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Benefits

Cookie Cutter Benefits Decision Support Just Can’t Cut It

Dana Borrero

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the benefits landscape is no longer a distant possibility—it’s happening now, reshaping how we approach employee benefits. For carriers, this evolution brings both exciting opportunities and challenges, prompting a reevaluation of strategies and how we engage with employees. In this post, we explore how AI is transforming the benefits industry and what it means for carriers.

### Personalization at Scale

Imagine a world where every employee receives a benefits package specifically tailored to their needs and future goals. AI makes this a reality by analyzing vast amounts of data to offer personalized benefit recommendations. This goes beyond just matching benefits to current needs—AI can also predict future needs based on historical data and trends.

This not only enhances employee satisfaction and retention but also strengthens the carrier’s position in the market and aligns with optimizing resources for employers [as over 60% of employers feel that it is somewhat or very likely that employees at their company will expect a wider variety of benefits options in the future](https://www.ey.com/en_us/insights/insurance/the-future-of-workforce-benefits).

### Streamlined Claims Processing

Think about the frustration employees feel when dealing with slow, error-prone claims processes. AI is transforming this by making claims processing faster, more accurate, and less cumbersome. Machine learning models quickly assess claims, detect anomalies, and flag potential fraud, reducing the burden on human teams. This efficiency speeds up the process and cuts costs associated with errors and fraudulent claims. 

One of our customers and partners, [Aflac has capitalized on AI to augment the process of claims adjudication](https://aibusiness.com/ml/aflac-cio-on-developing-ai-models-from-end-to-end#close-modal). This is an example of how carriers that adopt AI-driven claims processing can deliver a smoother, more satisfactory experience for their clients, setting themselves apart in a competitive market.

### Predictive Analytics for Proactive Management

AI-powered predictive analytics allow carriers to anticipate trends and behaviors, enabling more proactive management of benefits plans. By analyzing data patterns, AI can predict which benefits employees are likely to use and identify potential risks or coverage gaps. This insight allows carriers to design plans that are more comprehensive and adaptable to changing employee needs.

This level of personalization not only enhances employee satisfaction and retention but also contributes to measurable cost savings for carriers by reducing turnover and boosting productivity. 

### Enhanced Communication and Engagement

AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants are transforming carrier-client communication. These tools provide instant responses to queries, personalized advice, and guide employees through complex benefits information. Continuous and personalized interaction demystifies benefits, making them more accessible and understandable to employees.

Carriers that integrate AI in their communication strategies achieve higher engagement rates, as employees feel more informed and supported. This increased engagement leads to better utilization of benefits and a more positive perception of the carrier.

### Boosting Operational Efficiency and Reducing Costs

AI automates routine tasks, freeing up human resources for more strategic initiatives. Whether it’s underwriting or customer service, AI can handle many functions with greater speed and accuracy. This automation leads to significant cost savings and operational efficiencies, which can be passed on to clients in the form of better pricing and enhanced services.

For carriers, embracing AI means streamlining operations and reallocating resources towards innovation and client-focused strategies, positioning themselves as leaders in the benefits space.

### Navigating the Challenges

While the benefits of AI are substantial, carriers must also navigate some challenges. Data privacy and security are top concerns, as integrating AI involves handling sensitive employee information. Robust data protection measures are essential to maintain trust and comply with regulations.

Additionally, transitioning to AI-driven processes requires significant investment in technology and training. Carriers must be ready to invest in the necessary infrastructure and upskill their workforce to effectively use AI tools.

### Conclusion

AI is undeniably transforming the employee benefits landscape, offering carriers new ways to grow, improve efficiency, and enhance client satisfaction. By embracing AI, carriers can deliver personalized, efficient, and proactive solutions that meet the evolving needs of today’s workforce. However, this transformation must be managed responsibly, ensuring that AI’s benefits are realized without compromising data security and compliance.

Data is the foundation of AI. Carriers that smartly gather and use high-quality data can make their AI systems more accurate and effective. As carriers navigate this AI-driven evolution, those who strategically integrate these technologies into their operations will lead the benefits industry, providing unmatched value to their clients and setting new standards for the future.






Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the employee benefits landscape, offering carriers opportunities to personalize benefits, streamline claims processing, and boost operational efficiency. Explore how AI-driven solutions are reshaping the industry and what this means for the future of benefits management.

Blog Posts

How AI is Revolutionizing the Benefits Landscape

The landscape of employee benefits is undergoing a significant transformation. As the workforce evolves and technology advances, the way we think about and deliver benefits is changing rapidly. For benefits professionals, staying ahead of these changes is crucial to providing the most value to clients and employees alike.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the emerging trends and technologies that are set to shape the future of employee benefits. From personalized benefits packages to the integration of AI, these innovations promise to redefine how benefits are offered, managed, and perceived.

## 1. Personalization of Benefits Packages
In the past, one-size-fits-all benefits packages were the norm. However, as workforces become more diverse, the need for personalized benefits has grown. Employees now expect benefits that cater to their unique needs and lifestyles, whether that’s flexible work arrangements, mental health support, or financial wellness programs.

**What’s Next:** With the help of advanced data analytics and AI, companies can offer hyper-personalized benefits packages that align with individual employee preferences. This shift not only boosts employee satisfaction but also enhances engagement and retention.

## 2. The Rise of Mental Health and Well-being Programs
The importance of mental health in the workplace has gained significant attention in recent years. As a result, employers are increasingly prioritizing mental health and well-being programs within their benefits offerings. These programs range from access to counseling services and stress management resources to wellness apps that promote mindfulness and mental resilience.

**What’s Next:** Expect to see even more innovative mental health solutions, such as AI-driven mental health chatbots and personalized well-being platforms that provide employees with real-time support and resources tailored to their needs.

## 3. Telemedicine and Virtual Care
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of telemedicine and virtual care, making it a permanent fixture in the benefits landscape. Employees now expect the convenience of accessing healthcare services remotely, whether it’s for routine check-ups, mental health consultations, or specialist appointments.

**What’s Next:** The integration of telemedicine with wearable technology and health data analytics will enable even more comprehensive and personalized healthcare solutions. Employers will increasingly offer virtual health benefits as a standard part of their packages, ensuring that employees have access to quality care anytime, anywhere.

## 4. Financial Wellness Programs
As financial stress becomes a growing concern for employees, financial wellness programs are gaining traction as a key component of benefits packages. These programs offer resources and tools to help employees manage their finances, plan for retirement, and reduce debt.

**What’s Next:** The future of financial wellness lies in the integration of AI-powered financial planning tools and personalized financial coaching. These technologies will provide employees with real-time insights and recommendations tailored to their financial goals and circumstances, helping them achieve greater financial security and peace of mind.

## 5. AI and Automation in Benefits Administration
Artificial intelligence and automation are transforming benefits administration, making it more efficient and user-friendly. From automating routine tasks like benefits enrollment to using AI-powered chatbots for answering employee questions, these technologies are streamlining the benefits experience.

**What’s Next:** AI will continue to play a pivotal role in benefits administration, with the potential to predict employee needs and suggest benefits adjustments proactively. Additionally, blockchain technology could be leveraged to enhance transparency and security in benefits management, ensuring that employees’ sensitive data is protected.

## 6. Focus on Holistic Employee Well-being
The concept of employee well-being is expanding beyond physical health to include mental, emotional, and financial well-being. Employers are recognizing the importance of supporting employees in all aspects of their lives, leading to the development of holistic well-being programs.

**What’s Next:** Look for benefits packages that integrate well-being initiatives across multiple dimensions, offering a comprehensive approach to employee health. This might include access to mental health resources, financial planning tools, fitness programs, and even social well-being initiatives that foster community and connection among employees.

## 7. Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility
As employees become more socially conscious, they expect their employers to reflect these values in their benefits offerings. Companies are increasingly incorporating sustainability and corporate responsibility into their benefits packages, offering perks like green commuting options, volunteering opportunities, and support for charitable giving.

**What’s Next:** Sustainability will become a central theme in benefits design, with employers offering eco-friendly benefits and programs that align with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. This not only appeals to socially conscious employees but also helps companies build a positive brand image.

The future of employee benefits is bright, with emerging trends and technologies offering new opportunities to enhance employee satisfaction, engagement, and well-being. For benefits professionals, staying informed and adapting to these changes will be key to delivering value and staying competitive in an ever-evolving landscape. By embracing these innovations, you can help your clients build benefits packages that not only meet the needs of today’s workforce but also prepare them for the challenges of tomorrow.

Discover the emerging trends and technologies shaping the future of employee benefits, from AI to personalized packages, and stay ahead in the evolving benefits landscape.

The Future of Benefits: Emerging Trends and Technologies

The traditional way of communicating a company’s employee benefits to their workforce typically looks something like this: a 30-page benefits booklet that no one reads and a once-a-year Open Enrollment campaign with a flurry of emails that no one opens. Or if they do, they click out immediately due to the length or seeming lack of relevance. Discouraging, no? 

Is it any wonder that employee benefits satisfaction reached a 10 year low in 2023?¹ It shouldn’t be, given the staggering lack of awareness and knowledge about benefits in general, and in particular, how you can get the most value or savings from them. Consider the following dismal facts:
- 92% of Americans don’t leverage most preventative care measures.² 
- 91% of Americans don’t understand these four basic health insurance terms: premium, deductible, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximum.³
- 80% of employees never open benefits communications at all.⁴
- 64% of employers only communicate about benefits during Open Enrollment.⁵
- 49% of employees don’t understand their benefits in general.⁶
- 26% of Millennials would rather clean a toilet than research their health benefits.⁷
- 12% of US adults have proficient health literacy—meaning, the skills to process, understand, and act on health information to make appropriate choices.⁸ 

It’s clear that something has to change if employers expect to attract and retain talent based on the value of their benefits package. Because let’s face it—that intended value is only helpful for recruitment and retention if it’s actually realized, which is not happening in far too many cases. But how do you educate employees about their benefits without it feeling generic or overly complex? 

## Pivoting from HR communications to human solutions

Put yourself in the mindset of a busy employee. No one has much time for HR communications, and if it’s not something pressing, they’re likely to skip it. But they do like hearing about solutions to their actual day-to-day problems. (And in general, they like hearing about themselves. Who doesn’t?) That’s why at Nayya, we look at benefits communications as helping employees solve their life problems.

Employees like to be treated as humans with unique needs, worries, and preferences. They’re dealing with specific concerns and stressors at every stage of life, from cost-of-living pressures to growing a family to managing chronic conditions. They want to receive benefits that will fit within their budget while helping them cope with various pain points. So for example, instead of just telling employees what something is, tell them about the potential savings and how it makes their money go further. 

In other words, make sure you emphasize the benefits of your benefits. How do they make life easier or better? Real-world examples are especially effective. So when possible, collect and share stories of employees who’ve saved big or dramatically improved their physical or mental health as vivid proof of how your benefits are providing meaningful solutions. That’s something people won’t forget. 

And if you’re still uncertain how to make your benefits communications more solution-oriented, here’s a good rule of thumb. Simply answer this question: “What’s in it for me?” If you know that answer, you can send the right message to the right people at the right time, which is the key to everything when it comes to benefits communications. Because solutions are great, but timely solutions are the best of all.

## How to communicate in a more human way

At Nayya, we specialize in driving benefits engagement with digital-first user experiences that deliver hyper-relevant recommendations at scale. Our targeted awareness-building communications come before, during, and long after Open Enrollment, because a good benefits communications strategy should not be contained to a single week or two. 

Benefits literacy and plan adoption should be ongoing goals, as far as we’re concerned. And we’ve proven as much with our data-driven content, skilled audience management, and successful enrollment outcomes. Case in point: groups who use Nayya-led enrollment emails see a 280% increase in benefits utilization compared to those who don’t.⁹ 

So what are some of the best practices we’ve developed along the way? Here are our three stages for next-leveling your benefits communications, along with a host of tips and ideas: 

#### **Level 1**
- **Personalize your communications.** This is probably the lowest-hanging fruit, but not one to overlook, given that we’ve found that just including a person’s first name in the subject line of your email can increase open rates by up to 40%. So yes, it’s worth the effort.
- **Keep it brief, with a strong call to action.** Write the email. Then shorten it. Also, what exactly are you asking people to do? We’ve found that our click-through rate increased by 67% when we eliminated unnecessary language and made our calls to action clearer. 
- **Employ a scannable email format.** That means bite-size blocks, bullets or checklists, callout quotes, visual aids like charts or graphs, and other elements that make it easy to digest the email without having to think too hard or piece together information. 
- **Lower the reading level and avoid jargon.** Consider writing to a 5th to 8th grade reading level and using online tools to confirm you’ve done so. Also, translate jargon and acronyms into layman’s terms, such as explaining that an out-of-pocket maximum is the most you’ll pay in a given year.

#### **Level 2**
- **Segment your audience.** The demographic data that employers already have on hand can help drive higher engagement—but it’s rarely used. An example of a light lift would be using age data to highlight benefits more likely to be relevant to various age brackets, such as:
 - Fertility benefits for those in their 30s and 40s
 - Annual colorectal cancer screenings for those over 45
 - Medicare information for those approaching eligibility 
- **Communicate year-round.** Open Enrollment is once a year, but life is constantly happening. Some of your best opportunities to reach employees occur when they’re actually experiencing certain challenges, allowing you to offer timely or seasonal solutions. Examples include:
 - Touting physical therapy benefits after employees participate in a local marathon
 - Talking about allergies and how you can get help with them during the springtime
 - Encouraging skin cancer screenings at the dermatologist in the summer months
 - Reminding employees about annual flu shots and other free vaccines in fall or winter
 - Surfacing savings opportunities on holidays that are associated with sales and discounts
- **Gather feedback and case studies.** To avoid email fatigue, find out how often employees would like to receive benefits communications. Other good survey questions: are employees using their benefits, do they know what’s on offer, and do they have any advice or success stories?

#### **Level 3**
- **Use individualized data to drive messaging.** This is the highest level of personalization, and you’ll likely need specialized technology to achieve it. But if you do, you’ll be able to send a specific message to a specific person based on their recent life events. Nothing is more relevant. 
- **Collect data from employee benefits tools.** A decision support tool like [Nayya Choose](https://www.nayya.com/platform#choose) captures an incredible amount of information specific to each employee, such as family planning, chronic conditions, income level, and favorite providers. This data can then be used to highlight the benefits that would be most helpful to the employee. 
- **Go multi-channel.** It’s time to think beyond the inbox, especially for employees who still aren’t opening emails. From TikTok videos to Slack channels to text messaging, explore other ways to meet these employees where they are and then track the impact on engagement and utilization. 

## Get everyone galvanized with our eye-opening infographic
Ready to start rethinking your employee benefits communications? For motivation, we suggest you download our infographic of everything that’s currently wrong with the employee benefits landscape, so that you can easily demonstrate to your team, corporate leadership, and others why change is not only necessary, but imperative.

[Download infographic](https://hubs.ly/Q02z03G40)

![unnamed.png](https://nayya.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/e896b3fa75bf5d47dedebe0e5f714e49.png)


¹ MetLife 21st Annual US Employee Benefit Trends Study (2023)
² National Library of Medicine (2020)
³ UnitedHealthcare Consumer Sentiment Survey (2017)
⁴ International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Presentation (2021)
⁵ Inside Benefits Communications Survey Report (2014)
⁶ International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Presentation (2021)
⁷ Aflac WorkForces Report (2015)
⁸ National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy (2010)
⁹ Nayya Open Enrollment Analysis (2023)

Traditional employee benefits communications often fail to engage employees, with lengthy booklets and impersonal emails contributing to low benefits awareness and satisfaction. Modernizing this approach involves personalized, solution-oriented messaging that addresses real-life concerns and leverages data to provide relevant, timely information, resulting in higher engagement and benefits utilization.

Cookie Cutter Benefits Decision Support Just Can’t Cut It

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The Future of Benefits: Emerging Trends and Technologies

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