With personalization at the forefront of the health care and benefits conversation, AI will proliferate the industry and become a welcomed change. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Each new year brings with it challenges and opportunities for the health care and benefits space, and 2020 is no exception. With technical innovation rapidly evolving the way consumers connect to and pay for their health care, organizations need to look to the future to prepare their business to provide an experience that helps them better attract and retain talent.

Here are the top five trends I expect to shape health care and benefits in 2020 and beyond.

1. Personalization will take center stage.

For far too long, the health care market has taken a "peanut butter-spread" approach to deliver services and solutions. This means all consumers have been painted with the same brush, regardless of their unique needs and characteristics. This method isn't sustainable, and, in 2020, the industry will switch focus to optimize consumer engagement and leverage data-driven insights to deliver personalized guidance that consumers have become accustomed to across most other aspects of their lives.

2. Disruptive technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, will be vital to deliver a next-level consumer health care experience.

With personalization at the forefront of the health care and benefits conversation, AI will proliferate the industry and become a welcomed change that's been long overdue. Solution and service providers will use AI to analyze robust data sets with speed and accuracy that has yet to be achieved in the space. Access to data points that encompass a consumer's health history, income, personal risk factors, and various other personal traits, will enable market leaders to deliver holistic and micro-personalized health care recommendations.

3. Health savings accounts (HSAs) will continue to gain traction.

As consumers become more familiar with the value of HSAs, account adoption will continue to rise and consumers will become more engaged in their health care. I'll go so far as to say that there is a real potential for HSAs to become more popular than 401ks, especially when employers encourage adoption through account seeding, matching, and other incentive strategies.

4. Market consolidation will continue to make headlines.

As we've seen through recent deals like UnitedHealth Group's acquisition of PatientsLikeMe and the Cigna and Express Scripts merger, market consolidation is top of mind for major players, and we can expect that trajectory to continue in 2020. Some partnerships, like CVS, Aetna and PayFlex, bring together health coverage, care and payments. This model is perfectly positioned to transform the health care experience because of the trifecta's ability to simplify and optimize every touch point across a consumer's health care journey.

In addition to industry consolidation, I expect to see more non-health care players enter the market, bringing with them viable innovations that they've already perfected within their industry.

5. Consumer satisfaction will be a key initiative across the industry.

When we think about all the previous predictions holistically, one thing is clear: the health and benefits industry has finally shifted their focus to the consumer. I am enthused by the strides we are making, and I'm confident that these changes will generate better outcomes and more engaged health care consumers who will ultimately realize better health outcomes and more value from every dollar they spend or save.