Elevance Health said it is going all in on AI, but the tech’s potential risks in insurance have spurred recent regulations, signaling the public’s concern.
Anita Allemand, PharmD, joined Elevance Health as chief growth officer earlier this year. She spoke with Becker’s about the insurer’s strategy for building trust with these tools.
Dr. Allemand said Elevance focuses on ensuring “the outcome matches the intent” when testing AI-driven resources. She added that the team has a “very robust infrastructure” to ensure responsible AI use.
“We go through a pretty rigorous process before we feel comfortable in using it at scale,” Dr. Allemand said.
Elevance has been using AI to derive efficiencies from both internal and frontline processes, as well as provider and patient applications.
Internally, Elevance has been trying to get employees on board with AI use. The insurer recently formed an educational partnership with OpenAI.
“People don’t necessarily always know how to reimagine their jobs,” Dr. Allemand said. “You have to be super tangible, and you have to bring in the right expertise, because you don’t know what you don’t know.”
When it comes to consumer-facing AI tools, insurers may be concerned with how some Medicare members have less exposure to these technologies, but Dr. Allemand is not worried about that.
“I actually think that generation is getting far more capable and accepting of it,” she said.
Still, Dr. Allemand acknowledged how some users may struggle with transitioning to these resources.
“There’s always going to be a percentage of users who don’t trust,” she said. “They don’t necessarily have to use [AI tools], because in all of our technology solutions, we always have an opportunity for you to have human intervention.”
Basically, if you want to say, as Dr. Allemand put it, “Nope, I need to speak with someone,” Elevance should give you that option, she said.
“It’s about simplicity, and if it doesn’t work, it’s making sure that you’ve got a human at the other end who can help you answer those questions,” she said.
To keep AI tools grounded in a member-centric approach, Dr. Allemand advises keeping resources “conversational.” Elevance has been conducting ethnographic research to better understand consumer use and prioritizes human-centered design.
“It has to feel like this is helping [members], not that this is yet another barrier,” she said.
