The future is now: How is technology impacting the benefits industry?
We asked our readers how will technology impact benefits, health care, and the future of our industry?
Ignore at your peril
The impact of AI on employee benefits, health care, and insurance is going to be significant in the near future. It’s not a matter of whether these sectors will be affected, but rather how much. Only intentional slowdown or significant government intervention can stop AI’s momentum. In the benefits industry, AI will transform the way claims are analyzed, fraud is detected, customer interactions take place via chatbot, and diagnosis assistance is provided, among other things.
Brokers will have a dizzying array of vendors to choose from, making it challenging to identify reliable and ethical partners. To lighten the administrative burden, AI can help streamline back-office processes, become a valuable ally to marketing departments, or even be the marketing department where resources are thin. While some may be hesitant to embrace these significant changes, those who do will enjoy a distinct competitive advantage. AI is not here to replace the key players in the benefits industry; it will instead displace those who fail to leverage its power and take their value and abilities upstream.
In short, AI is poised to reshape the employee benefits landscape. Those who fail to adapt risk falling behind their competitors, while those who embrace the potential of AI will thrive and take the industry to new heights.
Jamie Nelson, director of content development, Zywave
Planting seeds
AI technologies like ChatGPT are making waves across industries, including health care and benefits, in ways that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. As a tech-savvy nurse working in the benefits space, I have seen firsthand how AI is transforming our work, streamlining processes and enhancing connectivity. This development is more than a fleeting trend; it marks the beginning of a new era that will continue to shape our future.
Drawing inspiration from James Bridle’s insightful book, “Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence,” I envision AI’s impact on health care, benefits, and the industry at large as an opportunity to reevaluate our relationship with intelligence. Our innate curiosity often leads us to explore other forms of intelligence, yet we frequently overlook the fascinating examples present in nature, such as plants, animals, and even microbes.
AI encourages us to expand our perspectives, pushing us to move beyond our human-centric mindset and embrace the diverse intelligence that surrounds us. Ultimately, I hope that our pursuit of AI will foster a greater sense of humility within the industry, prompting us to appreciate the non-human intelligence that is all around us and diminish our egocentric views and solutions. As we once learned that the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth, we must also acknowledge that we are not the smartest kids in the room. While the journey with AI may present various obstacles and unforeseen challenges, it can also inspire us to embrace our humanity even more. This shift is a positive development for the industry. By becoming more human as a result of AI, we can unlock untapped potential and drive innovation in health care, benefits, and beyond, ultimately planting the seeds for a future that transcends our wildest expectations.
Michelle Bernabe, RN, head of clinical, First Tracks
A good start
It’s remarkable how quickly you can cull together statistics or organize plans around a business objective using ChatGPT. Of course, it’s only a start for us, because we don’t believe it can completely remove the need for a human touch or set of eyes. As wonderful as it is for business objectives, we wouldn’t use it as a way to gather clinical information.
Sally Pace, CEO, Connect Healthcare Collaboration
A balancing act
With the help of our forward thinking squad members, we intend to be on the bleeding edge of using ChatGPT in our employee engagement efforts.
Our goal is to use AI to enhance the tone and language of our employee engagement/education programs. We believe this will help brokers and employees understand the value of unbundled plans: how to access care, the types of benefits available, and why any of this matters.
We are also using it to create consistent educational and value-based content to ensure continued awareness and understanding of benefits at the member level. In addition, we’ve begun using it for some of our internal marketing to help bring awareness about industry changes.
There’s a lot to unpack. This is something that’s pretty new and we aren’t doing everything consistently yet. Just really trying to figure out how to make it part of our process while maintaining our human touch.
Joel Daniels, CEO, Revolution Benefits Group
Read more: Finding the right tech-enabled solutions for employee benefits
Unprecedented customization
The rise of artificial intelligence is already transforming the employee benefits industry in ways that were once unimaginable. Modern brokers will employ AI-driven tools to craft highly personalized and optimized benefits packages, tailored to suit the unique preferences and needs of each employee.
This unprecedented level of customization will not only enable brokers to provide superior service, but also allow them to offer a wider array of services, driving greater benefits engagement and satisfaction. HR professionals will be able to offload increasingly complex and context-dependent tasks to their brokers, freeing them up to concentrate on more strategic initiatives.
Ultimately, the AI-driven revolution in the industry will be a boon for brokers, employees, and HR teams alike. As AI ushers in a new era of hyper-personalization and data-driven decision-making, leading brokers will be well-positioned to expand service lines while improving their core offerings.
Donald DeSantis, co-founder, Nava
Endless possibilities
Thinking about where AI will take the industry is exciting, but I believe the conversation has a different impact depending upon the stakeholder.
AI can assist in educating consumers regarding their benefit plan–offering explanations and examples on topics like deductibles, coinsurance, and in and out-of-network benefits. AI may also one day assist the consumer in their purchasing decisions and could even reach a place where it will give cost and quality information about providers and health systems.
For risk managers, AI may assist in estimating or forecasting costs and outcomes for specific diseases or potentially model risk and probability scenarios.
There are other stakeholders to consider, but I wanted to point out a couple to show its impact. AI certainly brings a very exciting opportunity.
Perry Braun, president & CEO, Benefit Advisors Network (BAN)
An unknown future
I sincerely believe that ChatGPT or other AI platforms could put us out of business in five years, but it doesn’t have the creativity yet. We’re using ChatGPT to create employee communication and other written materials and it does a pretty darn good job. I also recently used it to write a promotional email for a webinar on gene therapy. We’re still trying to understand what it’s all about. When it comes to mitigating risk, computers might be able to do it faster and better than all of us in the not too distant future, but we’ve got to keep the soft side going.
Mike Hill, founder, Total Control Health Plans
A place for everything…
I’m looking forward to when ChatGPT takes the next layer of administrative processes off of our hands. The less time we spend on that, the more time we can spend on things ChatGPT cannot do, like expressing empathy and dealing with complex issues with many moving parts. That’s our value.
Alison de Paoli, founder, Altiqe
We’re getting there
Text generative models are currently capable of providing conversational information on general insurance topics, but they presently lack a reliable means for dynamic consulting that consumes real-time datasets to distill market information. However, they could be used to support conceptual decision-making logic.
For example, ChatGPT could answer “please help me understand HSA plans and common strategies”.
It could not reliably answer: “Here is a data-set of 15 HSA options for my company. Please help me select the plan that offers the lowest out-of-pocket expenses for my employees, with a total premium below X.”
Looking forward, when text generative models are fully integrated with traditional computing, it will be able to simulate benefits consulting.
Dinesh Sheth, CEO and founder, Green Circle Life
A wonderful tool, but…
I have been blown away by how much ChatGPT knows about our industry. I asked it some relatively complex questions about HRAs, HSAs, ICHRAs, QSEHRAs, and POP plans this week and it responded with about 90% accuracy. I taught it things it didn’t know, and it generated an A+ response in seconds with the new info I’d taught it. I have also worked with some big agencies that are trying out ChatGPT for their service team and clients and I think it’s a big thing coming to our industry. But, it does not replace real human thought, creativity, and reasoning. Like a calculator, it’s an amazing tool. But you need to have a strong understanding of the basics and fundamentals of writing, communicating and the subject you’re asking about to use the technology properly.
Paul Roberts, senior director, education and market development, Word & Brown Agency
Related: What you need to know about using ChatGPT for benefit administration
It’s time
AI and ChatGPT will personalize employee benefits, predict health risks, and provide instant answers to employees’ questions. We have used AI to drive our company’s decision reports. AI has helped employees find the best mix of benefits in the ICHRA industry for over two years now. Employees with chronic health needs like diabetes and COPD, or who just want the best plan for mental health, can easily find the plans that offer the best benefits for a condition instantly, just by answering a few questions. While AI and ChatGPT can enhance the employee benefits experience, there are challenges to overcome, such as privacy concerns and biases.
Overall, AI and ChatGPT will automate employee benefits administration, increase efficiency, and improve customer experience in the industry.
Brad O’Neill, co-founder of The ICHRA Shop
Read until the end
ChatGPT and similar language models have indeed gained significant attention in recent times, and they can potentially have several impacts on the employee benefits industry. While the extent of their adoption and usage by benefit advisers may vary, these tools can provide valuable assistance in their day-to-day work.
Regarding the future impact of ChatGPT, it is not merely a fad but rather represents the wave of the future. As the technology matures, we can expect increased integration of language models into various industries, including employee benefits and health care.
I believe ChatGPT and similar language models have the potential to significantly impact the employee benefits industry, health care, and the future of the health care industry. They can streamline communication, improve decision-making, enhance education and guidance, and automate administrative tasks. While their adoption may vary among benefit advisors, these tools represent a significant technological advancement and are likely to become more prevalent in the coming years.
Guess what? All of that was produced by ChatGPT. Gotcha!
Eric Silverman, founder, Voluntary Disruption