Waterdrop (WDH) AI Insurance Agent Lifts First-Year Premium 25.6%

On its September 8, 2026 earnings call, Waterdrop Inc. (WDH) disclosed that first-year premium facilitated by its AI medical insurance experts rose 25.6% sequentially, and that AI-executed outreach in the WeCom channel contributed over 10 million yuan of first-year premium during the quarter. Waterdrop gave no premium base behind either line for its AI insurance agent[1].

Where the AI insurance agent sits inside Waterdrop's brokerage

Waterdrop is a Chinese insurtech company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its main business is the online insurance brokerage platform Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace: it underwrites no risk itself, sells partner insurers' medical, critical illness, accident and life policies to individual users, and collects a brokerage commission on the premium written.

The AI advisor sits directly on that brokerage line, in a core business step. When a user asks about insurance in the WeChat mini-program, the app, an outbound phone call or WeCom, the AI handles the consultation itself: it establishes the household and health situation, selects suitable products and explains the terms, answers hesitation, and then either writes the policy outright or hands a high-intent customer to a human life planner. AI Pro Insurance in the mini-program, the AI medical insurance experts in voice, and the AI outbound calling and AI super pre-sales assistant in WeCom are the same advisor under different channel names[1].

From capability claims to premium figures

The public record runs from capability toward business. On the June 5, 2024 call, the company said only that its AI broker had reached 98% of the average level of a human broker in the health insurance sector and could hold independent dialogues with clients for up to 40 minutes. No premium figure was attached[2].

By March 12, 2025, the capability had become a complete process: the AI could work through needs discovery, health risk modeling and policy interpretation on its own inside a voice call of up to fifteen minutes, optimizing itself on feedback from more than 100,000 interactions a day. Management tied premium in the millions of yuan per month to it for the first time, but gave only an order of magnitude[3].

On September 4, 2025, "AI medical insurance expert" became the fixed name for the voice channel, and the company gave a quarter-on-quarter measure for the first time: in that quarter the AI assisted in achieving a 155% increase in the scale of insurance premiums versus the prior quarter[4]. On March 25, 2026, first-year premium facilitated by the same AI medical insurance experts rose a further 145% sequentially, and that figure was carried in the company's written results announcement the same day[5]. As of September 8, 2026 the application is still on the same selling path, under the same name, and not folded into another business; what changed is that the figures from the separate touchpoints are now consolidated into one user-side measure[1].

What this quarter's numbers do and do not cover

Both figures are narrowly scoped. The 25.6% is the sequential change in first-year premium facilitated by the AI medical insurance experts, covering the touchpoints with deeper interaction; the company's total premium is not in it. The Mandarin remarks on the same call read the number as 15.6%, while the company's written announcement that day printed 25.6%, and the written figure governs[1].

The over 10 million yuan from the WeCom channel is an absolute first-year premium amount for the quarter, but it is a floor, and it may already sit inside the user-side AI premium total the company gave on the same call[1].

The 155%, the 145% and the 25.6% belong to different periods. The 155% is worded as premium the AI "assisted in achieving," and its base was a partial quarter that had only gone live that March. The three numbers do not connect into a single, consistently measured curve[4][5].

How the premium turns into revenue

The path from these premiums to revenue is clear; the amount is not. Premium facilitated by the AI advisor flows into platform first-year premium, and the brokerage commission Waterdrop charges on that premium is recorded in insurance-related income. This quarter insurance-related income rose both sequentially and year over year, and the company attributed the growth mainly to higher platform first-year premium, matching the direction and timing of the growth in AI-facilitated premium[1].

But the company has never broken out this application's contribution, and has disclosed neither the total premium it facilitates nor its commission rate. In the same quarter, sales expenses spent on third-party traffic acquisition rose 17.8% sequentially and 220.7% year over year, and new product launches and technology service revenue were moving in the same direction. Any one of those could account for the revenue change. The chain stops at a consistent direction; no amount can be derived from it.

What is confirmed and what is not

Confirmed: the AI advisor is already routine selling capacity inside Waterdrop's own channels. It runs the pre-sale conversation itself, and the first-year premium it facilitates has been measurable quarter by quarter for several consecutive quarters. Long-term policies are still closed by human life planners[1].

Not confirmed: what it is worth. An outsider would need the company to give the first-year premium amount this application facilitated and its share of platform first-year premium, or the corresponding brokerage commission, before its contribution to insurance-related income can be calculated.

Application assessment

• AI Insurance Sales and Consultation Agent | Business position: core business | Deployment stage: limited production | Scope: limited scope | Value type: revenue growth

Sources

[1] Drillr - Waterdrop Inc. (WDH) - 2026-09-08 - earnings call

"FYP, facilitated by our AI medical insurance experts, rose by 25.6% sequentially."

[2] Drillr - Waterdrop Inc. (WDH) - 2024-06-05 - earnings call

"Our AI broker has reached [ 98% ] of the average level of human broker in health insurance sector, capable of conducting independent dialogues with our clients for up to 40 minutes."

[3] Drillr - Waterdrop Inc. (WDH) - 2025-03-12 - earnings call

"Our AI agent can dynamically optimize LLM algorithms by learning from the operation feedback and sales outcomes through over 100,000 daily interactions."

[4] Drillr - Waterdrop Inc. (WDH) - 2025-09-04 - earnings call

"In Q2, it assisted in achieving a 155% increase in the scale of insurance premiums compared to Q1."

[5] Drillr - Waterdrop Inc. (WDH) - 2026-03-25 - earnings call

"On the user side, our AI Pro insurance agent on the mini program shows a 33% of sequential increase in premiums, while our AI medical insurance experts generated over 15 million in FIP at 145% quarter to quarter."