trap’, reflecting gaps in experience ownership and changing customer expectations. Going forward, insurers must recognize that one-size-fits-all strategies will no longer work across customer segments.”

Brand Highlights 

1. Axis Max Life Insurance emerges as the clear industry leader with an NPS of 61, delivering best-in-class performance across critical customer touchpoints, including purchase and onboarding, renewals, and customer communication. Strong perceptions around claim settlement, innovation, and digital capabilities further reinforce its leadership. 
2. Kotak Life Insurance ascends to #2, demonstrating consistent performance and strong customer advocacy.
3. HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential Life and Tata AIA Life Insurance feature among the top performers, jointly ranking at #3.
4. Ageas Federal Life Insurance breaks through to feature among the Top 10 Life Insurance Brands based on Customer Experience.
5. In contrast, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) registers the sharpest decline in customer advocacy, with its NPS dropping 10 points year-on-year, widening the gap with leading private insurers.

Key 2026 Trends Shaping the Industry

• Segmented Strategies Are Key to Winning in Life Insurance

Insurers need to recognize that age, gender, geography, and socio-economic factors influence how customers engage, perceive value, and remain loyal. Understanding these differences is key to creating targeted, differentiated experiences.

Top 3 Segment-Specific Insights:

1. Gen Z and Millennials Aren’t Monolithic: They display different expectations, preferences, and engagement patterns in life insurance. Gen Z rates pricing, digital experience, coverage, product range, and customization lower than Millennials, revealing higher expectations for transparency, personalization, and seamless digital journeys. Failing to differentiate among younger customers may result in suboptimal engagement and untapped potential.
2. Premium Customers have Premium Expectations: Given their lower satisfaction with customer-focused interactions such as responsiveness to queries, issue resolution, and personalized product recommendations as well as higher expectations for frequent engagement, high-income customers increasingly demand a more tailored, proactive, and high-touch approach from insurers.
3. Non-Metro Customers Agents and physical channels continue to play a disproportionately critical role in non-metro purchase decisions. Aspects related to details/ clarity provided about plans, policy approval timelines, TATs related to policy document receipt remain uneven outside metros.

2. Agency Channel Emerging as an ‘Engagement Bottleneck’
   The agency channel remains a key distribution route, especially in non-metro markets, and continues to drive customer engagement. However, relationships tend to be concentrated at the point of policy purchase, with minimal interaction afterward, making clear ownership of customer experience essential. Lower digital adoption and reliance on agents limit engagement with insurer platforms, while information asymmetry and agent-owned relationships further weaken ongoing connection with the brand. As it more popular with the older and less digitally active customers, it underscores the need for insurers to move beyond transactional touchpoints and build deeper, continuous connections.

1. Customers Are Evolving: Demanding Clarity, Seeking More Value, and Craving Emotional Connection 

Customers now expect clarity and simplicity across the journey, particularly during purchase. Their perception of value is shifting, as they compare insurance with other financial products on flexibility, benefits, and returns. At the same time, emotionally resonant experiences and ongoing engagement are becoming key drivers of loyalty, emphasizing the need for insurers to cultivate lasting, impactful customer relationships.

The Road Ahead

As the life insurance industry enters its next phase, the challenge is no longer just delivering consistent service but creating meaningful, relevant and resonating experiences in order to convert satisfaction into sustained advocacy.