She is cute in traditional fashion but clever in the ways of modern IT and is simplifying life insurance with cybernetic panache.

Anyone browsing Ceylinco Life’s website can now meet ‘Ceylena,’ the life insurance leader’s newly introduced virtual assistant who is available 24/7 to answer all insurance related questions instantly and point visitors to specific web pages that would be of use.

The Chatbot or Artificial Conversational Entity sits at the bottom right corner of the home page of www.ceylincolife.com, and upon clicking, offers the option to engage as a ‘New Customer,’ an ‘Existing Customer,’ or simply as someone interested in finding out answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). Visitors can currently engage with ‘Ceylena’ through text chats in English, but this feature will soon be available in Sinhala and Tamil too, the Company said.

New customers can ask ‘Ceylena,’ just about any general enquiry that would enable them to pick the right policy for themselves – be it life insurance, a retirement plan, or to plan for a child’s education; know more about Ceylinco Life; find the closest branch; know about payment options and methods; and even make appointments to meet with a sales agent.

Existing customers can inquire about basic policy details and can make service requests such as policy changes, address change, contact details change and add benefits among other things, once they provide their policy number or national identity card number to ‘Ceylena.’

‘Ceylena’ also provides answers to FAQs including to questions about reviving lapsed policies, claims, bonuses, cancellations, credit card standing orders and loans. Alternatively, during the conversation with ‘Ceylena,’ visitors can also opt to connect with a live agent, available during the usual business hours.

Commenting on the launch of ‘Ceylena’ the Chatbot, Ceylinco Life Managing Director and CEO Mr Thushara Ranasinghe said: “Ceylena is expected to change the way consumers, especially the younger generations, interact with our brand. The chatbot will be constantly accessible 365 days of the year, round the clock and its response time will be faster than even the best manned live chat service. The best things about it is that ‘Ceylena’ can engage with an infinite number of different chats simultaneously, so no one will be put on hold or have to wait for a response hereafter. Accurate information will be provided instantaneously, when one asks her.”

Customers will be authenticated via a one-time password (OTP), which makes ‘Ceylena’ a secure platform. Although this chatbot is currently only on the Life Insurance’s leader’s corporate website, it will soon make an appearance on the Company’s Facebook page and other social media channels too.

A chatbot is a computer programme that simulates human conversation through voice commands, text chats or both. Chatbot applications streamline interactions between people and services, enhancing customer experience. They offer new opportunities to improve the customers’ engagement process and operational efficiency. The combination of different artificial intelligence forms such as natural language processing, machine learning and semantic understanding make chatbots user friendly.

The market leader in Sri Lanka’s life insurance industry for 16 of the 32 years it has been in operation, Ceylinco Life has close to a million lives covered by active policies and is acknowledged as a benchmark in the local insurance industry for innovation, product research and development, customer service, professional development and corporate social responsibility.

Ceylinco Life was adjudged Sri Lanka’s most valuable life insurance brand by Brand Finance in 2019, ranked among the 10 ‘Most Admired Companies’ in the country by the ICCSL & CIMA this year, named the Best Life Insurer in Sri Lanka for the sixth consecutive year in 2019 by World Finance, and has also been declared the most popular life insurance company in the country for the past 13 years by SLIM-Nielsen.