Elevance Health is the latest insurer to tout hefty tech investments on an earnings call, with President and CEO Gail Boudreaux boasting a $1 billion spend across digital and AI capabilities.
“We’re not approaching AI as a separate technology element or experimentation,” Ms. Boudreaux said during an April 22 earnings call. “We’re looking at things that will scale and support those absolutely core things of our business.”
Elevance’s virtual assistant rolled out last year and is available through the Sydney Health app and affiliated plan websites. The assistant can answer plain-language questions about coverage, costs and providers. More than 20% of eligible members connected and used the Sydney provider-matching tool, which relies on more than 500 data points.
“[The virtual assistant] is helping people get answers fast with less friction,” Ms. Boudreaux said on the call.
The assistant began with 22 million commercial members who are regular users and had an expansion into Medicare slated for 2026. Elevance Health Chief Growth Officer Anita Allemand, PharmD, previously told Becker’s that Medicare members have grown more accepting of AI.
As insurers pursue a shared goal of cutting back on and simplifying prior authorizations, Elevance Health’s Health OS platform and other AI tools have slashed prior authorization denials by nearly 70%, Ms. Boudreaux said. Carelon, Elevance’s services division, has worked on Health OS, which links provider data, lab results and pharmacy information to give clinicians insight.
AI also has further potential for payment integrity and cost management, providing Elevance with information to identify outliers earlier.
“We see that as a real opportunity to manage costs. Right now, it’s about getting information in our hands a lot faster,” Ms. Boudreaux said.
Elevance is harnessing AI internally, as well. Ms. Boudreaux added that more than 60,000 employees have access to internal AI tools for boosting productivity. In September, the company announced a partnership with OpenAI to offer employees AI certifications.
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