Insurtech firm Hippo has announced the scaling of Hannah, its AI-powered service representative, marking a milestone in the company’s pivot toward AI-driven customer engagement.
Hannah is currently tasked with managing 100% of Hippo’s inbound service calls. The AI agent greets customers, authenticates their identity, and detects intent before either resolving the query or routing the caller to a licensed human agent.
Since the start of 2026, the digital agent has handled more than 28,000 service calls, effectively replacing traditional interactive voice response (IVR) menus with a conversational interface.
Kyle Ramsay, Hippo’s Chief Product and Artificial Intelligence Officer, said:
“Hannah isn’t a chatbot, she’s a digital member of our service team. Built with Hippo’s modern APIs, real-time data, and the latest AI models, Hannah can serve a growing range of customer needs. Alongside Clara in claims, Hannah reflects our broader strategy to apply AI agents across the insurance lifecycle to efficiently deliver seamless customer experiences.”
The deployment aims to eliminate the friction of rigid phone menus. By utilizing natural language understanding, Hippo reports that Hannah has maintained a 97% positive customer sentiment score. The system also provides 24/7 coverage, managing over 2,600 after-hours calls this year by answering FAQs or generating follow-up tickets for the next business day.
Data from the rollout suggests a measurable impact on operational efficiency. While a portion of calls are fully resolved by the AI, the hybrid model has accelerated human-led interactions by 12%, saving approximately 60 seconds per call by completing the authentication and context-gathering phase before the handoff.
Hippo’s Chief Operations Officer, Laura Boettcher, commented:
“Our goal is to transform the customer experience by eliminating long hold times and the frustration of rigid IVR menus, replacing them with immediate, intelligent support. Hannah is already resolving 5% of calls, saving agents more than 600 interactions per month and reducing average call handle time by a minute by handling routine needs instantly and connecting customers to the right licensed human agent faster than ever before — ensuring customers still receive the empathy and expertise that only a human can provide when it matters most.”
Hippo has recently expanded Hannah’s capabilities to handle policy verification requests from mortgage lenders, a category that represents 15% of the company’s inbound volume. The roadmap for the remainder of 2026 includes adding support for coverage inquiries, payments, and document requests. By early 2027, Hippo projects that Hannah will fully resolve more than 50% of all customer interactions.
By placing the AI at the very front of 100% of inbound calls, Hippo is moving toward a zero-wait environment. The 12% reduction in average handle time (AHT) via automated authentication is a significant win for operational efficiency, but the real impact lies in the hybrid handoff.
In high-stakes sectors like insurance, the ability for an AI to capture context before a seamless transfer to a human specialist is becoming the gold standard for maintaining high CSAT scores while scaling operations.
As Hippo aims for a 50% full-resolution rate by 2027, the industry will be watching to see if AI can maintain empathy and accuracy in complex, regulated environments.